5 Simple Ways to Improve the Reading Experience
Sometimes, a little reminder goes a long way.
One thing readers know how to do is get lost in a book. That’s why I sometimes have to remind myself that even while I’m reading, there are ways to improve or keep the experience as joyful as it should be.
1. Listen To Your Body
We readers love a good long reader sesh, but forgetting to pay attention to our bodies can lead to some discomfort. Take a bathroom break. Drink water. Stand up or bend your knees for a few minutes. Let your body tell you what it needs.
2. Stop Counting Just to Count
It would be ideal if we could read all the books on our TBR and more in the time we have, but the reality is that (many of us) are adults, and adults have responsibilities. Feeling the pressure of getting that read book count up can create undue stress — for no reason. A reader is a reader is a reader, no matter how many books they read in a week, month, or even a year.
3. Genre FOMO
You keep seeing this book being talked about all over the internet and you are starting to feel compelled to read it - but you don’t read the genre anyway, and if it wasn’t for the social pressure, you’d leave it alone. And that’s okay. If you don’t jive with a certain genre, no amount of press or buzz is going to make you enjoy a book. And you don’t have a lot of time to read books, much less ones you don’t like, which leads to . . .
4. Put the Book Down
Sometimes it’s not dislike. Sometimes, like me, you’re in a healing state, and certain topics hit you the wrong way. You need something else in your life, perhaps something more peppy or more intense, depending on your state of mind. To DNF (do not finish) a book can sometimes feel like a failure, but there’s such a thing as a soft DNF (stopping and going back to it later). Focus on what you really want to read now.
5. Get To Know Your Reader Personality
This may seem strange, but life can make us change our habits, even with reading, in ways that surprise us. Find your reading personality - whether you’re a mood reader or TBR follower or you find you enjoy stand-alone novels more than a series, recognize your reading personality and let it out!
Good advice! I spent a couple years struggling to get through even half of a book before finally learning the lesson that it's better to drop those kinds of books and read something that's more inspiring.