Maintaining a loving relationship with your books

There are a few enemies of reading, Twitter being a big one, our phones in general, human contact, LIFE. It’s sometimes hard to stay on top of all the books you have to read and enjoy reading them. So here’s a guide to help you out!

• Take the passion you put into your Twitter and Instagram and throw it into your reading life. It’s really easy to get lost in a sea of notifications and updates, we can often lose hours on our phones. Whilst Bookstagram and Book Twitter talk about a love of reading, they can take time away from actually picking up a book.

There’s an app called Forest that plants a tree every time you set a timer on the app to not look at your phone. If you’re in need of a little motivation not to pick up your phone, set the timer and let your tree grow, if you use your phone, your tree will DIE. I find it helpful to turn this app on whilst I’m reading so I’m not even tempted to touch my phone. Because this is the millennial world that we now live in!

• Talk about books with other bibliophiles. Having a chat about the books you’re loving, or recommending books to your bookish friends can really reignite a spark in your for books. I love talking about stories and how much I’ve enjoyed them. It always leaves me with a desperate want to pick up more pages and fall into more new worlds.

This discussion doesn’t just have to be in person, there’s plenty of places to chat online to bookish friends too. We have such a wonderful community here that always make me feel inspired. Of course… this does make achieving my first point a little hard.

• Only read books your enjoying and don’t be afraid to DNF books. If you read my recent post about why I DNF books, you’ll know what I’m talking about. But I think it’s really important to enjoy what you’re reading and not feel like you have to keep reading a story that doesn’t captivate you.

Reading is for fun, not for any other reason (unless you’re studying, then I’m sorry, this point may not work for you). There’s nothing like a slow and boring book to kick you into a reading slump. Pick books you really fancy reading, if you don’t love them when it comes to starting them, that is okay!

• Rearrange your bookshelves every now and then to keep it fresh. I love doing this to give my shelves a revamp and to remind me of all the books on my TBR that I have yet to read. It can be a good way to do a clear out too of any books you think you may unhaul.

I sorted out some of my shelves today and they look a lot less crowded now, which makes me feel a lot better.