How I'm getting out of this rut
Maybe the books in our life wait for the right time for us to read them.
This thought came to me as I sat on my floor having just finished writing in my diary for the day. I've spent the last three evenings reading a few chapters of The Fellowship of the Ring to help me get to sleep, and the ease at which I read this book has surprised me. I remember taking up the same book six or seven years ago and having to stop reading it before I even got a hundred pages in, because the language was too difficult and too boring for me to be entertained. I'd seen the movies many times by then, so I assumed I wasn't really missing much anyway (I was wrong).
Over on Christmas holiday I saw the book on my parents' bookshelf and decided to take it with me, "for the flight" I told myself. I'd been avoiding the book for a while, thinking it was just too difficult for me to read, but as I opened it again a few days ago, just trying to find something I could read before bed, I realized that time had indeed passed between then and now. I'm really enjoying reading it and I feel like somehow the book has waited for this time. This is the perfect time in my life for me to begin reading this series. I'm about to get my second tattoo, which combines my love of home, Scotland and Lord of the Rings together, marking the end of my first year on my own. I'm tangling my life with this series and its making reading less of a burden again.
I was talking about this with my friend Chiara the other day. She told me she'd been in a rut with reading for a while now, that books just weren't as exciting as before, and I understood exactly what she meant. As someone who has been actively consuming all kinds of books since I can remember, reading was always pleasurable and fun for me. It became a way to avoid the kids at school who would't stop bullying me, and trips to the library were the highlight of my week, because I always knew there'd be something there I hadn't read yet. Years later I had scoured my way through the fantasy section and couldn't, to my dismay, find any new books about dragons to read. I moved on to "girl's literature" which was more romance and school-life oriented, so the exact opposite of the thick fantasy books I'd been reading, but I still liked them, just in a different way. I could still immerse myself in them during recess hours to avoid the embarrassment of sitting outside alone, or trying to socialize with the younger kids. After gorging myself on John Green and his type of young adult literature I started to become too cynical and critical to keep reading that type of books. I just couldn't handle the pixie dream girl type of characterization, and the romance plot lines were too much for me and I couldn't suspend my disbelief (and eye-rolling) for long enough.
So, as you can see, books have always been a way for me to lose myself and escape. But then I went into high school, and suddenly I had a social life, and a lot of friends. Books became less and less important to me as I focused on maintaining my friendships and studying. I read some books for school during my first year, but after that summer (and reaching halfway in A Feast for Crows, which I still haven't continued) my habits really dwindled. Every time during recess when I tried reading my book I'd end up putting it back into my backpack because I wanted to be a part of whatever conversation was going on, I wanted to be building my relationships and having fun with my new friends. It's weird to pick up a book and try reading it only to realize it's not really retaining your attention and that you rather be doing something else. Finding books I liked reading became more and more difficult. I tried to read a different kind of genre, and moved on to more fact and biography-based things. That stuck for a while too, but ended just like my other phases.
Really the only way to get out of a book rut is to just keep trying to find books that are interesting, and making time to read them, giving yourself reasons to read them. Even if you don't get very far, you'll have tried and eventually you will find something you really like. Giving yourself goals can work too. I read J.G. Ballard's High Rise because I went to an early screening of the film and wanted to know what was going to happen, as I had read that there were some possibly frightening scenes. I'm halfway through Ready Player One because I saw it on a list of upcoming sci-fi movie, and I'm a big fan of reading the book before the movie. I recently found the first part to a series I had started five years ago and never moved forward in, and its waiting in my shelf for the right time for me to open it and relive the nostalgia. Now that I really think back, I remember starting Wicked as a 14-year old but deeming it too adult for me to continue. 20-year old me is currently almost finished with that book. I guess the problem isn't with the books, but with me. My life situations change, my moods change, and my taste in books goes accordingly. I've now reached my 20's, and with these years I think I've found a balance in genres too. There's a little bit of everything in my bookshelf, and it makes me happy that I can dip my toes into many pools and remain open to new types of literature.
One of the other reasons for my currently fading book rut is that I use the internet and social media a lot, be it on my phone or on my laptop. I read articles, blog posts, all kinds of things online, and they retain my interest because they are usually quick to finish and I can move onto something else on my chosen device. It's so much harder to sit down with a book. I can't just sit in my room and read. My mind knows that there is something exciting somewhere on the internet I could be engaging with, or friends who might be sending me messages, or anything really. That's why my book times are clearly separate from my other activities. Giving books this "sacred" time helps me concentrate, and knowing when book time ends means I feel less anxious about all the things I might be missing while reading. I do find it funny, how keeping in contact with people and just living in my online world has become such a large part of my life that I have to set myself clear reading times.
Anyway, I read on the train (if I'm traveling alone) and right before bed. I've started a habit of putting my phone away half an hour before I go to bed and then just spending that time reading with my desk lamp on. It's really quite relaxing knowing you can go right to sleep whenever you want, having already mentally let go of my phone and the online world for the night.
This was a very rambling post, but I had the idea and I kept writing and I can't really be bothered with editing away anything because this blog needed something positive for a change. Hope you guys can identify with something, either the book-fanatic phase or the book rut or anything in between.
