Rebuilding a Regular Reading Habit

Readers don’t commit to a reading habit once. We commit—and recommit—to reading over and over. Most lifelong readers wander away from reading at some point. We get a new job and devote our time and attention toward training. We read a few books that don’t engage us, and we take a break. We invest more time in other hobbies, social events, or caring for family members, and move pleasure reading to the back burner. Our books will wait for us. And wait. 

We may not read much for months, but something brings us back. We discover a series or author and read every book we can find. We develop a passionate interest and need to learn all about it. Our friends, romantic partners, or work colleagues read, so we pick it up again. The books call to us and we answer. 

No matter what we read or who we share reading with, readers must dedicate regular time for reading to build a consistent habit. Finding time to read can be challenging when you feel that your schedule is full. Presented with opportunities to read more, readers can capitalize on them. When my spouse, Don, rode the light rail train instead of driving to work, he gained several hours a week of reading time. When I presented at conferences and visited schools almost every week, I read to pass the time and ease my loneliness during long stretches away from my family. 

I could read an entire middle grade book during one flight. Longer books might take two or three segments. I downloaded audiobooks and listened to them in rental cars or when I ran out of physical books. I read hundreds of books each year by wrapping my reading life around my travel schedule.  

At home, I read graphic novels, picture books, journals, and other shorter texts that weren’t sufficiently long enough to carry around for days on the road. I regularly spent a few weekend afternoons a month binge reading picture books, too. 

When my travel life stalled in 2020, I didn’t have consistent reading habits at home. I didn’t read during a set time of day or choose a particular chair or room for reading. I didn’t know how to keep my reading momentum going without large chunks of time on the road. I rarely left the house. My in-progress audiobook, The Friend Zone by Abby Jimenez, remained unfinished for more than a year.

 Reader interrupted.

Joyful reading benefits from time, access, choice, and community. What can readers do when the routines and resources that keep our reading lives going disappear or change? I had to develop different routines.

During 2020 and into 2021, I developed insomnia. Reading up on it, I’m not alone. Many people developed sleep issues during the early years of the pandemic. I bought a new floor lamp and began reading in the middle of the night. Much like reading on planes, I was less distracted and more capable of focusing my attention in these quiet hours. No one texted me. I didn’t feel the urge to be “productive” and clean or answer email. Sometimes, I fell back asleep. More often than not, I read for an hour or two, then got up. Better to start the day with my book than doom scrolling the news. 

About the time my sleep patterns improved, Don and I sold our big house in DFW, shed half of our belongings, and moved to a small apartment in San Antonio. For two months, the only books we read were audiobooks played while we packed and drove. Forget about a consistent time or place to read. We didn’t have a consistent time or place to sleep. 

Some of the cookbooks we brought to the apartment.

Once we moved in, we unpacked the ten boxes of books we brought with us. When choosing books, I had selected a lot of books we hadn’t read and a small reference library of cookbooks, gardening guides, and professional development materials. We planned to live in the apartment for a year, so most of our books and comics went to storage. 

My reading life fell into disarray after the move. Don and I temporarily lost most of our book access. We didn’t have library cards. We didn’t know where the good bookstores were. Forget cozy reading spots. We were still assembling our couch. I constantly looked for books I knew we owned, only to realize they were impossible to retrieve from storage. 

Besides, we were living in SAN ANTONIO now. There was so much to see and do. We roamed our new city every day—meeting people, studying landmarks and roads, and locating essential services. Don and I found a fantastic food truck court, the post office, and the closest dog park before we found the library. 

By the time Don and I acquired library cards and found a reading groove at the apartment, we bought a house and threw our lives into boxes again. Instead of moving 300 miles this time, we moved three. Focused on the logistics of purchasing the house, supervising repairs, and moving, we didn’t have much free time for reading last summer. It took months for us to find our reading selves again. 

After almost four years of sleepless nights, moves, and other disruptions, I have rebuilt nourishing reading habits. Don and I have settled into (almost) daily reading time. We have unpacked more of our book and comic collections. We still have so many books in storage that I worry it will take four more years before all of the books we want are inside this house with us.

We have a backyard again and often read on the covered patio. Pet owners will understand that our dogs and cats have finally chosen their reading spots. At this moment, I’m folded in a dog pile on our couch. 

We built this covered patio, so we could read outside most of the year.

My reading life has evolved and changed many times. My identity as a reader is important enough to me that I will invest effort to maintain it. Reading requires a time commitment. This means being flexible and creative when obligations and distractions encroach on my time to read. I used to read in airports and wolf down books in big gulps. I don’t read like this anymore, but I still can! 

A few weeks ago, I traveled to Idaho for the Idaho Commission for Libraries Conference in Idaho Falls. On my trip home to San Antonio, I spent seven hours stranded in the DFW airport. I walked Terminal B three times. I wandered through every sundry store and gift shop. I ate lunch. After our plane finally boarded, we were stuck on the tarmac for several hours due to air traffic control issues. Tiring and frustrating.

Fortunately, I carried Traci Chee’s incredible redemption story, Kindling, with me. For the first time in ages I burned through a book to escape my travel woes. I fell into the adventure and left the airport behind. For one day, I revisited my former reading life. The ability to read a long book in one sitting. Moving through the characters’ lives while slogging from one city to the next. My paper boarding pass holding my place in the book.

It was glorious. 

I can’t support my reading habits with travel delays and work trips any longer, but slipping back into my airport reading behaviors comforted me. I wasn’t on a plane. I was in another world. I won’t lose my travel reading skills. I have shifted my reading routines to fit my current lifestyle, but I still retain the experiences and skills from my former reading identities. 

In a few weeks, students will return to school. No matter what their reading habits were like over the summer, their circumstances will change. Some may read less because they can’t binge read books all day at home. Most will read more than they did over the summer because of increased book access and consistent support, including dedicated time to read. It might take a bit for students to settle into school again. Encourage them to wander back to reading by giving them time. 

When do you find time to read? Do you have a dedicated time each day? A special place? What physical conditions do you need before you settle into reading? Can you squeeze in more reading time with audiobooks or ebooks? How do you keep your reading habits going when your circumstances change? Please share your experiences and ideas in the comments. Readers are fascinating! We can learn from each other.