Read what delights you
How choosing delight is helping to reignite my love of reading
Hello gentle reader,
I can’t be the only one who feels we have entered that strange tapering year-end that feels so short and so rushed.
I’ve had the weirdest year I’ve ever experienced, which goes some way to explaining why this newsletter has been… patchy, shall we say? I have juggled more jobs than ever before, flip-flopped between five or six different writing projects, and my submissions success rate this year is a big fat zero.
I’m ok with these things, but harder to accept is that I have barely read anything at all.
This really isn’t like me. I’m a reading machine! I read lots and I read widely. Books are a part of my soul!
But it hasn’t been that way this year. Sometimes I have found reading just plain joyless. Even easy reads and audio books have felt like a slog at times.
The treadmill of self-improvement
I know I’m not the only person feeling this way. The National Literacy Trust has released another round of startling figures about the decline in reading for pleasure. Just as I was scheduling this post, a national newspaper published their guide to getting out of a reading rut, so it must be topical enough for them to cover it.
I suspect this is making the news because reading has many benefits beyond simply enjoyment. It can boost wellbeing, improve confidence, and help us navigate a complex world. If people don’t read, there are knock-on negative effects, for individuals and wider society.
But I also want to acknowledge that some aspects of our culture around reading don’t help. They’re not free and freeing and fun.
Online, people can get very competitive about the number of books they read, or how many publishers have sent them proofs to review. We’re encouraged to track the books we read on various apps, rank them, share our lists, compare ourselves to each other.
Reading like this is like going to the gym. We all know it’s good for us, but it can be off-putting for many. We need to disentangle reading from the realm of personal improvement.
How I’m reclaiming reading for delight
So down with competitive reading, showboat reading, and worthy reading! They’ve been blocking many of us, myself included, from accessing a special kind of magic that belongs to all of us.
Let’s reclaim reading for delight!
Below are the things I have tried recently to reignite the delight in reading. It’s beginning to work for me, and perhaps they might work for you?
Love your library
It probably says a lot about me that, in order to find the fun in reading again, I set myself a new rule to follow. But this one has worked brilliantly, and it’s very simple: I stopped spending money on books, and went to the library instead.
The library is the best way you can read books for free, because the authors still receive money for their creative work. It’s a win-win.
Librarians work hard to curate selections for all sorts of different tastes, and the books are often shelved differently to how I would arrange them at home. As a result I come across a wider range of titles. Because I’m not risking any of my hard-earned cash, it’s easier to take a risk on something new.
I also find it helpful having a deadline. Knowing that I have three weeks to get through my chosen books, before I have to renew or return them, spurs me on.
Libraries also give you access to all sorts of amazing resources you can’t get elsewhere. I like reading magazines and listening to audiobooks on the Libby app, for example. And my library also has access to BFI Replay, which makes films from across history and different UK regions free to view.
Every library has more to offer than you imagine, so ask your librarian what they would recommend and allow yourself to be surprised!
Old friends (and frenemies)
I didn’t used to re-read books that I’ve read before, but now I love rereading my old favourites, especially books from my childhood.
But perhaps my favourite rereads have been the books I didn’t enjoy the first time around! I’ve reread a couple of titles recently that I either didn’t finish or forced myself to get through in the past. This time, now that I’m older and wiser, I found completely different things in them and actually enjoyed them.
Allowing myself to reread books goes hand in hand with allowing myself to abandon a book if it’s not clicking for me. Knowing that I can come back to something in future and appreciate it allows me to follow my energy in the present.
So if I’m not enjoying something right now, I put it down… but I don’t write it off completely.
Swap with people who aren’t your friends
My lovely friends often lend me books, but we know each other well enough to tailor our recommendations for each other’s tastes. To really get outside of my wheelhouse, I’ve used the book swap at my local supermarket a couple of times.
The books there are completely different to what my friends and I would usually read. They’re a lot more commercial, with Danielle Steele and James Patterson well represented. But there’s nothing wrong with that, and the books change every visit. Clearly people are getting through them!
Occasionally I find a real unexpected gem. Someone left an old annual from the 1980s one time. I didn’t take it home, but I did enjoy browsing the pages. I left a couple of books about organic gardening, which were different to the usual mix, and they went very quickly.
I love that I’m connected to an unknown person nearby, probably leading a very different life to me and with very different tastes, through the supermarket book swap.
Recent personal faves
I couldn’t end this newsletter without giving a shout out to a few of my recent favourites.
A New New Me by Helen Oyeyemi. I got this from the library and it didn’t disappoint! It tells a week in the life of Kinga’s multiple personalities, all with their own competing desires and dislikes, and one of whom has tied up a mystery man in the pantry -- cue hilarious intrigue. I love Oyeyemi because her books are surprising and intelligent, but she also just tells a really good story. She’s underrated and excellent, and a ton of fun.
Mslexia magazine. Mslexia is a quarterly magazine all about creative writing by women. It publishes finished short stories and poems, alongside articles, interviews and prompts about the writing process. I read every copy cover to cover, encountering all sorts of genres and topics that I’ve never thought of before. The latest edition made me want to try writing an interactive game for the first time, and I’m really not a gamer!
Griffin & Sabine by Nick Bantock. I came across this in a charity shop and fell in love with it. It’s a charming story told through letters between two characters who have never met. Just like a children’s book, each page has an envelope with a letter inside, and to read the story you have to take the letter out of the envelope… It’s interactive and nostalgic and as feel-good as The Jolly Postman, just a little more grown-up.
So there you have my guide to getting out of a reading rut by embracing delight. Follow your nose, read what feels good, and let me know your recommendations!
Until next time, happy reading,
Flo
Thanks for this, Flo. I've been in a reading rut for a while so I found this very encouraging. I used to feel pressured to keep up with whatever was the new thing, whether or but I liked it. No more though, I go for what I feel like and enjoy, which at the moment is OLD! I want to read more though, and rekindle my love of reading. Audiobooks have been especially helpful. I just blasted through George Elliot's Lifted Veil on audio.