How to Fall in Love With Reading Again
Books are definitely having a bit of a moment. Jen Barton Packer wrote about falling in love with reading again for Metro. Print sales are at a 10-year high, with over 212 million print books sold in 2021, according to Nielsen BookScan. Books might have the pandemic to thank for that. With extra time on our hands and long periods of isolation, the past two years have changed how we read.
We tore through classics we had given up on long ago (thousands from around the globe read Tolstoy’s 1,440-page War & Peace as part of Yiyun Lee’s Tolstoy Together virtual book club). We also turned to TikTok. Not everyone would call themselves a ‘reader’ – in fact, as hypnotherapist Jessica Boston has discovered with several of her clients, it can be a bit of a loaded word. ‘A lot of people come to me with a lot of preconceived ideas about school and about their ability to read,’ she explains. ‘They hold the literal association of books and school. Because they haven’t read for a long time, they’re not good at reading anymore.’ Challenging fixed ideas that clients have about themselves is at the root of Jessica’s work. Reframing ourselves as readers in adulthood, even if we didn’t care for books in school, is only part of the problem. Our phone addiction and a general sense of overwhelm are additional obstacles. ‘Even when the internet came out, people could watch a 10-minute video of a monkey,’ Jessica says. ‘Now it’s like, “oh, how long is this going to be? Is it more than seven seconds? Because I don’t have it”. With the pandemic. I see people’s bandwidth has closed.’
Don’t turn reading into another responsibility
As soon as ‘finish that book’ gets added to the never-ending to-do list, it becomes another way to set yourself up to fail, which is why Jessica tells clients not to worry about abandoning books partway or only reading small chunks of text or pages at a time. She recommends telling yourself the following: ‘I’ll read whatever book, and I don’t care what people think of the book that I’m reading. I’m going to put down the idea that even if I don’t finish the book, it was a failure. I got what I needed to get out of it.’
Read what you like – not what people think you should be reading
With thousands of new books launched daily, it can be overwhelming to know where to start with reading, especially if you’re out of practice. Current ‘must-reads’ and friends’ recommendations can help – up to a point. ‘Don’t read the book that your friend says is the best book. Read the book that lights you on fire,’ says Jessica.
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