#writinglavender

From the ages of 7 to about 15, I read a TON of books, a habit my parents heavily encouraged (now I own ~200 books, but that's a discussion for a different day). Around 12 in a when that started to change. With a smartphone, I could read online (which I did also, it's how I got into fanfiction and Wattpad) but I got sucked into the world of social media a lot and I didn't read as much.

As an adult, I sort of missed those days because of how much peace I felt, and I actually quite think to read. Nowadays, I'm always on my phone or on the internet if not working, and I would like to get back to that in some way. So though I would help some others experiencing the same thing.

Why You Read More Books As A Child

You were likely dealing with a combination of below

Less internet access + less distractions

More time because of lower workload

Less stress (bigger than you'd think)

Different types of books (I read alot of children's books and ya)

Less influence from BookTok / BookTube / the Internet at large (A whole different post)

All these things (or more) made it easier for you to read books and not feel bad about how you read / how much you read.

Now of these things are manageable, and others are not. You cannot so back in time and there will always be something to stress you out. Also, the way to getting back to reading more will look different for everyone, so goals will vary. If your goal is getting in 100 books in a year, your goal will look different to someone who wants to treat reading like a consistent hobby but i think all the tips will be somewhat useful.

How to Read More Now

Make reading easier for you to do, and make distractions harder for you to do. This can be done in a multitude of ways. For your reading may be easier / more accessible by using audiobooks / e-books to read, or choosing smaller books. The biggest distractions are the ones that should be targeted most - I limit my use of social media and even put my phone on gray scale in extreme measures. This can actually equalize your interest in books with your interest on the internet because now both the book and the internet are in black and white. Or you can go even harder and get a brick phone, but that might not be feasible for everyone.

Find interesting books to read book online or offline (I'll go on about this more in a different post). Read different types of books from different genres, authors and sizes. Read novels. Novellas. Short stories. Essays. Children's books. Adult books. Classics. Booker prize winners. The possibilities are truly endless with reading, and you don't have to read the newest fad that BookTok / BookTube. :)

Give yourself some grace. You may have felt like, as a child, you had all the time in the world to read copious amounts of books. Now that you're older, you may be struggling with family, finding work, illness (physical + mental) or just life. Not only that, but you may have just fallen out of love with reading for a while and lost track of time. All of that is valid. Just because you didn't read today, doesn't stop you from being a reader, and just because you didn't read today, it doesn't stop you from reading tomorrow or the day after that (You managed to read this post so far, a few more words won't hurt :3.)

Track your reading progress and reward yourself. Track in whatever format is easiest for you (pages, segments (chapters, stories, essays) books, hours) and do it as often as you like (daily, weekly, monthly, yearly). Rewards can be as simple as a gold star or buying a new book (though be aware of overconsumption). Try to get a reward related to the goal, like a bookmark or a sticker for your Kindle.

SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL LIBRARY. PLEASE. You don't have to buy every book brand new. Burrow books from your library. Read in your library. Join / Start a books club in your library. Get to know your librarians, I find they are quite nice.

Hopefully these tips helps a poor soul in need. Happy reading everyone!

Covering 2 days since I forget to respond yesterday, but here are the things I did over the last 2 days:

Day 1

Completed my interview!!

Wrote up a list of extra things to do

Dowloaded poster template

Edited outline for poster template

Day 2

Completed a bit more of the methodology for my dissertation

Writing Related Goals

One short story posted on Tumblr every 1-2 months

One story as part of a series completed every 3 months(?)

Regularly write over 200 words daily (a very small goal, but I tend to write nothing so I may change this goal is I'm consistent)

Regularly interact with my followers on Tumblr

Reading Related goals

At least 2-4 books a month (If I'm not watching tons of YouTube in a week, I could read 1 book a week depending on length, so this isn't a crazy idea)

Curate my book collection (I'm making a little bit of progress on this, but it's hard since I'm at uni for most of the year, so I will work on this in the middle of the year once I finish uni)

Gym Related goals

Bench 1.5x my bodyweight (~80kg) on the smith machine by the end of the year

Squat 2x my bodyweight by the end of the year (I do Zercher squats as a preference so that'll be what i'm practicing)

Study / Education Related goals

Graduate with a 1st class degree with honours

Get a master's degree offer for Sep. 2026

Reach 'Mastery' level for Igbo on Memrise by the end of the year

Reach 1 dan level on codewars by the end of the year

Finance Related Goals

Regularly add money to my Savings and investing accounts

Inspirational goals (goals I'm not sure if I'll do since I'm so busy, but they are things I'd like to try)

Regularly post YouTube videos 1x a week (It'll 90% be anonymous since my phone camera is terrible, but I would like to do some writing related videos with an avatar or something)

Reach 'Intermediate' level for Korean on Memrise by July since I have trip in July