As a kid, I was always an avid reader. From the Magic Treehouse books, to A Series of Unfortunate Events, into the dystopian books like The Hunger Games and Divergent, I could hardly put them down. And I didn’t just read them, I did the reading equivalent of binge watching a Netflix show. I would sit down and read for hours and hours at a time, often finishing 500 page books in two or three days. As I moved into high school, I continued reading for the most part, although I didn’t always have the time to truly dive into a book the way I used to.
Flash forward to college, and I found myself with even less free time. On top of that, it wasn’t uncommon for me to get one hundred or so pages of reading per class, per week. By the end of my homework, the last thing I wanted to do was read more. But, I really missed the escape that reading was able to provide. College is stressful, and I missed being able to turn my brain off for a bit while I read a book. There is something so satisfying about leaving the world behind to fully immerse yourself in a story when you’re otherwise overwhelmed. On breaks and over the summer, I would pick my books back up, breezing through old favorites in just a sitting or two. Yet, it wasn’t really the same. Of course, I continued to buy books I was interested in, I just struggled to find the time to read them.
But, as I returned to my favorite pastime, I knew I needed to do things a bit differently. I still didn’t have the huge blocks of time to dedicate to reading like I did as a kid. I also couldn’t afford to sacrifice a few hours of sleep for the sake of finishing a book I didn’t want to put down (as any college student will tell you, sleep is a precious and extremely limited resource). I set out to redefine my relationship with reading so that it was actually sustainable and fit into my daily schedule.
One of the first things I noticed was that it was easier for me to fall asleep. I rarely ever fell asleep watching my shows before bed, but with my books I could feel my eyes closing as I tried to scan the pages. I took this as a good sign! It meant my body was able to actually tell me that I was tired, and needed to go to bed. Again, I worked through feeling guilty for not being able to stay up until 2AM to finish a chapter, but I moved past it.
When you read a whole book in a day or two, you read for the experience, the escape of those two days into the story. When you read a book slowly, over say two weeks, it’s an entirely different experience. I was still engrossed in the story, my mind drifting to it when I was bored during the day, but I actually had time to think about it- to think about the characters, work the plot over in my mind, and really sit with it. I remembered more details, and at the end of the book, the story felt more like a familiar friend instead of a whirlwind experience.
This is perhaps my favorite part of my new venture into an old habit: the sense of familiarity. I’ve been known to spend quite a bit of time rereading old favorites, simply because I like the comfort of a story you know well but get to reexperience. There are books on my shelf I must have read ten or so times over the past eight years. Now, I’m building that familiarity into my first read.
