So, compared to previous years, I am doing absolutely terrible on my reading goals, some of this is down to life and some of this is down to me just really not feeling like reading… which is odd. I literally run a blog about books and reading, in my spare time, for free.
and before someone starts to panic, I haven’t been struggling to engage in my other interests – don’t worry, I am not going to the dark place. I just… haven’t felt like it, any time I have a moment to read, I find myself doing other things, mostly doomscrolling.
I thought that maybe this would be helpful to talk about because in a world where book bloggers and booktokkers/stagrammers/tubers only shout about their huge read counts, I don’t think you hear all that often that reading slumps happen to book lovers too.
I even have blogs and Tiktoks I have made, giving advice on how to make more time for reading… and I am struggling to follow my own advice.
Part of this is that I am trying to get out of the habit of only picking up books I consider ‘easy reading’, but this means that if I don’t feel like concentrating on them, I choose to scroll instead. The whole reason I wanted to read more challenging books was because I felt like my brain needed something meatier, there’s nothing wrong with easy reading books, I just felt like I was not feeding my mind as much with those books and lots of doomscrolling.
The other part is that I think I do need to spend a little less time on my phone. After a long day, it’s too easy to give my brain an out and just do something mindless like watch Tiktok but I think it is shortening my attention span, or at least making me less patient.
And then the last reason is that I do genuinely struggle to sit down and just relax, it’s just not in my nature, I like to be busy but that’s sometimes that’s to a fault. Especially now I have my own place, there’s always something to do and I find it difficult to just sit down and read knowing there’s something that needs doing.
So in conclusion, homework for me: Scroll less and chill the fuck out
Homework for you: don’t stress if the amount you read isn’t much at all, even people who’ve made it an entire aspect of their personality struggle to read sometimes.
Antonia Bernardin 