I Don't Need to Read More Books. I Just Miss Reading.

I love reading.

Always have.

But apparently being an adult means having approximately 47 other things that need doing before I'm allowed to sit down and open a book.

I'm a mum to an energetic toddler.

A wife.

A receptionist.

A small business owner.

And depending on the hour, I'm also a cleaner, chef, taxi driver, finder of lost things and general fixer of whatever has gone wrong.

By the time the day is done, sometimes there's just not much left of me.

And reading?

Reading gets pushed to tomorrow.

I don't actually care how many books I read this year

I know reading goals can be fun.

I love a good challenge.

But I don't want another number hanging over my head telling me I'm behind.

I've got enough things in my life that need to be completed.

Reading isn't supposed to be one of them.

I don't want to sit down with a book because I need to hit a yearly target.

I want to sit down with a book because I miss it.

I miss that feeling when you're completely absorbed in a story.

When you're telling yourself you'll read one more chapter even though you already know that's a lie.

When something happens and suddenly there is absolutely no chance you're going to sleep until you find out what happens next.

That's what I miss.

My favourite 30 minutes of the day

On a good night, once everything is finally done, I tuck myself into bed and read for about 30 minutes before going to sleep.

Nothing revolutionary.

I'm not waking up at 5am.

I'm not squeezing 100 pages into my morning routine.

I'm not trying to become the world's most efficient reader.

It's just 30 minutes.

But those 30 minutes are mine.

And because I'm a fantasy and sci-fi reader, I get to leave reality completely.

For half an hour, I don't need to think about tomorrow's shift.

Or what needs cleaning.

Or what's for dinner.

Or what needs doing for the business.

Or what my toddler is going to climb, throw, spill or somehow mysteriously break next.

I'm somewhere else.

And I bloody love that.

But some nights, reading just isn't happening

Sometimes I work the close shift.

By the time I get home, there's no magical little pocket of reading time waiting for me.

And I've stopped thinking that means I've somehow failed.

The book will still be there tomorrow.

There's no reading streak I need to protect.

No catching up required.

No guilt necessary.

Because surely the quickest way to suck the joy out of reading is to turn it into another obligation.

I don't need that.

And I don't think you do either.

Maybe we don't need to "make more time"

There's a lot of advice about finding time to read.

Wake up earlier.

Read on your lunch break.

Set a daily page target.

Put your phone in another room.

Schedule reading into your calendar.

And sure, some of that might work.

But sometimes life is just busy.

Sometimes you're exhausted.

Sometimes somebody needs you.

Sometimes you finally sit down and realise your brain has officially closed for business.

That's life.

Maybe instead of constantly trying to become people who read more, we can simply make it easier to come back to reading when we can.

Ten minutes?

Read.

Three pages before your eyes start closing?

Counts.

Didn't read at all tonight?

Also fine.

Got completely hooked and accidentally stayed awake until 1am?

We've all made choices.

This is actually part of why I created Tales in Ink

One thing used to drive me nuts when I finally had time to read.

I'd get to my bookshelf...

and stare at it.

So many books I wanted to read.

Absolutely no idea which one to choose.

I'd finally found some precious reading time and now I was wasting it deciding what to bloody read.

I wanted something that made that decision fun.

Not another system.

A game.

So I started playing around with reading challenges.

Something as simple as an A–Z challenge changed the decision.

Instead of:

"Which of these books should I read?"

It became:

"I still need a book beginning with J."

Okay.

Go to the TBR.

Find the J books.

Pick one.

Done.

The Bingo challenges made it even more fun.

Find a book around 300 pages.

Pick one with a one-word title.

Find something with purple on the cover.

Read a female author.

Choose a book with a map inside.

Suddenly my ridiculous pile of possibilities wasn't quite so overwhelming.

I wasn't staring at my shelf trying to make the perfect choice.

I was playing.

That little idea eventually grew into Tales in Ink.

I originally made it for myself because I couldn't find what I wanted.

Then I loved it.

So I decided to share it with other readers.

That's what I want this little corner of the internet to be about

Not how many books you should be reading.

Not perfect reading routines.

Not making you feel guilty because somebody on the internet has already finished 87 books and it's only Tuesday.

Books.

The ones we can't stop thinking about.

The ones that made us cry.

The ones we stayed up far too late reading.

The ones we DNF'd because life is too short.

The giant TBRs we're definitely going to get through one day.

And that feeling when you finally get a quiet moment, open your book and disappear from reality for a while.

Because I don't think most of us need another person telling us to read more.

Sometimes...

we just miss reading.

And maybe finding our way back to it can be a little less complicated.

Now I want to know about you:

When life finally leaves you alone long enough to open a book, what does your perfect reading moment look like?