I LOVE collecting books. I can usually find at least 2 at any store or little free library that I want to read. My issue is trusting that my free time can actually be spent on myself and the “selfish” activities I like to enjoy (I.e, reading, video games, sewing, basically anything that doesn’t directly entertain other people).
My partner and I recently moved and I’ve come to the realization that I own 55-60 books yet have read maybe 10 of them in my collection. I’ve read a *ton* of books I just don’t really re-read stuff so the ones I’ve read are usually part of particular collections (author or genre from an author). I’d *love* to get to a point where I’ve read 80%+ of the books on my shelves.
How do you convince yourself it’s okay to spend time reading ?!
As an extra convo point, the 3 books I’ve discovered and grabbed tonight are *Final Analysis* by Lois Gould, *The Kite Runner* by Khaled Hosseini, and *The Girl In A Swing* by Richard Adams. Have you read any of these? Without spoiling it, what did you think? Do you usually read “slice of life” style books? If so, did it influence your enjoyment of these? If not typically a slice of life fan, were you surprised by how much you did(n’t?) like them? What other books might you suggest?
by doritobimbo
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Khaled Hosseini did an AMA here [you might want to take a look](http://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/1snjj3/this_is_khaled_hosseini_author_of_the_kite_runner/) 🙂 [Here’s a link to all of our upcoming AMAs](http://www.reddit.com/r/books/wiki/amafullschedule)
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The next time you are sat on the phone scrolling ideally that’s the time to be reading. I was amazed how much time I could read when I got off this thing.
I don’t need to convince myself, I know it’s okay to read. Work on what’s blocking you from allowing yourself time and not feel guilty about it and the reading, or sewing or whatever it is will just happen.
For me, I spent a few years (at least half a decade) not reading. There was just something that felt off for me. So, when I started up my blog, I decided that I wanted to keep my brain active and keep it busy. So I try and do a review a day, even if it’s for a really short book, like a picture book, short story, or a short cookbook. Stuff like that.
I get the vast majority of the books I’ve read for it free from Amazon Kindle (the authors make them free for short periods of time), so it’s a cheap hobby for me. And it has given me some beautiful stories that I will forever treasure. 🙂
I think, for me, the more important thing is that I give myself a little time to do it; set aside a bit of time each day, even if it is just five or ten minutes. Maybe write the list of books you’re intending to read, then use a random number generator to pick a number from the list. Read that one. Then roll the number again and choose the next book.
I was raised by parents who emphasized reading as a pass time. Library runs were a weekend activity in my house, and my parents always had books sitting around that they were reading. As did my grandparents. So it never occurred to me to think that reading wasn’t anything but a totally acceptable way to spend me time. Books and reading have always just been the norm in my life.
Reading what you actually like. A lot of people get stuck reading classics or whatever is on the bestseller lists and they never actually find out what they really enjoy.
1) Buddy reading works well with some people. Sometimes discussing a book with a friend is more engaging than the actual exercise of reading.
2) I find books with short-ish chapters easier to read even if they are long. Umberto Eco is one of my favorite writers because he managed to split his long novels into small chunks ( 7-15 pages chapters on average). So I managed to read his stuff during my downtime at work