One of my biggest goals for this year has been to rekindle my reading habit. It can be so easy for me to forget to pick up a book, turning to YouTube for entertainment when I’m tired, or filling my free hours with ‘productive’ tasks, leaving little time for sinking into a good book. Not long ago I wrote a post about how ebooks have been a game changer for me as far as reading more books goes. I can now have a book on hand with me, no matter where I am, or what I’m doing. It’s super convenient, and a fantastic way for me to read more books more easily.
However, there is a huge difference, I have found, between reading in five minute chunks in waiting rooms, cars, and on my lunch break at work, and immersing myself in a book for hours on end. I find it hard to justify spending hours upon hours just reading nowadays. Every moment is so precious. As a writer, reading is obviously very important for me. And yet, when I get home from work, I’ve got blog posts to write, editing to do, books to be planned, and so many other things to keep me busy all the way until bedtime. With so much to do, reading gets pushed aside far more often than I would like.
This past weekend though, I took a trip away from home. I visited a museum, strolled through beautiful botanic gardens, ate far, far too much good food, and enjoyed spending time with my mum and one of my sisters. However, in the evening of our trip away, I found myself with some free time. No editing to do. No work tasks clamouring to be done. And so I started reading. And kept reading. And reading. And reading. Let me tell you, I read more in those two days away from home than I have in the two weeks preceding it.
I inhaled the Starboard Trilogy by Amie Kaufman and Meaghan Spooner, straight through (thank you library ebook lending system for enabling me), as well as one of their other books, Unearthed. I can wholeheartedly recommend all four of these books. they’re grilling, they’re thrilling, and they kept me glued to the page until I’d finished every last page. And I loved it, that feeling of losing myself inside a book, letting myself get swept along with the current of the story, forgetting the real world for a while and residing inside the world of the books for a while instead. I haven’t binge read like this in so long, and let me tell you, it is such a good feeling. I want to read more. I want to lose myself in books. And I want to write the sort of books that other people can lose themselves inside as well.
It was such a treat not only to take some time away from my writing and my work in general on this trip, but also to rediscover how much I really do love reading, and how worthwhile it is for me to block out some uninterrupted reading time every so often so that I can enjoy that feeling again of fully immersing myself in a book for a while. Books are good, no matter how much time you have to read in. I have read so many good books in five minute chunks. But for me, there is nothing quite like sitting for hour after hour, living through the adventures of a new book.
I’d love to hear from you. Do you binge read, or make do with what fragments of time you can find? What was the last book that you couldn’t put down? What is your current must read that you’ll recommend to anyone? Let’s chat!
