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Unqualified Advice on How to Read More

Image of four precarious piles of books lined up on top of a bed. I took this picture while I was preparing to Konmari my books.

When I was younger, I didn't understand why people talked about wanting to read more. I read all the time, ceaselessly. In fact, if you were a reader of my old blog, you may remember this very judgemental blog post that I wrote on the subject of reading. On other subjects, I was able to empathize and equivocate, but, on this subject, I was an enormous jerk.

Then, much to my surprise, I went to college and virtually stopped reading altogether. What happened? Well, from my observations after the fact:

  1. My entire place-of-residence and daily routine changed, which made it take longer for me to realize that I hadn't read in a long time.
  2. I did not enjoy the vibes of my college's library (stressful, academic) or the local community library (stuffy, too overtaken by glaring strangers).
  3. By the second semester of my freshman year, I had become very focused on reading a particular set of socially aware books. I was disinclined to read whatever appealed to me at the time (because I should be reading a book from my list), even when I knew that I would not actually pick up any of the better, more serious books on my list.
  4. It felt as though it would be awkward and clunky to carry a book around with me all the time. 
  5. As an independent adult, I had more freedom to access other, more instantly gratifying activities, like scrolling through social media and watching YouTube vieos.
In a strange turn of events, my return to reading as a pastime came as a result of getting a smartphone with very low storage in the second semester of my sophomore year. On this phone, I could essentially only have one or two recreational apps at a time. In order to maximize my hours of enjoyment per megabyte, I downloaded the Overdrive app. Soon, I was borrowing books from the library and reading them during every spare moment. After a few weeks, I bought a used Kindle Paperwhite from my school's Cybermarket, and kept reading. At last, I was reading regularly again!

As with my sleep-related post, any advice I have is rather specific to myself. With that being said, my suggestions for reading more regularly are:
  1. Experiment with different book formats! While I have been able to read more frequently by reading ebooks, other folks may prefer audiobooks, or traditional paperback and hardcover books.
  2. If you frequent social media, news articles, or blog posts, you are likely reading quite a bit without thinking about it. Consider replacing some of the time you spend on these activities with time spent reading a book. 
  3. Count all books towards your reading goals, and focus on the books that interest you. Reading a graphic novel often helps me to get back into the habit of reading regularly, and I have never found it helpful to break a reading slump by attempting a long book that doesn't carry my interest.
If you would like advice from somebody who isn't me, I have two video recommendations. 
  1. This video from Max Joseph includes interviews with many different experts, and footage from several beautiful bookstores. I found this video immensely interesting, but it didn't feel particularly applicable to my current life; Joseph's goal was to read 50 books within the span of a year, and I already read more than 50 books per year.
  2. This very recent video by Hannah Witton and Anna James has many tips on how to read more frequently. Anna's advice feels far more sage than my own, and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing how other people have approached the goal of reading more. 
Reading is not a requirement for human life, and please do not feel obligated to read if it is not enjoyable for you. If you enjoy reading, and you would like to read more, I hope that this blog post has been helpful (or, at the very least, engaging) in some way. Folks who would like to see which books I am reading can follow me on Goodreads.

Best wishes,
Lydia

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