Just a few ideas and please don't be let their brusque ungentleness discourage you. You write:

Over the ensuing years I read as much as I could, trying to increase my knowledge and understanding of my own language.

Do you want wishy-washy "trying?" Or prolix "in order to?" How about:

Over the ensuing years I read as much as I could to increase my knowledge and understanding of my own language.

All of your years were "ensuing"; and your work was clearly "over" or "in" them so perhaps:

Later, I read as much as I could to increase my knowledge and understanding of my own language.

Well, of course it was "later," so consider:

I read as much as I could to increase my knowledge and understanding of my own language.

You might want to lean on the idea of "increase;" perhaps "strengthen" or "deepen" is better:

I read as much as I could to deepen my knowledge and understanding of my own language.

Maybe the goal of the reading goes better at the front the sentence:

To deepen my understanding of my own language, I read as much as I could.

Aw, c'mon; I don't think you have a dialect all your own, your own language:

To deepen my understanding of the language, I read as much as I could.

Will any reader buy that you set the goal of understanding the language? How about just saying what you did and what happened?

My understanding of the language deepened as I read as much as I could.

Pretty extravagant to claim that you read as much as you could! You can easily avoid any quantifying; and any raised eyebrows. Perhaps:

My understanding of the language deepened as I read more and more.

Is "understanding" the right verb form? How 'bout something more active:

The more I read, the more deeply I understood the language.

*Uh-oh! 'Deeply' doesn't work all of a sudden, so maybe:

The more I read, the better I understood the language.

Somhow the idea of your reading a lot of stuff has disappeared, so maybe a little drama here:

The more and more I read, the better and better I understood the language.

*Ah, dang it all, I screwed it up by letting the idea of your reading tons and tons It of stuff disappear. OK, let's try it this way:

I read whenever I could. And the more I read, the better I understood the language.

Hey! A little bit of internal rhyme! It couldn't hurt.

Still not the finished sentence you want.

But, as I say, just a few of my thoughts you might use to test your own.

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