Reading integers from serial monitor

Hello, everybody. Once again, I'm here to ask for some help.

I'm trying to read integer numbers from serial monitor, in order to control a stepper motor. For example, I'd like to enter '36' in order to make the motor rotate 36 degrees. However, I can't deal with the fact that the serial reads a byte at a time. When I need to use strings, I usually manage to overcome this problem. I am not finding a solution in this case, though. Could anyone suggest something? Thanks a lot.

You did search the forum didn't you?
I can't imagine this question hasn't come up before.

pretty sure it has been discussed many times.

To recap:

atoi()
sscanf()
custom functions are all over as well