How to Start Reading Again

easing back into a hobby you once loved

Although I was a voracious reader as a kid, as an adult I’ve now had my attention zapped by the technology and horrors of modern living. There were years where I stopped reading entirely. I found myself wanting to read again, but was crippled by the shame of having stopped and the paralysis of having to do The Task. If this sounds like you, you’re in the right place!

Awar Kurdish via Unsplash

First, my ex-reader credentials. As a misfit kid with a big imagination, I found fantastical worlds to be a welcome escape. I read well above my grade level, earned my Scholastic pizza parties. As a gifted¹ honors student in high school, my assigned readings piled up, and reading for fun became an afterthought. Then in college I became so overwhelmed with reading assignments that I stopped reading even the things I was supposed to read. My adulthood in Los Angeles has blessed me with some of the most charming used bookstores you can imagine², so I continued collecting books even as my reading progress slowed toward vanishing.

Then, the pandemic crushed the remaining spirit I had, and I fully stopped reading. Being unemployed, I had all the time in the world to read. But a combination of suffering the worst depressive episode of my life and watching the world fall apart around me made it impossible. I would stare at the page, read a sentence twice, thrice, over and over, realizing I could retain nothing. I gave up and stared at my phone.

In the years since, I’ve rebuilt my life in more ways than one. And after much struggling, I’ve finally been able to incorporate reading back into my life. Last year I finished 5 whole books. That’s not a lot, but it was a huge accomplishment for me. If that sounds like a distant but enviable goal for you, I’m here to share the tools that helped me get there.

1. Go to therapy

Not reading advice exactly but if you came to this piece being literally depressed, I’m telling you that you need to give grace to yourself first. Don’t read. Don’t think about reading. If you find yourself suddenly incapable of retaining information you used to consume easily, something is rotten in the state of Denmark. Seek help in whatever way is available to you. Health insurance providers have an obligation to provide mental healthcare³, and even if you’re uninsured there are lots of community programs providing therapy at a sliding scale. The sooner you stop beating yourself up and feeling shame about Not Reading, the sooner you’ll be in a place mentally where you can actually read.

2. Banish the phone

So annoying ugh I know but that thing you use to contact all your loved ones also has been engineered by evil people to sap your attention at every waking moment. You don’t have to throw it into the ocean, but try having it out of arm’s reach, ideally in another room. Even just 30 minutes or an hour at a time. I moved my phone charger from my bedside to the other side of the room as a precaution against oversleeping, but it’s had the dual benefit of allowing me uninterrupted reading time before bed. Whatever works for you, just get it out of your peripheral vision while you’re trying to read.

2b. Don’t post about reading

While you’re recalibrating your brain I advise against engaging with social media where it comes to reading. Social media turns life’s little pleasures into a performance. It invites comparison, and bombards you with notifications. If you’re feeling weird about your reading habits/ lack thereof, skip posting a pic of your “currently reading” to your i*sta story. It’s just another opportunity to get distracted from the thing you wanted to do in the first place, which is read.

3. Children’s books and YA

I am a firm believer that good children’s literature is just good literature. There are a wealth of beautiful classics that are quick and easy reads— Treasure Island, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, The Little Prince, and my personal pick, Tuck Everlasting. This is a perfect opportunity to revisit one of your childhood favorites. Take a trip down memory lane. Bask in the nostalgia. Similarly, Young Adult fiction has a robust catalogue to choose from and is meant to be accessible to a variety of reading levels. Pick up a contemporary YA novel that speaks to you, possibly something you read when you were 14 and loved. John Green, The Hunger Games, those fantasy books written by She Who Shall Not Be Named. This is a judgement-free space. Anything that reignites those warm fuzzy feelings about reading is a good choice.

4. Comics and graphic novels

If you’re a visual thinker and get intimidated by large blocks of text, graphic novels may be for you. Superhero fan? Look for comic recommendations. Anime nerd? Pick up a manga. None of the above? There are lots of thought-provoking graphic novels by indie artists that are free from the grips of mega-franchise. The series Monstress by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda create an expansive fantasy world with breathtaking visuals inspired by Art Deco. Alan Moore is a graphic novel titan who writes violent and cutting works. If you want something lighter, I’m a big fan of Emily McGovern, and her book Twelve Percent Dread had me rolling laughing with its commentary on the tech industry. My point is, comics aren’t just for a specific brand of Reddit-pilled supernerd. There’s a graphic novel out there for everybody. And with how quickly you turn the page, you’re gonna feel like you’re flying through it.

5. Guilty pleasures

Read that fairy smut. That mass-produced paperback. That Star Wars fan fiction. Hell, even that embarrassing self-help book. All reading is reading. The key to rebuilding your reading habit is to follow your interests and let go of shame. For a while I lost momentum because I tried to force myself to read books I thought I “should be” reading rather than allowing myself to read things that held my interest in the moment. If a steamy romance is calling to you right now, go for it.

6. Small books

It seems silly but sometimes the ease and convenience of reading something short is enough to break through your mental block. Small books are also convenient for taking with you while you’re traveling, or just in your daily life. Toss it in your bag. If you’re a person who gets a lot of satisfaction from completion, try a small book to get started.

