"The Way Home" by Mark Boyle— review coming soon!
This post is for people like me who absolutely devoured books when they were in middle school and high school. I'd read fantasy novels until 3am, shirk schoolwork to finish the latest YA novel, and spend hours lost in Narnia or Middle Earth or Scadrial.
Then I hit my 20s and pretty much stopped reading.
At some point, I realized that I was not happy about this. I love reading! Why did I stop? When did I let this beloved hobby drift to the side, replaced by short-form social media and TV shows?
Several years ago, I fought to reclaim my reading habit, and I'm happy to say that I'm a voracious reader again (and I still use reading to shirk my work, although I don't stay up till 3am anymore).
Everyone has different reasons for falling off the reading bandwagon, so I'm going to share tips that work for me. If any of these resonate with you, great! If not, hopefully it will get you thinking so you can craft your own plan for learning to fall in love with reading again.
Here's my routine:
Find your local library and sign up for a card, if you haven't already. Not only will the library save you money (in my case, literally thousands of dollars a year), but library books have a key feature that bought books don't: a deadline. The deadline is plenty of time for you to finish the book, but if you're procrastinating about it, eventually you have to return the book— which frees you to check out a new one, instead of having that unread title staring at you from your bookshelf. Seriously, library deadlines are one of the best features of library books.
Get an online library account and "shop" for books. Especially if you like shopping online, scrolling through library titles and placing reserves on them— and then getting the notification that your reserves have come in— is quite a hit of dopamine! It's also fun to just browse the shelves and grab anything that looks good. The fun of shopping with none of the expense!
Make a library visit a weekly or biweekly habit. Do you have an errand you run every week or every other week, such as grocery shopping, picking up supplies at a certain store, visiting a local restaurant, and so on? Bundle your library visit with that task so you don't have to create a new habit from scratch. Zach and I take a walk every night, so when I get a notification that some of my library reserves have come in, we walk to the library to pick up the books and drop off any that are getting close to overdue. We don't have to consciously decide to visit the library because it's already part of our routine.
If you don't know what to read, look around for recommendations. I have quite a few in my "What I've Been Reading" category. My friend Brittany runs Modern Matilda, including a newsletter that gives general and personal book recommendations each month. Social media accounts such as This Browne Girl Reads and Thunderbird Woman Reads focus on particular kinds of recommendations, such as African/African Diaspora authors and Indigenous authors, respectively. I also like to look up books I like on Amazon and then scroll through the "suggested titles" section (and order them from the library, of course!). And if you find a book you like, look up the authors who endorse it for more inspiration.
Put the book in a place where you can't miss it. I found that I read a lot more when I keep one book on my nightstand, one in the bathroom, and one in the dining room (that I can easily grab when I'm waiting for my food to heat up or Zach to put on his shoes for a walk). Having the books in plain sight makes it easier to just grab one and read a section or two. (Since most of what I read is nonfiction, this technique works well, although I'm not sure if the effect would be the same for a novel that requires a bit more emotional investment.)
Say, "I'm just gonna read one sentence." Starting is always the hard part. Sometimes I can coax myself to launch into a book by telling myself this.
If you're not into a book, give up on it. I never like to give up on a book, but there are so many amazing books on my list, I've realized that it's just not worth it to stick with something mediocre. Giving myself permission to put a book down has been a game-changer. And, since it's a library book, I remove it from my house by taking it back, rather than having it sit around staring accusingly at me! If it seems like something I'll want to check out later, I'll re-add it to my library to-read list.
Figure out which activity you're going to replace with reading. Pretty much everyone has time to read; it's just a matter of what you'll give up instead. I used to scroll social media before bed, so I replaced that time with a book (which I help along by leaving my phone in the other room, on silent mode, and placing my current book prominently on my nightstand). As a homemaker and home-worker, I've also been trying to use reading as a way to give my brain a break in between tasks, rather than social media or scrolling through the Internet.
Share what you've been reading with others. I've had a lot of fun writing about the books I've read this year on my Facebook page, getting thoughts and suggestions from other people as well. It helps keep me motivated to preserve my good habits!
Reading has always been a hugely important part of my life, and I'm happy to be back in the swing of blazing through books and soaking up all the joy and knowledge that they have to offer. If you're a reader too, I'd love to hear your tips for keeping yourself reading!
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