Background:
I’m in my 40s and I’ve always sort of beaten myself up over not being an avid reader. I go through phases where I read a bunch, sometimes I’ll finish a book in a months time, sometimes start a book and forget it, sometimes it seems like I go literally years without really getting into any book at all. But I still accumulate them.
Because of how important reading is and now I “fail” to prioritize it, I’ve always found myself in a poor relationship with reading. I feel this artificial pressure to read things that are only important and will somehow make me more useful. I feel this artificial pressure to start one book and read it to the end. I feel this artificial pressure to become a changed person by fully investing every bit of info from every book.
I’ve been learning that these pressures are untenable.
I’ve also noticed that I partake in all kinds of things without the same expectations: tv shows, games, podcasts, media and news outlets, social media, etc.
Right now I have 6 books that I am actively reading, and I am trying to remember that it’s for enjoyment and not some high level goal. Someone told me if I read 10 pages a day I would finish about 10 books a year. I found this so encouraging.
Taking the pressure off of reading has really helped me get more productive at reading, and I think it will help me convert my habit into a truly fruitful one.
So now I ask you:
- What are your reading habits like?
- What do you like to read?
- What kind of stage of life are you in, and how does that affect it?
- Have you made any changes, positive or negative, to your reading habits?
- What else?
I tend to go through phases in which whenever I find a bunch of books I’m really interested in, I’ll read a ton. But, once I finish those, I’ll read less for a while. I think my top speed if I’m really invested in what I’m reading is around 800 pages a day, but I never sustain that for long because I run out of book.
I pretty much exclusively read fantasy, with a focus on books with hard magic systems, progression elements, and/or some sort of cultivation (which itself is a progression element).
When I was a kid, I struggled with reading for years because I wasn’t interested in anything I read at school. I only really started reading a ton when I found books I was interested in (fantasy), which in turn made me a lot better at reading from all the practice.
Somewhat more recently, I’ve started reading webnovels in between traditionally published books, which is nice because you get a continuous drip of content. I also generally just read on my phone, as it’s very convenient to pop out a book wherever I am. I like physical books too, but I don’t tend to get through them as fast because I can’t fit them in my pocket and take them with me everywhere.
My experience is that if you want to develop a habit of reading a lot, you should focus on finding something you enjoy, as it’s a lot easier to make a habit of doing something you like than something you don’t like.