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I love to read. I read several books at a time and often spend a lot of time in my day reading.
But I also love living life.
Ever since I changed my lifestyle, I made it a point to not allow my love for reading to take up too much of my ability to get out there and do things with my life. I make it a point to read for at least one hour every day, no matter what the day brings. Being able to read at least once a day is super important to me, but so is my ability to do things with my life – especially the things that I haven’t done before.
There was a time I was obsessed with my writing career – writing for many hours every day – as well as spending hours reading.
Those days are over, but not my passion for reading.
In the process of trying to balance my time to read with my time to enjoy life and do things, I have picked up some pointers along the way.
I feel that reading books plays a valuable role in our daily lives. There are so many benefits to reading, among them improving cognitive skills as well as improving memory.
Reading books is an excellent pastime. It can provide a person with a great way to pass the time or as a passage to learning something new. Studies have shown that reading boosts self-esteem and promotes empathy. Reading nonfiction books helps a person to develop critical thinking skills as well as analyze what they are reading.
But can there be too much of a good thing? For some people, this is possible.
There are, for example, so-called “bibliophiles” out there who use reading as more than an “escape” from the real world. In fact, they turn to books so often that, in a sense, it becomes their very own world.
Where reading for hours was once reserved for children who stayed up late at night reading with the help of a flashlight to deter parents enforcing strict bedtimes, the habit of passing the days reading books is now a part of many booklovers’ lives. It has been this way for me in the past, but I started to notice just how much of my life I was devoting to reading and not much else.
It's understandable that a reader would turn to books in such a passionate and endearing way that the act of reading them would overtake their lives, since books have a way of captivating readers with tales of fantasy, adventure, excitement and grandeur. Such stories allow the readers to be someone who they are not – typically in a better and more attractive way. Additionally, such stories can be more exciting to live compared to boring and ordinary real life, at least in a virtual way.
However, such an addiction can indeed interfere with said reader’s ability to enjoy life in the real world. While they’re hunkered down for hours at a time, reading their days away, the rest of the world is passing them by. Life is passing them by. They are not out there living it; instead, they take to an imaginary world and choose to live there instead.
I am not suggesting that reading books is a bad thing to do. Far from it. What I AM suggesting is that we booklovers need to keep ourselves from getting sucked into this void. By exercising better control over our reading habits, we can ensure that we are still enjoying life while also enjoying our love for books.
If you are someone who is bedridden and really have no choice but to pass the time by reading, then I definitely support this habit. I have been there. I have had several stays in the hospital, having many surgeries, and I often passed the time reading. I always had a book (or two or three) at my bedside when in the hospital. In fact, my many stays in hospital as a child is what nurtured my love for reading. What I loved most about reading books while in hospital is that, instead of being stuck in a hospital bed, I was flying dragons in Pern or blasting stormtroopers with Luke Skywalker. My habit of reading many books for several days while in hospital gradually turned me into a booklover who continued those reading habits long after those rounds of hospital stays ended.
If, however, you are not in such a position and you do have the opportunity to do other things with your life besides reading, then I strongly encourage you to do so. I can definitely understand how hard it can be to pull yourself away from reading books, especially if they are really good books, but you owe it to yourself and your loved ones to get out there and enjoy life too.
After I made the decision that I would try to find a balance between my love for reading and wanting to do other things with my life, I developed some strategies on how I could still fit in some time to read.
Here are just some of the things I do to still enjoy reading books while managing to do other things in life, as well:
Read while waiting.
When a former coworker told me that she kept ebooks on her phone, that was a pivotal moment for me. I got all over that! What’s one thing I usually always have with me? My phone. What can I do while I’m WAITING for someone or something? Read on my phone! I now have 5 ebook apps on my phone and pop them open to read anytime I am stuck waiting. I also have news apps to read on my phone. It has definitely made the waiting process go down much easier! (And, yes, I do keep a book in my purse, as well, so that is handy to have with me if my phone dies or if the apps are not working.)
Read at a certain time of the day.
I have a small stack of books that I try to read every day. (And I say “try” because sometimes my days get so crazy busy that I can only read one or two of them.) I usually sit down with these books to read at the end of my day. There’s nothing quite relaxing as settling into a comfortable chair with a good book to read at the end of the day. Plus, reading the books relaxes me, calms my mind and helps me to transit to going to sleep. On the other hand, I also read a certain book – an ebook on the desktop computer – early in the morning before anybody else is awake. This is the best time for me to read that book, especially since this computer is the only one of the two in the house that I can use. If I don’t read that ebook in the morning, chances are I won’t get to read it later in the day because everybody else uses that computer.
Read one book at a time.
This is not advice I follow, because I cannot ever read just one book at a time. Tried it and hated it. I prefer to read MORE than one book at a time! It’s just the kind of reader that I am. However, I have come across MANY comments from readers who claim they can only read one book at a time. And, usually, such readers add that this is because they can only find time to read once in their day, so they stick to just one book. This strategy may work in managing your reading time, because then you’re only reading just one book and won’t spend all day reading it. (Although I must admit there are books I have spent all day reading, because I read the whole book in a day.) So set aside one period of time in your day to read your one book so that you can still have time to do other things.
I have heard of other ways readers have managed to squeeze in their reading time without allowing it to interfere with the rest of their day. I don’t do these things myself, but I have heard that they work, so try them as a means of indulging in your love for reading while tackling boring old real life:
· Read while on a train or subway
· Listen to audiobooks while at work (as long as it doesn’t interfere with work!) or while driving. Alternatively, read while on lunch break at work or during any break at work.
· Read while eating (I dislike getting food on books or my phone, so if I ever read while I eat, I keep the food on one side of the table and the book on the other. I also read the newspaper AFTER a meal.)
· Read before bed (NOTE: It helps if the book is boring)
· Read in between all the things you have to do.
There you have it; a bunch of ideas on how to still enjoy reading books like the booklover you are while also participating in the real world. (As much as participating in the real world can suck, it has to be done!) And while these tips may appear to be ideas on how to find time to read, it’s really all about how to enjoy reading time as much as you possibly can without checking out of all the things you still have to do – like go to work. (Yuck!)
Reading is great and having hours of free time to read is even better. Sadly, a lot of us have responsibilities to tend to that pull us away from the books we love to read so much. And, you know, it really is healthier to be out there doing things in the world instead of holing up in your room or your house to do nothing except read. While Covid allowed us to live out that fantasy, now we are transitioning back to being in the workplace, society and out there traveling. This means it’s time to get back into the swing of things. Just make sure you always keep a book, or two, with you wherever you go.
