II've always been a reader. When I was in elementary school, we read over 60 books a month during our annual storytime (mostly Baby-Sitters Club books, but still). And as a teenager, I discovered the quiet beauty found in great novels and found solace in those pages as the real world became awful due to my hormones.
However, in my twenties, my pace began to waver. I was still getting through 15-20 books a year, but my consistency was declining. This was partially due to having to make time for an exciting new hobby: binge drinking. But I've become increasingly distracted by the bottomless pit that is the iPhone. It was always the same. I kept reading until I came across a book that wasn't very interesting. As doomscrolling through Reddit becomes a more appealing prospect, I gradually stop reaching for the page at night, only to look up and realize it's been a month since I turned the page. I realized that it was.
So, towards the end of 2018, I made the only New Year's resolution I've ever been able to accomplish. That means vowing to start reading one book a week. I'm almost 30 years old, so it seemed like a good adult thing to do.
To make that happen, a few things had to change. I also had to implement a ruthless policy to break the bad habit of picking up my phone. If a book wasn't interesting, I would immediately throw it away and pick up another one.
The following strategy was born out of financial necessity, but ended up being a game changer. At a turning point in my life, I was broke to buy 52 new books, so I joined a library and started pre-ordering anything that looked good. However, I had no control over when that reserve would arrive. Sometimes I would request a book and get it the next day. At other stores, I joined long lines of readers vying for the same new issue, only to be surprised when it finally became available a month or two later. So I found myself with more and more library books next to my bed, each one due in three weeks, and had to try to catch up.
Borrowing books from the library also makes it easier to get rid of books you don't enjoy. If you pay $34.99 for a novel, you have a kind of financial obligation to finish it and get your money's worth. Borrowing them helped me feel less guilty and allowed me to throw away boring things without regrets.
Finally, I held myself accountable. Nowadays, when you post something on social media, you instantly feel embarrassed and uncomfortable. But at the time, I had no such hesitation and announced my decision to my Instagram followers and started posting short reviews of the books I finished reading every week.
The easiest thing for me was to make time to read. Every night before bed, I curled up in bed and read for 30 minutes. At first, I put my phone away and put it out of reach. Then I read another hour or two on Saturday morning. That was it.
It worked. I read 52 books that year. I continued that habit for many years and now it is firmly established. These days, my annual number of books varies depending on the thickness of the books I pick up, but it's usually around 50. Admittedly, I only finished reading 41 books last year. I just recently met my partner and it cost me part of that Saturday. Reading time in his company. It felt like a fair trade for true love.
Nearly six years have passed since that first resolution, and while some things have changed, some things have stayed the same. I read so many hits in my early years that it became difficult to find really good books. I now do most of my reading on an e-book reader. This has the advantage of allowing you to read in the dark while your boyfriend sleeps. However, I still ruthlessly throw away books that bore me. Since 2019, I've started and stopped an additional 47 books, some of which I started reading just a few pages, some of which I stopped after about halfway through, and some of which I didn't enjoy. Whatever the moment you realized it wasn't. I live by simple rules. If I don't get excited about going to bed and reading every night, I move on to the next book. Reading time at night has become my favorite time of the day, so I don't want to waste time getting things done in the middle.
Again, perhaps there are lessons to be learned about how to stick to resolutions. In my case, it was time-bound and clearly defined, rather than a vague pledge to “lose weight” or “spend less.” And it wasn't a punishment, it was a kind of enrichment, and it wasn't something to endure, but a change in life that I could get excited about. I haven't been able to come up with another similar solution yet, but I'd be happy to share the formula.
