Reading

Here are ten things you can do to read more, and to stop reading slumps.

1. Blog about reading or post about things you've read on social media.
2. Make it easier to read before sleep for instance, make it easierto grab your e-reader before sleep instead of your phone.
3. Create reading spots in the house. A comfy chair with a blanket for cold autumn days sounds like a dream.
4. Have multiple books on the go. This is a natural habit of mine and I intend to keep doing that.
5. Explore new interests. To get excited about a new topic is always an invitation to read for me. And what is better than browsing books?
6. Set timers for social media. And the news. And anything else you use to procrastinate with.
7. Have reading playlists. I just have to put on a certain playlist to automagically grab a book.
8. Make reading a habit at certain moments of the day. Have lunch? Read. Done with work? Read. In bath? Read.
9. Keep a book log. I don’t have one, but I think it would be fun to log what I’ve been reading, and what I think of the book.
10. Re-read absolute favourites. Just because reading those brings me back to the days I devoured books.

When I was a little girl, I had a secret reading spot.

We had an attic that you could reach via a wooden ladder that was hidden behind a ceiling panel. In my eyes, that little rope on the ceiling was the gateway to my reader’s heart.

The roof was slanted, and on the sides, my mom had made curtains to hide all sorts of occasional use stuff. One of the things hiding behind those curtains was a stack of mattresses.

And I loved to sneak up the ladder with a book and a flashlight, pull the ladder up again, and lie down on those mattresses to read, sometimes for hours.

I was so gleeful when my mom called me down for dinner and then couldn’t find me. Or maybe she did, and she allowed me my secret hiding place.

Sometimes I lay there, quiet as a mouse, listening to my dad and my brothers working with the tools that took up part of the attic.

They had a language of their own, very concise, always discussing their crafts, things I had no idea about, like woodworking.

I really miss my secret reading spot at times, but there is one thing from that spot that I’ve carried with me throughout my life: my love for reading.

This past weekend I have procrastinated finishing reading a book. I have another twenty pages to read as I write this post (20:30 on Sunday evening) and I don't think I will finish the book today.

I really don't want to leave it yet, the learning, the exploration, the little tidbits of information on the page have so entertained me.

I don't want to let go!

Then again, adding the book to my list of books I have read this month will be good too.

Going to give it a little bit longer. Sooner or later I will get sick and tired of seeing the book in my currently reading list and then I will read it in one go.

For now, I linger, I read a page three, four times, or just sit with the book in my hand.

This is what makes me a reader. I don't churn through books like they mean nothing. I am committed, even if it means I let a book sit for a while so I can cherish it a little bit longer before it goes to live on a shelf again.

I have the next book waiting though, and it is a good one, I think. So maybe, just maybe, I will start reading after I finish this post.

Books are the first I turn to when I want to learn something or dive deep into a subject.

Books are such a comfort, magnificent tools for learning, a joy to discover.

Bookstores are always on my list of things to visit when I travel. Even if I can’t read the language, I visit, just to drink in the atmosphere.

I daydream of favourite bookstores in cities I can’t travel to now, of a secondhand shop I yearn to go to again when the whole virus thing is a bad dream.

Until that time arrives, I still have enough books to keep me entertained.

I will never tire of the simple joys of curling up in bed reading a book.

The joy I feel when I read is impossible to describe, so I won’t even try.