How to Fall Back in Love with Reading

As children, reading was a way to open up new worlds, learn new information, and absorb a wonderful story full of twists and turns that could act as an escape from reality. We had our noses stuck in a book all day, drinking hundreds of pages of fantasy, historical fiction, and sci-fi stories; however, as we grew up, most left behind our bookish habits and abandoned our books for television, social media, and school work. 

Many of us felt we did not have enough time to read and gave up on this important and fun hobby we loved. Unfortunately, once we give up reading, it’s usually hard to pick it back up. This is the situation I found myself in for most of my high school years. However, I decided to make my 2024 New Year’s resolution to get back into reading, and it has been going well. Here are five strategies that helped me fall back in love with reading:

Explore your adult tastes

One of the hardest parts of reading is finding the right books. As we age, our tastes and interests change and our taste in books will too. The question remains: how do we determine what books we want to read? The best place to start is to look at the movies and television shows you watch and see what genres and tropes you like the most; picking similar books would be a good way to find a book you feel motivated to read. 

Download a book-tracking app

I struggled with remaining motivated when getting back into reading. Yet, everything changed when I downloaded StoryGraph back in January. This app, and many others like it, such as Goodreads, allows users to track their readings throughout the year and set goals for themselves. This simple tool encourages reading since you have a visual representation of your progress and a goal to keep you committed. 

set up a reading time

Learning when to read is another tricky part. We often think we are too busy to read a book, but an easy way to avoid this is to set up an allotted time to read. This can be as short as ten minutes or whenever you have the most time. Keeping up with this mini schedule you set up for yourself will keep you reading more daily. Even though ten minutes may not seem like long, with commitment, you can progress through your books and benefit from the relaxing aspects of reading each day. 

Feel free to abandon books

What do you do if a book is not enjoyable anymore? The usual answer may be to push through and finish it so you do not feel like you didn’t waste your time. Yet, this usually makes people feel frustrated by reading and makes them want to quit it altogether since it makes us lose our motivation. But there is a solution: when you find books that are not making you feel excited about reading, it is okay to put them down and start a new book. This will keep your motivation up and ensure you are only reading books you are genuinely into.  

Try out audiobooks

The biggest thing that helped me get back into reading was starting audiobooks. Although they are a different medium than traditional books, they are the perfect way to engulf yourself in a new story when you may not have enough time to sit down and read for that long. Audiobooks are the perfect thing to turn on when doing daily tasks such as laundry, commuting, and working out. Since we are doing those things anyway, why not use them as an excuse to read? 

There are many different ways to start a new reading journey, but hopefully, these five ideas will get you started so that you can love reading once more. 

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