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02-03-2022 (b0)
Sometimes reading can be a bit of a nightmare... ( ╥﹏╥)
When I was younger, like elementary/middle school aged, I was a voracious reader. Pretty much anything I had even the slightest bit of desire to read I read. However, at some point, around early highschool, I just completely stopped. Part of it was due to shifting interests, part of it was due to various parental issues, and part of it was finally getting sick of abysmal American educational system forcing trash I had no interest in reading down my throat. Suffice to say, I didn't do any personal reading again until college.
A quick clarification, here when I say get back into reading I am mostly referring to novels and non-fiction: traditional books. Through this entire break period time I continued reading comics, manga and all sorts of crap from the internet and while all of this stuff does absolutely constitute "real" reading there is a material difference between reading an short article or comic and a longer form book, at least for me. Now that we're through that, back to the actual topic of this post...
Getting back into reading was a complex and rather difficult process. If you are looking to get back into, or heck even just get into reading for the first time, here some stuff that worked for me and hopefully will work for you!
Like really into. Don't pick up that book you started but never finished. Don't pick up the last thing you remember reading. Don't pick up that random book you got as a gift. The goal here is to actually get you invested in what you are reading; Having something you are genuinely excited to read goes a long way to making the process of sitting down to read go as smoothly as possible. Sit down and think about what you are most immediately interested in. If you wanna read a book about lesbian vampires on Mars go find a book about lesbian vampires on Mars! (•̀ᴗ•́)و
Having a specific time, or a suggestion of a timeframe, where you have decided just to read can be helpful at eliminating some stress around taking time from other stuff to read. Not only does it lets you plan around it it also lets you build habits around it. Whether you formally block it into your schedule or do what I did, which was reading for like an hour before whenever I happened to be going to bed that day, adding any amount of structure to your reading time can be a surefire way to actually making the reading happen.
A lot of my personal reading happened and happens before bed, however there are a bunch of downsides to reading where you sleep. As someone who struggles with insomnia and other sleep disruptions keeping my bed for sleeping is ideal for ensuring I actually rest. While I definitely still do some reading in bed I have also found it very useful to have a dedicated reading spot. My favorite one was basically a pile of pillows, a lamp, and some nice scented candles. Honestly flawless vibes for getting me into that good good reading mood. In conjunction with a discrete reading time/timeframe these two steps can really reinforce your ability to build reading habits by forming a physical and temporal connection to the act of reading itself.
One common issue people have, and I know I definitely have, while reading is that they suddenly realize they have no fucking clue what they are reading and they have the urge to double back a few paragraphs or even a few pages. In my experience a lot of the info you think you can't remember is actually there. Sort of like like when you watch a 60 episode tv show and on a rewatch feel like you remember a lot more shit then you thought you did. The info is there but not necessarily imminently recallable. I believe that a lot of getting past this is bypassing the mental block preventing you from moving forward.
I fully support rereading stuff or even looking up info, I'm really bad with names personally and a quick search can fix that, but after one or two times just try to keep going. Take a deep breath and just push through!
It is okay to not remember everything!! Whether you are reading fiction or non-fiction some shit is just not going to stick and that is okay! This is personal reading time not quiz yourself on the exact specifics of your book time. You're probably not trying to write a reviews so stop treating your reading time like you plan to.
Just let the book wash over you.
Really sit with it.
Let yourself enjoy the process.
Ultimately if you forget, you forget!
Let the things that stay with you stay and the things that don't not.
Sometimes you need a little help parsing what you just read. Call a friend and tell them all about the extremely interesting things those lesbian vampires from Mars have been getting up to! Working through this stuff after reading, and in conversation with someone else, can help keep the reading time itself as chill and free flowing as possible as well as really deepen your understanding of the text.
All the skills you're building through talking to your friends and all the reading you gotten through by gently pushing through anxiety while reading will make you a better more capable reader overall. Starting with fiction is a fantastic way to ease into building these skills all of which are fully transferable to non-fiction works like say a book about scientist discovering signs of water on Mars, but sadly no signs of lesbian vampires ( *｀з´)
Sometimes you just have a bad brain day. As someone who struggles with both brain fog and migraines this can get really fucking bad. For myself at least I know that on these sorts of days I cannot process non-fiction at all so if I have the spoons to read at all that day I pick up the piece of fiction I've been working through and make my way through that instead. It's the reading equivalent of indulging in comfort food!
On the days where my brain has decided to cooperate I just go off whatever I'm more interested in reading that day. Trying to alternate as much as possible would be ideal, but that just ain't how things are in the real world.
Oh yeah by the way, you get bonus points if the non-fiction and the fiction have some degree of overlapping subject matter.
Sometimes you'll have days of not reading.
Sometimes months.
Sometimes even years...
And that's okay.
Ya gotta meet yourself where you're at.
Remember, be kind to yourself and go enjoy some books! d(´∀`)b