One of the questions I get most often from people is, as a book blogger, how do you find time to read? Short answer? I don’t – you just need to take a look at my slow trawling pace on my Goodreads challenge and my exhaustive TBR pile to see that. Long answer? There’s plenty of tips and trickles of advice I’ve dealt out, but here are my top three (in celebration of three years of Blogger’s Bookshelf!)
1. The 100 page rule
Sometimes you start a book and can’t stop, sometimes it takes a while to get going, and the rest of the time you end up taking forever stubbornly finishing a book just because you’ve started. I’m totally guilty of the last point and though it is sometimes the case that some books will take more than 100 pages to gain momentum you shouldn’t have to force yourself to finish a book you don’t enjoy.
So if you don’t find yourself gripped by a novel by page 100, put it down and start a different book. I’ve only recently starting doing this in myself and it’s taking a while to break out of old habits, but it has meant I’ve been finishing books I really enjoy instead of trudging through something like ‘On The Road’.
2. Carry a book with you at all times
Sure this one can get a bit inconvenient, especially when hardbacks can be so heavy, but you never know when you you need to fill a spare 5 minutes in the queue for the bank or waiting for a delayed train. Obviously the solution to heavy books is to use an e-reader, but I quite like the good ol’ fashioned paperback option – and it doesn’t run out of battery.
3. Ignore book snobs
Hypocritical considering I’m a book blogger? But I genuinely believe that you shouldn’t read something just because everyone else is or because it’s won a Pulitzer Prize. Like any art form literature is so subjective, so just because everyone is harping on about the latest dystopian doesn’t mean you have to too. Genres like YA and *rolls eyes* chick-lit are often looked down upon by ‘proper literary buffs’ but if you enjoy them then read them!
Let me know what your top tips for reading more are!
PSA: ALSO! Don’t forget to enter Blogger’s Bookshelf’s Third Birthday giveaway (there’s a YALC goody bag and a proof copy of The Baby by Lisa Drakeford among other bits and pieces!)
R.xoxo
