Four Tips For Creating a Reading Ritual
Many people ‘would like to read more’…
With streaming services, cellphones, constant noise and stimulation, the silence of a book can be daunting. We all know reading is fulfilling, that books are precious treasures. Most of us the crave the inherent wisdom found in stories and the interesting textures that dwell in our own imagination. And yet, many of us never, or rarely, reach into the silence of books.
Why? Because beginning or restarting a habit, especially when it’s one that requires focus and quiet, can feel difficult.
The world is loud and distracting, and it can be difficult to shift gears to the quiet focus that books require. I think it’s helpful to think of reading, at least at first, as a habit; it’s a ritual, a practice of sorts, that requires both discipline and planning.
Below you will find four helpful tips to bridge the space between “wanting to read more” and being a regular reader.
Read page turners:
Reading takes discipline and single pointed focus, two things that are in rapid decline thanks to streaming services and media. Which means it can take time and little extra effort to get your brain, mind, imagination, to warm up to reading and sync up with creating a world from words.
Because of that it’s helpful start with books that are either about things you’re already interested in or full of characters that are easy to relate to; a good page turner will usually do both.
Whether you are just getting into a regular reading groove or rekindling a long lost passion for the written word; do your self a favor and read a couple page turners first.
Page turners are greater starter books because they are usually easy to read, not overly complex in structure, straight forward, light-hearted, and shorter in length.
Where the Crawdads Sing or The Great Alone or The Invention of Wings or Writers and Lovers or Tiny Beautiful Things or Truth & Beauty or Tracks
Read by chapter, not by page:
Instead of just sitting down to read one single page or two at random or squeezing it in when you have a moment, try carving out the time and focus to read an entire chapter or section. (Page turners often have very short chapters.)
Beginning and ending your reading time with a chapter will keep get you more involved in the plot, and it will keep you in the rhythm of the narrative.
Books require intellect and imagination together, and to bring them together takes sustained focus, and reading books in sections rather than pages builds up focus, imagination and applied intellect.
One at a time:
I’ll say it again, reading is all about exercising your imagination and intellect. And while it’s tempting to juggle multiple books and stick your nose in a string of stories and plots, like a child’s eager hand to an array of cookie jars, doing that makes it more difficult to enjoy each individual book, and it makes books hard to finish which leads to dissatisfaction.
When you spread your imagination too broadly you run the risk of creating a kind of book fatigue or reading lethargy, which happens when any one book takes you an exorbitant amount of time to finish it. This has nothing to do with being a slow reader, it has to do with a book dragging on to the point of you losing interest in it, getting sick of it, or no longer knowing nor caring about what is happening.
No matter how well written and interesting a book is at first glance, if it takes you too long to read, it can start to feel boring and dull. And when you are reading many different books in tandem, your imagination struggles to create a picture of the world of the book, which in turn makes the books feel more one dimensional.
All that said, just stick with one book at a time; at least when you are still tuning your imagination and focus.
Time That Works:
Sitting down to read is about carving out personal time for yourself. Period. Reading takes time, and it is a commitment to nourish yourself. Building the habit of reading regularly means you are reserving yourself ‘down time’ on a regular basis - if not every single day.
Personal time or ‘down time’ is a challenge for everyone, I assure you, and it is very important for everyone for myriad reasons.
There are times of day that make more sense for you, based on the goings on of other daily routines, to schedule in a little bit of personal time, down time, reading time; read during those times. That might be in the morning while you have your coffee or tea, that might be at around 2pm, that might be in the car for 30 minutes, or before bed.
Read at a time that works for you, when you are ready or wanting to unwind a little bit.
Schedule down time - reading time- like you would schedule a meeting or appoitment or date.