don't feel bad if you can't read 10 books per month

I find it so hard to read. I have SO MANY books that I WANT to read, yet I never do. I like the idea of reading stuff, but I'm not the biggest fan of actually doing it. It's so cool to read and not just waste your life away doomscrolling, falling in a loop where all you do it absorb everything the algorithm wants, without you having any kind of autonomy in it. It's also super cool to keep track of the books you read in a book journal!

I usually find myself looking at different social media accounts that do those amazing book journals (and other types of journals). I look at how aesthetic everything is in their journals; how they printed the book covers or how they did a fun book bingo! Then I look at their book tracking lists or their buying list and I just ask myself "when THE FUCK do they have the time to do all this? how do they read every single day? how do they keep up with reading like 3 books at the same????? "

And well, the answer is pretty simple:

1. They do enjoy reading a lot; it's probably been a hobby for a long time 

AND

2. Of course they have time to read 10 books/month, this is part of their job: making book and journal related content.

That's how they have the time to read so much; I am pretty sure that a normal human being, with a 9-5 job or a college student would finish reading a book at a much slower pace since they don't have that much free time. Also, those influencers usually read pretty light books — romance, fantasy, romantasy — these types of books have a lot of dialogue, not a lot of included description and usually follow a singular chronological line. Of course, this is not a rule; but this is based on what I observed.

By all means, there is nothing wrong with this. But if you start to compare yourself with what you see online, you need to remind yourself that at the end of the day, you are only human. You have a real job, you have school, you have other activities to do as well and you can't dedicate 40 hours of your week for bookish things. Reading should be fun, not a chore.

Here is a list I made to help you read more:

1. Read what you like. I don't know about you, but I always associated reading with those boring mandatory school books. You don't need to read Dostoievski after not reading for a while so just read an easier book — maybe something young adult. Try to make your brain understand that this is fun and you will do it again.

2. Make a book journal. Keeping track of the books you read and the ones you want to read helps!! Also add a page or 2 dedicated to each book, write down some parts you enjoyed, some quotes that moved you or anything that you would've changed about the book. Or draw something that is inspired by that book. Use your creative freedom here.

3. Don't pressure yourself to read a book in a set time. As I mentioned previously, those influencers would have some insane goals of reading a 600 pages book in 3 days, or have 5 book read in a month. These types of goals are not for everyone and it can actually discourage you to read. Instead, if you wanna have a reading goal, do something like reading 5 pages everyday; of course you are gonna read more than that, but just knowing that you accomplished this goal is gonna make your brain feel good feelings and that means you are gonna enjoy reading more.

4. Use your commute times. Maybe you can't bring your book everywhere so maybe try to listen to the audiobook. It still counts since you are getting the same info in the end.

5. Experiment. Try different genres of book, maybe even some that you are not really comfortable with; read 50 pages and see if you would like to continue reading or not. Try different reading modes: do you like the feeling of paper of do you prefer to read on a digital surface like a Kindle? Try different moments of the day: do you enjoy reading more in the morning or in the evening? And the list goes on and on. The only thing is to find what suits you and to continue doing that.

That's all. Have fun reading!

issa