There Is Always Time To Read

I recently read this article on Electric Literature about making the time to read. To quote a quote, it said:

As Molly Barton, one of the founders of Serial Box, told Vox: “I was aware that for many people, reading a book can feel rather slow and daunting compared to other media forms at this point. It’s harder to fit into your life.”

The article goes on to talk about the luxuries of reading, which is something that we all know and love about books. It’s supposed to be time-consuming. It deserves more time than you’re rewarding it. We all know this.

But for some reason, there’s just not enough time. We all want to be reading all day, but there’s no time for it to happen. We have people to take care of, jobs to go to, and errands to run. We always have an abundance of errands to run, doesn’t it feel like it sometimes?

I think the main complaint many readers tell me is that there’s just not enough time. We want to read, but there’s always something to do or someone to take care of that’s getting in the way.

It reminds me of that one episode of The Twilight Zone where this reader was always interrupted by something in his life. It kept him from doing what he loved; reading. Then strangely the world ended and he had all the time in the world to read. Only then does he accidentally step on his reading glasses. Here’s that clip I found on Youtube.

I feel like a lot of people can relate to this character. I always feel like someone needs something done or I need to run some errand or do some chore. I always feel like there’s never enough time in the day to actually read what I want to read.

But the truth is this and it’s not going to be pretty: there’s never enough time.

We’ll always have other things we need to do and our brains may sometimes take a break from reading. Life is funny that way, but we shouldn’t be upset by it. We should definitely not throw your hands up in the air and declare that you’ll never read again.

Reading, like any activity, needs dedication. There won’t be enough time to read, but if you try hard enough you can make time. Perhaps it’s while your kids are taking a nap. Perhaps it’s while you wait for that appointment to happen. In the small pockets of time throughout the day, there could be a book in your lap waiting to be read.

Another great way to get more reading in is audiobooks. I’ve only recently started using audiobooks and it’s great for reading when you’ve got to clean your house or run some errands. I’ve been using it while I pack my entire house up. That alongside your library card, you can easily download books to read without having to leave the house. I think that’s probably my favorite thing in the world.

Reading can also be the final thing you do in the day. The brain has magic ways of knowing that when you lay in bed, you sleep. So what if you took a book with you to bed? Perhaps you read for 10 minutes before you get groggy or perhaps you’re an hour deep into your book and you can’t stop. Either way, you can end your day with a little reading and pretty soon you’ll be making time to read.

So in the end, there’s never enough time to read. Even if you don’t do anything at all with your day, it’ll be hard to carve time out. But with some perseverance, some organization, and some dedication you can be reading every single day and you won’t even realize it. That is until you notice that you’ve finished 50 books in one year.