BOOKISH CHAT | HOW I READ SO MUCH

Like a lot of people I was a voracious reader as a child. I would stay up late holding my battered Harry Potter next to my nightlight, ruining my eyesight just for a few more chapters. Then, as school got busier and homework piled up (and I actually made friends to spend break-times with), the habit dropped and I went from reading several books a week, to virtually none. Even studying literature at university, I read some of my course material and not much else. 

I went from the ages of about fifteen to twenty not reading much of anything at all, and it's only in the last couple of years that I've really picked up the habit again. I know a lot of us would like to read faster and get through more books, so I thought I'd share a couple of suggestions based on what has worked for me as I re-developed a reading practice. 

GET INTO THE HABIT

Think of reading like going to the gym. The ideal situation is that reading is a regular habit for us, so natural that we barely think about it. But, just like the gym, that requires a few weeks of forcing it first. I try and set aside time to read every single day. I don't always read a lot, sometimes just ten pages before bed, but cultivating that habit of picking a book up every single day means that when I do have free time it's much easier to gravitate towards reading, rather than browsing through Netflix for half an hour before watching Bake Off reruns again (don't judge me). 

STOP BUYING MORE BOOKS 

I know I know, how dare I right? The bookish community LOVES buying books, and hauling books, and having shiny new books. I'm exactly the same and for a while I kept buying more books, convincing myself that these new ones were all so amazing that I would definitely read them all straight away.... Never happened. The problem is that an overload of choice leads to something called 'analysis paralysis' and for me it happened every time I looked at my bookshelf. Do I read the books I just bought while they're still shiny and new? Or do I get through my backlist and alleviate some of that TBR guilt? Do I read new releases while they're still relevant? Or do I get to those classics that I've been putting off for years?  had the bookshelf equivalent of a woman rifling through an enormous wardrobe complaining that she had nothing to wear. My bookshelves started being a source of guilt, and yet I kept adding to them. In the end I donated over a hundred unread books when I moved between apartments last year, and I honestly don't regret it for a second. I barely remember what I got rid of. My book-buying habits are much healthier now. This month I have bought five books, and I have read three of those and am on my fourth. I won't buy any more books until I've read them all. Why would I? Most books are easily obtained, and there's no need to have it in my house as soon as I see it. I might make an exception for a signed edition, but letting go of that dopamine fuelled need to acquire new stuff helped my reading, my wallet, and my mental health. 

SUBVOCALISING

Woop, technical term alert. Subvocalisation is the tendency to say words in your head as you're reading them. When we say each word in our head (often giving those words the same tone and cadence as if we were acting them out) we can only read as fast as we speak. If you want to read quicker, the best way to start is to practise reading without speaking in your head - try it with the rest of this paragraph! We do this all the time when we look at road signs or menus, the human brain is amazing and you can trust yourself to read without mentally registering every word. It takes practice, and at first you'll start subvocalising again after a while without realising it, or lose the thread of the story, but over time you can build the habit and read soooo much quicker. Chewing gum is helpful, because it occupies your mouth and disconnects your mental voice from your literal one. 

DNF 

Ooooooh a taboo subject! Well, not really, but I'm giving you permission right now to put down a book that you're not enjoying. Not all books are going to be your cup of tea, and there's not much point trying to choke down a rancid chamomile when a cool crisp peppermint is waiting for you. There's no hard and fast rule to when you should DNF a book, some people have page limits, others have time limits, but for me it's just an instinct. If a books feels heavy to read, and I'm just not getting anything from it, I'll put it to one side. 

ARE YOU A TBR READER OR A MOOD READER? 

TBRs are a staple in the bookish community, but for me they've never worked. I love reading/watching other people talking about theirs, but if there's one way for me to guarantee I'll never get any reading done, it's to make myself a TBR. For some people that structure really works, and if that's you then take full advantage of it! But if you're like me, you'll probably benefit from just letting yourself pick books in the moment. 

BALANCE YOUR READING MATERIAL

I love dense literary fiction and long complicated fantasy reads, but reading with your brain turned all the way up the whole time can be taxing. Fortunately I also love fluffy fiction, graphic novels, short stories, and poetry, and I often balance out my reading, alternating the 'hard/long' reads with the 'easy/short' ones, or even reading them at the same time. I enjoyed Wool by Hugh Howey, but it is long and slow and involved, and so I would finish fifty pages of it and treat myself to fifty pages of 'Good Omens' by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. That novel is an absolute joy to read, and so balancing the two books motivated me to get through the slower parts of Wool. Ship of Magic by Robin Hobb is one of my favourite fantasy novels of all time, but it is also absolutely endless and I felt like I was reading it forever. Every time I felt bogged down by it I took a break and read a volume of SAGA, a fast paced graphic novel series. It just refreshed my brain and I went back into Ship of Magic raring to go again. 

USE A PEN

The human eye follows movement, and running the end of a pen (or just your finger) steadily under the line you're reading will help you read much quicker. In a similar vein to subvocalising, when we read we often add inflections and tones, and read at a pace that matches it. If you're happy to take your time reading that's totally fine, but if you're wanting to get more speed, then having your eye steadily run along each line stops that tendency to read at the pace of inflection. 

MAKE READING 'YOUR TIME'

A lot of us make excuses that we simply don't have time to read. I totally get this, I was the same, but eventually I had to admit that the time I spent arguing with people on twitter, or watching an ancient rerun of Mock the Week, was time I could spend reading. I also had to own up to myself that reading with my phone in my hand, or while the TV was on, was not helping me. I'm not suggesting we spend every spare second reading but, when we think about it, how much free time do we spend doing things we don't really value that much, that we could spend reading instead? The modern world is desperate to fracture our attention over a million different screens, endless new content and all the channels you could want, and choosing to stop flitting around in all that and just read for half an hour instead was an incredibly valuable thing for me. Of course I still watch TV and use social media, but I make reading part of my self-care practice; a way to just bring myself back into a gentle focus, and put my mental energy into a single thing. Now and again I might run myself a LUSH-filled bath, or make a little nest of blankets, put on an instrumental playlist and leave my phone at the other end of the room before sinking into an evening of reading. We read books because we love them, and a well-lived life involves consciously deciding to make time for what you love. 

❀

I think a lot of the self-imposed guilt we have around reading is silly. The world continues to turn if we don't reach our goodreads goal, but I also know how frustrating it is to know that we will all die before we read everything we want to read, and how great the feeling of achievement is when we're reading lots. Being able to read faster, and devote more time to it, is largely about consciously choosing to do so, but sometimes it's helpful to see where those choices are. Hopefully this has given you some insight and motivation to do so.

Thank you for reading!

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