Building A Balanced Reading Life
How To Keep You Reading Life Fresh
Photo by Lilly Rum on Unsplash
One of the biggest struggles I have had in my reading life is balancing competing reading goals. I love to learn and read books that help inform me about the world or teach me new ideas. I love to read information and learn history. I enjoy reading for pleasure and escape. I read books that help me grow spiritually. The struggle is often how to choose my next book.
While reading a book by C.S. Lewis such as Mere Christianity, my mind begins to think that I should be reading the next book in a fiction series that I have been enjoying. When reading through a biography of each US President, I felt like I was missing out on many of the classic novels on my reading list.
I am a mood reader and I have often felt like being a mood reader is a limitation to my reading life. I grow frustrated when I try to force myself into a book (even a book I eventually love) and it is just not working. I have tried to make a reading list where every book is planned out and when I finish one book, it is on to the next on the list. But my mind quickly rejects this type of rigid system.
I have tried reading plans such as The Great American Reading List or Susan Wise Bauer’s Well Read Mind reading list, but reading began to feel like a chore quickly. The last thing I want to do is turn my reading life into another productivity measure. I work in healthcare and my work is measured in productivity standards where optimizing every billable minute determines my pay and my worth is measured in metrics. The last thing I need is to turn my hobbies into productivity metrics as well.
This is where being a mood reader helps me find joy in my reading life. It can be frustrating when I start looking at my TBR list and want to make progress. But, being a mood reader has mostly kept my reading life exciting and always scanning. I have begun to look at my to be read shelves or my TBR list more as a menu of options than a detailed plan. If I need escape, I look for which book piques my interest from my fiction menu. If I am curious to learn more about God and spiritual formation, I look at my menu of Christian nonfiction books.
Over the years of transitioning from productive or planned reading to accepting the fact that I am a mood reader, I have developed a few systems that help me keep some structure and organization to my reading life. Some of the reading systems that I have developed over the years include:
Reading multiple books at a time (different genres or goals).
I am not a one book at a time person. I have tried it and instead of giving focus to my reading life, it gets me stuck. My brain craves variety and I enjoy having multiple books going at one time. I do this through different formats, ebooks, audiobooks, and physical books. I also try to keep the books in separate lanes. Reading a book that requires more mental effort, such as Dante’s Divine Comedy in the morning and a Stephen King book in the evening or breaks in my day. I may also listen to a nonfiction audiobook while working or doing chores around the house.
This allows me to keep staying motivated to pick up a book when I have downtime but have a menu of books to swap between. The goal is not the number of books but switching between worlds, mental effort, and leisure. When I begin to lose interest in one book and can feel my mind wandering, I switch to the other book and my enjoyment typically returns.
Reading in seasons.
I have also noticed that throughout the different seasons of the year, my reading life naturally is pulled in certain directions. For example, during the summer months my mood is more fun and playful and my reading life follows suit with more fast paced and engaging stories that are more plot driven. In the fall, my mood switches back to more serious reading such as C.S. Lewis or Dallas Willard.
Perhaps my brain got used to being challenged seasonally throughout school with deep learning in the winter and spring and summer and winter breaks. My brain still tends towards those same rhythms as an adult even after being out of school for 15 years. I have tried to force deeper reading in the summer and nearly every time, I cannot do it. My brain feels the space of summer and the freedom of winter and winter seems to be more for large epic novels. The past two winters, I have read East of Eden and Gone With The Wind.
Reading in units.
This past spring, my primary book was Dante’s Divine Comedy and the book took a few months to read as I was immersing myself each morning in the poem and needed space to process. Last fall, I did a deep dive into C.S. Lewis’ books and spent 8 weeks reading some of his greatest works.
A few years ago, I got very curious about US history and spent almost 4 years reading through a biography of each US President. But even during those units, I read multiple books at a time. The secondary books helped me maintain focus during my deeper reading sessions. When I am reading in units, I try to have a defined time frame. It could be 4 weeks, 8 weeks, or 12 weeks time frames. But knowing there is a defined time frame, helps me see it as a goal with an end date. Our brains tend to work better when they have a focused time frame rather than open ended plans.
When reading in units, I like to look at a subject that interests me. Then I find a certain number of books for that unit and build a plan around those books. I have also learned that keeping the time frame shorter rather than trying to stretch it out keeps me motivated. But it depends on the topic you are interested in but it is easier going into a deep study if you know it won’t last forever and there is a defined end to the unit.
I have developed a more balanced reading life through years of trial and error and trying to force myself into seasons that I was not mentally ready for at the time. The funny thing is, whenever I quit a book that is one I have wanted to read, I typically come back to it in a new season and find that it is the perfect book for that season. You don’t have to force yourself into being a productivity robot who forces a certain book because it is next on your list. Allow yourself to read in seasons, develop reading plans that excite you but have an end date, and allow yourself to read according to the season of life you are in. This will allow you to keep your reading life fresh.
What types of reading balances or practices help keep you enjoying books?
This is a big conundrum for me; love to read but need to keep to a very active lifestyle -- walking and exercising a lot -- coupled with dedicating time to chores and errands.
I read mainly for enjoyment, which is centered around 1. sports, 2. humanities (some but less fiction here), 3. social sciences, 4. some current events and 5. upkeep in second, third and fourth languages (more fiction here). With five huge categories and so little time, sports, some humanities and social studies is what I get to the most.
I wish I could accomplish more reading.
I read to keep up in my field (history, mainly WW II) although I’m a retired professor, to learn something new (New Testament Greek at present), to explore the world (science and nature), and yes, fiction as the mood strikes. I think reading multiple books at a time for me is optimal. Reading first and foremost should be fun!!