Reading is wonderful, but sometimes it is a struggle to immerse yourself in a story. I get it, reading takes up time! It’s something you can’t really multitask with, and we all read enough for school already; why would you want to do it for fun? Well, if you’re like me, you read a lot when you were younger, and then one day, you realized that you hadn’t picked up a book for fun in a long time. Or you found yourself stuck on one book for many months or maybe even years! Well, I’m here to tell you there is a way back into the promised land, Huzzah! Without further ado, here are my tips to get you back into reading.
- When picking out your first book, it doesn’t need to be anything complex! While there is pressure in a specific age range to read more mature books, there is no reason for you to pick up a Joan Didion or Leo Tolstoy novel. Leave the self-betterment books for later and pick up “Hunger Games.” I recommend Young Adult or Romance Books because they are meant to be engaging from the start: an easy read per se. Never read “Harry Potter?” Now is a great time. I personally ended my dry spell with the book “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo” by Taylor Jenkins Reid; it was a great vacation read and helped me remember why I love to read in the first place. Other than the previously mentioned, here are some books I recommend to get you started.
- “Daisy Jones and the Six” by Taylor Jenkins Reid
- “Ready Player One” by Ernest Cline
- “Where the Crawdads Sing” by Delia Owens
- “None Shall Sleep” by Ellie Marney
- The “Bridgerton” series (specifically “The Viscount Who Loved Me” ) by Julia Quinn
II. Once you’ve sat down and begun your book, at first read, I recommend getting through at least three chapters to ensure engagement. Getting to the interesting part of a book is the most difficult part of staying a consistent reader because some books take a very long time to hook you but can end up having the best conclusion of all time.
III. Distractions are everywhere when reading. Just today it happened to me when I sat down to read, and I got more notifications on my phone in those first 10 minutes of reading than I had all day. So, it is of the utmost importance that you turn all electronic devices off, throw them in a different room and burn them in the fires of Mordor (circle back to this reference after reading “Lord of the Rings”). You are now in a different world of characters. Unlike T.V./movies, there are no fun costumes or violent clashes to keep you visually focused, so you have to make the outside world disappear. I’d say the only objection to this would be for music, which leads to my next point.
IV. Reading with music can be tricky because you don’t want to get distracted with picking songs, but also, sitting in silence is sad sometimes. So if you choose to read with music, a compromise of this that I recommend is to pick a pre-curated playlist of background jazz music, nothing too exciting. It will just blend into the back of your mind as a composition of the world that is surrounding you at the moment. (My favorite playlist is Jazz for Autumn on Spotify).
V. Next is a more controversial opinion but one that I stand by. What do the majority of people carry with them everywhere religiously? Phones, correct – good job! On any given cellular device, you can download books right on the book app, or download the kindle app. This is also sometimes a cheaper option too.
The reason I swear by this method is that:
1. It’s easier than lugging a book everywhere.
2. It’s easier to pick up and put down at any given moment.
3. It takes away the daunting aspect of book size to the point where you aren’t even sure how far into a book you are, so it goes by faster.
4. I have found that my words per minute reading level has actually increased when using the scrolling option.
This is not to say that I don’t like paper books because I do; don’t come for me. :)
VI. Try out different genres. There are millions of books in the world, and not everyone is going to like the same kind. Don’t feel bad if you don’t like the books that are trending on TikTok. I discovered that firsthand when I finished “Song of Achilles,” and I didn’t get the hype. It may take a while to see what you like, and it’s okay if you don’t finish a book, no matter how painful. Life is too short to get stuck on a novel that you are pulling your hair out to finish.
VII. Create an incentive/goal for yourself. Last year, I created a goal to read 20 books for the year. This was when I was coming out of a period of time where I didn’t read that much, and getting back into reading was a big goal for me. I downloaded an app called Goodreads which I highly recommend, and I logged all of my books after finishing each one. This app allows you to set a challenge for yourself every year and tells you at what rate you need to read each book in order to finish your goal. For some, a time restraint might cause more stress than productivity, but I viewed it as a competition. That for some reason was all I needed to see in order to read books at a faster rate. After a while, it wasn’t just about finishing books fast. I found that I actually wanted to read as much as possible because I loved everything that entered my library. On Goodreads, you can also add your friends and see what their challenges are as well as what books they are reading to get some good recommendations. Creating an incentive for yourself is another good way to finish a goal. For example, is there a restaurant you’ve been wanting to eat at or a pair of shoes that have caught your eye? Incentivise yourself to only do/buy those things if you finish a book within an allotted amount of time.
VIII. Use your resources, Book Tok is such a great place to go to find book recommendations and reviews. It’s also a fun place to see peoples’ opinions on the same books you’ve read. After finishing a book, I love to look it up and see if other people had the same thoughts I had while reading or to see if there were some small details that I missed. A different form of resource is book stores! It is so fun to go to a bookstore and browse around for as long as you’d like. In Boston, there are some great bookstores. Here are a few:
- Trident Booksellers
- Brookline Booksmith
- Brattle Book Shop
Or if you don’t feel like traveling, the university bookstore has a great selection!
IX. My last piece of advice is to find a group of people you can read with! There is no greater motivator than friends encouraging you along the way. Joining a book club helps you stay on task with the added bonus of thoughtful discussion periodically.
In the end, Nike said it best…“Just Do It!”