#once we got so lost heading back from rollerskating we ended up at dapuqiao and i was the only one who didn't have to transfer

[nedlittle]

hello! toomanyassassins here! i've been enjoying your monthly book overviews and it's inspiring me to try and get back into reading and to try using storygraph. do you have an tips for reading as much as you do? i struggle to even get past the first page of most books, much less focus on them long enough to finish them 😅

i'm glad someone is reading my reading wrap-ups!

to be completely transparent, the reason why i've been able to read so much is because i spent the first half of the year unemployed and passively suicidal, so i had the free time living at home to read, and i had the incentive to read because it's one of the few things that can actually distract from the fact that my brain is eating itself alive. and i read a lot now because i have a relaxed job which can have long stretches of time where i have nothing to do but sit at a desk and mop/try not to freeze to death/wonder why nobody is coming to hear my wonderful whale facts, so there's ample time for me to read on the clock, and my boss doesn't mind.

some actual advice is to carve out a dedicated time each day when you want to read. 9/10 nights i read in bed before i fall asleep, desperately trying to take in as much as i can before melatonin sends me to the shadow realm. it gets you into a routine and helps you feel cozy. i can get an hour or two in each night depending on the circumstances. and then my kindle sleeps on my pillow next to me so if the insomnia keeps me awake at 4 am i can at least pass the time.

do you have a commute? read on that! in 2020, i read moby-dick and the brothers karamazov and the worst journey in the world because i lived and worked in the suburbs of shanghai and everytime i wanted to see a friend or a museum or get basically anywhere not in my district, i had a minimum 40 minute metro ride each way. on my (mercifully shorter) commute to work, i could still get in a chapter or two! if you have to drive, try audiobooks! they aren't generally for me, but i imagine they'd be good if you're like. stuck on a highway somewhere waiting in bottlenecked traffic. regardless, i have a physical book or my kindle (or both) in my bag nearly every time i leave the house just in case i want to sit in a park for a bit or have to wait for an appointment etc.

sometimes you gotta shop around and try a few books before you're actually engaged in one. at least once a month i will think okay, i'm going to read (x) only to open it up on my kindle, read the first couple pages, and be like nah, not right now. so i open another book and sometimes that also isn't the right one, so i open another until i find something that clicks with how i'm feeling. if you're not immediately gripped by something it's totally fine to put it down for a bit or for forever!

lastly, reading shouldn't be a competition and i think goodreads and our collective obsession with categorizing, aestheticizing, and presenting very specific versions of ourselves has done detriment to the way people read because it isn't enough to read for fun you've got to be ahead of your reading challenge you've got to read (x) number of books with y-specific rep in them in order to be seen like you're Consuming The Right Media. yes, i have a reading challenge on storygraph but it's partly because i just like graphs and diagrams and have a brain made of swiss cheese. just have fun with it man! it's not a competition and it's not a game it's something that should be done for pleasure and information :)

#oppression is real and it's called living on line 9 of the shanghai metro #once we got so lost heading back from rollerskating we ended up at dapuqiao and i was the only one who didn't have to transfer #tianzifang? also off of dapuqiao #anyway this got really long so i'm sorry but i hope it's helpful!! #peachrosestudies #answered #long post