There is a pile of books I have not read and obviously this pile will get bigger and bigger.
However, when I was younger I was reading my books with great devotion. Nowadays I struggle to complete reading a book I enjoy. OK, I understand that life happens, but there are so many distractions. Work, Notifications, messages, tv, games, etc. Are you facing the same thing?
I spent my summer holidays in a quiet place with limited access to the internet and gee it reminded how it felt to get lost in a book.
by Caramel_Overthinker
7 Comments
Mount TBR is currently at 36 and I read 4 books last week, so I feel your pain. When I was younger, I always finished a book and I also read any gifted or loaned books, but these days I value my time too much for that. I think that would be my best advice to anyone – if you aren’t enjoying the book, to consider why you are still reading it? There might be a good enough reason to continue and if not, leave it
I started choosing my books a bit more carefully and if it’s something I enjoy, it’s not difficult to get engrossed in it. If not, I donate the book because someone else will probably enjoy it
It may also be where you are in your life. When the kids were younger, they wanted to be with us all the time, but now they’re teenagers, so I get some free time. We tend to watch tv and movies together – I never watch them on my own. I have a separate work phone and I leave it in a different room and silenced outside working hours, so that doesn’t distract me either
And I’m too old to be on Snapchat or Instagram and too young to be on Facebook, so I think that saves a lot of time!
That was always my biggest hurdle to reading. I required absolute silence, and even without kids that’s tough to do, but now I have two boys and save for a few minutes after they’ve gone to sleep, it’s never silent in my house.
I really had to retrain my brain to allow distractions while I read. I just kept reading and kept reading, and didn’t allow distractions to let me stop reading. Amazingly, the persistence paid off and I have no trouble reading in spite of all of the distractions around me.
I literally own more books (ebooks and traditional) than I could ever read in my lifetime. I feel terrible I don’t read more but I also feel guilty every time I sit down to read just for enjoyment because there are so many more “important”, pressing things I need to get done (cooking, cleaning, yard work, etc.). By the time I finish the chores, I’m too tired to read and just fall asleep on the couch holding my book. I miss the days when I was young and would sit for hours reading, completely lost in the story. Hoping that when I retire, I will get that back.
I completely get where you’re coming from. Today’s world is full of distractions. My way of dealing with this is by identifying the entertainment that truly matters to me. I’ve realised that books, music, and podcasts are what I value the most, while TV and movies have taken a back seat. A decade ago, I was all about films and video games, but times have changed for me. It’s clear that understanding my evolving tastes has helped focus my attention. Even if a movie is all the rage, I don’t necessarily feel compelled to watch it anymore. I’m lucky to have a job that gives me plenty of daytime leisure, letting me engage with what I truly enjoy in the evenings. In short, I’d suggest reflecting on what entertainment really matters to you. Given the limited time we all have, it makes sense to spend it on what we love the most rather than on half-hearted interests.
It might take a bit of effort and practice, but it’s not that hard to remove some of these distractions from your life. Like, every time I felt like scrolling through social media I opened my kindle app instead and read a couple of pages until the mindless scrolling habit was gone for good.
As for messages – most of these can be disabled or ignored until I feel like looking at them. The people who matter have my number and will call if something requires my urgent attention.
I have an entire built in bookshelf as my to read pile.
My wallet is faster than my eyes, and that’s ok. These books will be there when I want them.
I’ve actually found an ereader helpful *because* it’s on my phone where my distractions are I’ve download the older stuff of my collection from gutenburg and now when I want to distract myself ill distract myself with a book. (Im not downloading more until i fonish the ones I own physically! This will not become just a digital book pile!)
I arrive to work an hour to a half hour early to eat breakfast and read. It’s the only place I won’t get distracted.