I faced the moment of truth last week.
You see, I’ve been a reader for as long as I can remember. When I was a kid, I chewed through novels. In high school, I liked most of the assigned reading we had (even the stuffy, 2000-year-old classics). At the time, I’d not only read 500+ page fantasy epics, but reread them. Then college happened. In a cruel irony, my classes required I read more on a daily basis than I’d done at any other time in my life and, in the process, stripped away any and all desire I had to read on my own time. This was a problem. Everyone in my major informed me that writers and editors have to have an insatiable appetite for books. When I made it home for breaks, I found my younger brother and sister had suddenly developed that appetite as well. But I just couldn’t find the same enjoyment in reading I once did. When I graduated, I decided this needed to change—I wasn’t going to let myself lose my love of reading permanently. And, I’m happy to say, I’ve been successful so far! I’ve been reading more regularly, for longer periods of time, and—vitally—I’ve been looking forward to sitting down with a book at the end of the day. But it’s not easy to break the college slump, especially in a modern world with dozens of other easily-accessible entertainment options that require less mental effort (options that I often turned to instead of books during my college years). If you’re in the same situation I was, here are some of the strategies I used to ease myself back into reading.
Hopefully some of these ideas click for you. If not, I’d love to hear from you! Have you had a similar experience falling out of love with reading? Have you made your way back yet, and, if so, how did you do it?
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