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?
Ive never been able to physically read books, I end up getting bored, reading the same page over and over etc I just can’t concentrate on it long enough and as such always thought I didn’t really like books.
Then I discovered audiobooks around 10 years ago.
Now I get through probably 100 plus books each year and fucking love it. I always listen to books at work whilst doing stuff like setting up machines, I’ll listen to them whilst doing chores, or working on my bike or any other kind of task like that.
If I’m not enjoying a book after around half an hour or so I’ll just drop it and move on unless it is something I really want to get into but as ive got older I apply this mindset to a lot more things and find in general it makes things a lot more enjoyable than trying to force stuff I’m not enjoying.
I mainly read fantasy and horror and never read to learn or anything like that, it is purely for enjoyment!
Do you ever use librivox? There are a few specific readers I found there that are great for me to fall asleep to.
Librevox was actually where my journey into reading began so yes, ive used it extensively.
It is a great resource for sure but also some readers I absolutely could not stand and would stop listening based on how they read or the way they pronounced stuff that annoyed me. Conversely there are some absolutely great readers on there as well.
This is how I found hat kinds of stories / genres I liked in the first place by just going through their library and listening to random stuff. Finding authors I liked and then bingeing everything I could find of theirs.
I started my journey off with Lovecraft and Edgar Rice Burroughs on there and still go back sometimes and listen to the recordings people have made for librevox. I have a special place in my heart for the caspak trilogy as they were the first books I ever really got into!
Who are your favourite readers on librivox? (If you feel comfortable sharing)
Moira Fogarty and Ruth Golding