My own reading routines

Notes From the Reading Nook: December 19

Good morning, good morning ☀️

Since last week I wrote about family reading routines, it only seems fitting to follow that up with a glimpse into my own personal reading routines.

So here you go…

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• How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell (this is our chapter book at bedtime and it has been a massive hit)

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I originally published this post on August 24, 2021. I’ve edited and updated it here as needed (and as my reading life has evolved over the past two years).

📫 Questions from you

Perhaps unsurprisingly, I get asked about my reading life a lot.

Sometimes it’s about my routine — today’s topic — or how I manage to read so much — I responded to that in last year’s Make time for your own reading — but I never get tired of answering.

I received this query awhile ago:

I’d love to know more about your own reading habits (how you make time to read/what you read)…

💌 Dear Reader,

I have kept spreadsheets of what I’ve read every year since 2007 — the year I set a goal to read 100 books and finished out with 138. (I never said I was a healthy reader, merely that I am a fanatical one.) That year I learned some things that changed my reading life and habits forever (and though I never had a reading year that robust again until last year, when I read 164 books in 2022, I truly have no idea why. I didn’t do anything differently, but in retrospect, I perhaps adhered to my own practices even more faithfully than usual.)

Above all — reading is a muscle that gets stronger the more you use it. The more I read, the faster I read, and the better I’m able to take in, comprehend, and remember what I read (I have an almost freakish ability to remember what I read).

Reading begets reading.

This is where I read most often right now. My spots around the house change, but in fall and winter, I find myself cozying up in the corner of my kitchen -- which is fine during the day, but really best at night.

Since 2007, I’ve had years where I’ve read more (95, 111, 130 books) and years where I’ve read less (55), but even the ones where I’d given birth and had a newborn and was working full-time and nursing and pumping, I still read. (55 books with baby #1 and 70 with baby #2.) I’ve read 132 books thus far this year, in 2023. That includes audiobooks, that includes chapter books I’ve read aloud with my children. It all counts.

So, how do I make time to read?

Well: I don’t watch TV. (Never? Well, no, not never. I watch a movie or a couple episodes of a show with my husband on the weekend, usually only one night. When our children are watching something, I am almost always with them, but I read around the bodies on my lap. I bought myself some Loop earplugs for this purpose and though I wish they blocked all sound, entirely — that’s my dream — they are effective enough. I watch zero TV of my own accord.)

I don’t pick up my phone after 7pm. This has proved extra-challenging this year— my self-control, normally only problematic because I am so disciplined as to be close to insane, got majorly out of whack starting in April — but I’ve regained my regimen by getting fed up with feeling like garbage after checking my phone, and using Post-It notes on top of it to remind me: “YOU DON’T WANT THIS” (yes, in all caps) and “There is nothing for you here.” I haven’t had notifications turned on for a decade and my phone has a dedicated parking spot on a counter near the entryway of my home, so it doesn’t travel around the house with me — ever. Not picking up my phone isn’t a perfect process and sometimes I fall flat on my face like every other human being, but I do my best, and it mostly works.

Growing up my mother told me all the time, “There are too many good books in the world to waste time reading one you don’t like,” so, I don’t waste time with any book I don’t like. I give it ten pages, sometimes even less, and if I’m not immediately into it, I quit. I don’t bother with that Nancy Pearl math where you take your age + 10 and read to that number before abandoning a book — I maybe only have 55 years left on earth and a LOT of books to read; ain’t nobody got time for that. I never, ever push through an entire book that has not captured me, not even for a book group, not even for work. (When I think about how I read so many books a year, this is a key component. If you don’t like a book, OMG, QUIT! Here’s your permission slip! 📝 If it’s that important, you can always try again another time.)

I don’t get bogged down in reading slumps. For one thing, if you’re a book quitter, slumps don’t happen as often because you’re not trying to force yourself to keep slogging on. For another, I have been a reader long enough (my whole life) to know when my attention span needs some TLC — if I can’t focus, if I’ve abandoned five books in a row, if nothing seems appealing, these are signs my mind needs a break. This is where my beloved National Geographic comes in (and this is how I catch up on issues I haven’t had time to read — I am always at least six ten months behind). I lean into the slump and pick up a magazine or some poetry for a few days (at least one, very rarely more than three) until my attention is restored and I am ready for a longer read again. This happens several times a year, and though I can’t say that I like it, I’ve come to accept it as normal and have stopped fighting it.

I don’t leave the house without a book. When I’m waiting, or stuck somewhere, or doing anything that might otherwise prompt me to pull out my phone, I read. I really mean: I carry a book with me wherever I go. To work. To the grocery store. To my children’s outings and activities. (Whenever I tell people this, I think of a line from Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can’t Avoid by Lemony Snicket: “Never trust anyone who has not brought a book with them.” I wouldn’t go that far — maybe — but it’s true that “people who bring a book” are my people. And now when I’m going somewhere with my kids, I tell them, “Grab a book!” I don’t ask, “Would you like to bring a book?” any more than I would ask, “Would you like to wear underwear?” I say, “Water bottle. Book.” And off we go.)

I don’t listen to a ton of music, news, or podcasts on my commute (25 minutes one way); I opt for audiobooks at least a few days a week. This is not any kind of rigid rule, I don’t force myself to do anything I don’t feel like doing for the sake of reading more books; I listen to music and the news and podcasts when I feel like it and audiobooks when I feel like it: it just adds up.

As for what I read…

It’s mostly literary fiction, nonfiction of all kinds, and poetry. Also mysteries (because there are so many good authors out there and if I find a series, I will dive in with deep happiness), but otherwise I read zero genre fiction: no romance, no fantasy or science fiction, no thrillers, no horror. I read women’s fiction once every few years if it has been highly recommended to me by a person whose taste I trust. I’ll read historical fiction once in awhile — I like it but don’t often seek it out. (The one exception to this is, for no discernible reason, anything about medieval nuns — I have read every fictional book about medieval nuns, anchorites, etc., in my library system’s catalog and constantly search for more. If you know of any, please leave a comment 😆)

I never lack for reading material: I have literally thousands of books at home to pick from at any hour of the day, I go to the library multiple times a week (and always have a staggering holds list, which arrive nearly constantly). I read every issue of BookPage (again thanks to the library); I subscribe to newsletters about adult books, many of them written by my wonderful Substack friends. I read almost all the books my mom passes on to me; I check out any title my fellow bookworm and dear friend Marlena recommends.

I read a lot because I am, and always have been, a very serious reader. It’s my numero uno, all-time passion in life. I have other hobbies, I spend my time on other things — you’re looking at one of them — but there’s nothing that comes close to reading. All hell can be breaking loose, everything can be falling apart, I can be in deep crisis, and I still read. It’s the one thing that I must do to be well in my soul. I am not me without reading.

My life — my routines, my choices, my priorities — simply reflects that.

Sarah

“It’s not that I don’t like people. It’s just that when I’m in the company of others — even my nearest and dearest — there always comes a moment when I’d rather be reading a book.”

Word, Maureen Corrigan. Word. (From Leave Me Alone, I’m Reading: Finding and Losing Myself in Books)

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If you want an even more in-depth and detailed peek, I recently wrote a guest post for my Substack friend Gayla Gray of the newsletter

SoNovelicious, Books & Reading & More Books

, wherein I documented what a week in my reading life looks like:

A Look at a Week in the Reading Life of . . .

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Read good books and take good care 😘
Sarah

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