I hope you find a book that you can't put down,
Becks
This thought came to me as I sat on my floor having just finished writing in my diary for the day. I've spent the last three evenings reading a few chapters of The Fellowship of the Ring to help me get to sleep, and the ease at which I read this book has surprised me. I remember taking up the same book six or seven years ago and having to stop reading it before I even got a hundred pages in, because the language was too difficult and too boring for me to be entertained. I'd seen the movies many times by then, so I assumed I wasn't really missing much anyway (I was wrong).
Over on Christmas holiday I saw the book on my parents' bookshelf and decided to take it with me, "for the flight" I told myself. I'd been avoiding the book for a while, thinking it was just too difficult for me to read, but as I opened it again a few days ago, just trying to find something I could read before bed, I realized that time had indeed passed between then and now. I'm really enjoying reading it and I feel like somehow the book has waited for this time. This is the perfect time in my life for me to begin reading this series. I'm about to get my second tattoo, which combines my love of home, Scotland and Lord of the Rings together, marking the end of my first year on my own. I'm tangling my life with this series and its making reading less of a burden again.
I was talking about this with my friend Chiara the other day. She told me she'd been in a rut with reading for a while now, that books just weren't as exciting as before, and I understood exactly what she meant. As someone who has been actively consuming all kinds of books since I can remember, reading was always pleasurable and fun for me. It became a way to avoid the kids at school who would't stop bullying me, and trips to the library were the highlight of my week, because I always knew there'd be something there I hadn't read yet. Years later I had scoured my way through the fantasy section and couldn't, to my dismay, find any new books about dragons to read. I moved on to "girl's literature" which was more romance and school-life oriented, so the exact opposite of the thick fantasy books I'd been reading, but I still liked them, just in a different way. I could still immerse myself in them during recess hours to avoid the embarrassment of sitting outside alone, or trying to socialize with the younger kids. After gorging myself on John Green and his type of young adult literature I started to become too cynical and critical to keep reading that type of books. I just couldn't handle the pixie dream girl type of characterization, and the romance plot lines were too much for me and I couldn't suspend my disbelief (and eye-rolling) for long enough.
So, as you can see, books have always been a way for me to lose myself and escape. But then I went into high school, and suddenly I had a social life, and a lot of friends. Books became less and less important to me as I focused on maintaining my friendships and studying. I read some books for school during my first year, but after that summer (and reaching halfway in A Feast for Crows, which I still haven't continued) my habits really dwindled. Every time during recess when I tried reading my book I'd end up putting it back into my backpack because I wanted to be a part of whatever conversation was going on, I wanted to be building my relationships and having fun with my new friends. It's weird to pick up a book and try reading it only to realize it's not really retaining your attention and that you rather be doing something else. Finding books I liked reading became more and more difficult. I tried to read a different kind of genre, and moved on to more fact and biography-based things. That stuck for a while too, but ended just like my other phases.
Really the only way to get out of a book rut is to just keep trying to find books that are interesting, and making time to read them, giving yourself reasons to read them. Even if you don't get very far, you'll have tried and eventually you will find something you really like. Giving yourself goals can work too. I read J.G. Ballard's High Rise because I went to an early screening of the film and wanted to know what was going to happen, as I had read that there were some possibly frightening scenes. I'm halfway through Ready Player One because I saw it on a list of upcoming sci-fi movie, and I'm a big fan of reading the book before the movie. I recently found the first part to a series I had started five years ago and never moved forward in, and its waiting in my shelf for the right time for me to open it and relive the nostalgia. Now that I really think back, I remember starting Wicked as a 14-year old but deeming it too adult for me to continue. 20-year old me is currently almost finished with that book. I guess the problem isn't with the books, but with me. My life situations change, my moods change, and my taste in books goes accordingly. I've now reached my 20's, and with these years I think I've found a balance in genres too. There's a little bit of everything in my bookshelf, and it makes me happy that I can dip my toes into many pools and remain open to new types of literature.
One of the other reasons for my currently fading book rut is that I use the internet and social media a lot, be it on my phone or on my laptop. I read articles, blog posts, all kinds of things online, and they retain my interest because they are usually quick to finish and I can move onto something else on my chosen device. It's so much harder to sit down with a book. I can't just sit in my room and read. My mind knows that there is something exciting somewhere on the internet I could be engaging with, or friends who might be sending me messages, or anything really. That's why my book times are clearly separate from my other activities. Giving books this "sacred" time helps me concentrate, and knowing when book time ends means I feel less anxious about all the things I might be missing while reading. I do find it funny, how keeping in contact with people and just living in my online world has become such a large part of my life that I have to set myself clear reading times.
Anyway, I read on the train (if I'm traveling alone) and right before bed. I've started a habit of putting my phone away half an hour before I go to bed and then just spending that time reading with my desk lamp on. It's really quite relaxing knowing you can go right to sleep whenever you want, having already mentally let go of my phone and the online world for the night.
This was a very rambling post, but I had the idea and I kept writing and I can't really be bothered with editing away anything because this blog needed something positive for a change. Hope you guys can identify with something, either the book-fanatic phase or the book rut or anything in between.
I hope you find a book that you can't put down,
Becks
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