7. DNF

On the subject of completion, it is ABSOLUTELY OKAY to quit a book halfway through. Nobody is going to be disappointed in you. The author is never gonna find out. There’s no book report due. If you’re not enjoying the book, or even if you are enjoying the book but struggling to get through it, just set it down and try something else. You can always come back to it later if you want. Or never! I was resistant to DNF for so long because I couldn’t shake the feeling that if I didn’t finish a book, all the time I had spent reading thus far was wasted. But guess what? That time wasn’t wasted because you spent it reading. Your brain went on a little journey and took an early flight home. Again, all reading is reading.

8. Get recommendations from friends

When in doubt, turn to the people who know you best for books to get your gears turning. Your friends have an intuitive sense of your voice, your sense of humor, your interests. Even if the recommendations seem out of left field, if someone says “this book made me think of you,” it’s worth a try. I’ve been pleasantly surprised and transported by recommendations from friends. When a friend told me that my writing voice reminded them of Jia Tolentino (high praise I’m not sure I deserve but will accept anyway), it lead me to read her essay collection Trick Mirror, a profound read I devoured in 3 days (a record!) that I still reference regularly. Would I have picked up an essay collection to read while on a trip to Las Vegas⁴ otherwise? Absolutely not. But my trust in another person’s taste led me to a new favorite.

9. Try a new genre

On a similar note, venturing into a new genre or format that you don’t normally seek out can make reading feel exciting and new again. Pick up a poetry book. A short story collection. Experimental sci-fi. A memoir. In fact, a memoir was the first book I read when emerging from the throes of the aforementioned depressive episode. I never read memoirs, but when the lead singer of my favorite band released his memoir Hollywood Park, my interest was piqued. His lyrical writing was something that had spoken to my heart since I was 16, but the band had been on hiatus for years. Reading his life story felt like reconnecting with an old friend.

10. Audiobooks

This list would be amiss if I didn’t at least mention audiobooks. While I am a strong advocate of reading books with your actual eyeballs (if you are physically able!), audiobooks can be a useful tool for easing you back into the habit of reading. It will retrain your brain to follow a longform story. Put it on while you’re doing the dishes, folding laundry, driving to work. Something that requires your hands but not your undivided attention. If your biggest barrier to reading is, “I simply don’t have the time!” audiobooks can easily fit into your lifestyle alongside tasks you were going to do anyway.⁵ Use the Libby App to borrow audiobooks from your local library for free!

11. Go Slow

I am a notoriously slow reader. But, even if you are a fast reader, chances are while you’re in a reading slump the going will be slow at first. It’ll take longer to read a page. You’ll be able to read fewer pages in a sitting. You’ll be working on one book for what feels like an embarrassingly long period of time. That is okay. In fact, it’s a good and necessary part of the process. You’re working a muscle you haven’t worked for a while, so the metaphorical weight load will start light and progress from there. Read a couple pages a night. Fall asleep in the middle of a sentence. Take a leisurely pace with reading. This is, after all, a leisure activity.

12. Write down what you read

Circling back to depression in the clinical sense, it can be easy to forget what you’ve read. You look back on your time in a haze, unable to recall exactly what it was you were doing. Simply writing down the title of a book you read can be helpful for instilling a sense of accomplishment.⁶ If you’re prone to forgetting, keep a list of the book titles you read over the years. You can look back at them and go “oh yeah! I loved that one.”

13. Romanticize your life

Find a favorite bookstore and browse the shelves for hours. It doesn’t matter if your to-read stack is ever-increasing while your have-read stack is stagnated. It’s about the experience. Shove your nose in a used book and inhale deeply. Designate a squishy chair in your home as a reading chair. Find an auspicious-looking tree and claim it as “your” reading tree like Rory Gilmore. Rearrange your bookshelf for a third time. Find a way to fall in love with the experience of reading.

If I had to distill all this advice into one unified theme, it’d be to let go of shame around reading and embrace whatever form reading takes in this phase of your life. I have talked to so many smart, interesting people who all say the same thing: I used to read all the time, now I can barely focus on a book. It is not your fault. This world is not built to allow us the peace of mind to read for pleasure. In fact, supporting your local library, taking time for yourself, looking away from the screens, exercising your empathy and your imagination, all these are forms of resistance. It’s hard to break from instilled habits of distraction. Your progress won’t be linear. Your reading habits won’t be the same as they were when you were 10, or 20, or even 30. You’ll find yourself drawn to new ideas and formats. Chase those interests wherever they take you. Depression and despair are strong, but you are stronger. Your books are ready to meet you where you are.

1. I was rejected from my school’s gifted program because my IQ score wasn’t high enough. lol.

2. Shoutout to The Iliad, Alias, and The Last Bookstore

3. thanks Obama

4. Yes, really. I sent them a drunken text from The Bellagio at 1am thanking them for the recommendation.

5. That said, I think it is profoundly rewarding to give your undivided attention to a book. Resisting multitasking and productivity hustle culture is part of resisting The Attention Economy. In addition to reading audiobooks, read a physical book. Reclaim your time.

6. If this feels like homework, please skip! Reading is supposed to be fun.