Please allow my bragging rights to say I feel like am 10 again! 10 years old, when I chewed through books I picked up from the library at a steady pace. I would slip out in the hot sun coz I just couldn’t wait till the day cooled and I could cycle out to pick up new books.
Ok, bragging done. Do, the reading bandwagon. It’s a bumpy ride for sure, but you can do it. How did I pick up books again and nail SIX books in the last 30 days? Like so:
1. It’s all in the mind.
No, this isn’t the usual last point, but honestly, just tell yourself, even in 3rd person if you have to, or stare at your reflection in the mirror, don’t care. Tell yourself you will do it. No more psychology or mind games.
2. Don’t care for the genre
Don’t become an elitist. Don’t pooh-pooh on romance, or chick lit or comedy and such easy books that are frowned upon by the big guns. THESE are the genres that will make the pages fly. So allow yourself to read lesser known, simpler authors and genres. The reason you are doing this is so you can get into the habit of reading and picking up speed. These help. Also, Ive noticed they average about 250-300 pages and that’s a great starter size.
Heck, re-read a book you love, so you fly. The idea is to get used to sitting down a period of time unwaveringly. Do what it takes.
3. Don’t copy the book nerd
Don’t pull out your old reading list or follow a book nerd on Insta and copy hers/his or go all googly eyed on some amazing author and bookworm on Goodreads and swear you want to become them. Here’s a truth. No one became that overnight. So chill. It takes time, patience and a lot of grit to get there, plus some of us have lives that don’t allow us peace with the book (no judgement here). So, just focus on you and read.
4. Don’t bother with the fluff around the reading
Don’t worry about updating the blog/insta or showing off or dissecting the characters or jumping into book clubs. Don’t even do highlighting and quoting lines on twitter or on insta stories. Nothing. Zip. Nada. Just read. Blog or update at the end if you’d like, but never in the middle. It’s needless and no one cares.
5. Simultaneous & Accessible Reads
What also helped me is to start off on two books in parallel. As in, I start one and once I felt a faint flagging of enthusiasm or the prose or story got heavy or stuck, I started another book. That helped keep the momentum going. Plus, the KINDLE surely helps a ton. I was reading on my phone downstairs, and on the kindle upstairs and on the cloud reader on the laptop/work. Accessibility is huge. My carpool and kid chauffeur duties are done (hallelujah) so I don’t need to read while I wait, but that’s a great place as well.
2 cents
Ultimately, you should want it, and want it bad. I did. It was a new way for me to develop this habit I craved and I enjoyed it immensely. I plan to continue, coz if I flag and veer off, we know how that would end, so no, am keeping the reading going. So, my 2 cents is the quality will eventually come through, but getting your butt and your mind to sit still and focus on your reading takes work and so put that work in. Here’s my Goodreads profile in case you’ve fallen on this post randomly.
Here are the 6 books Ive read in January, which is a Habit a month project for 2020
