When do you read?

A lot in bed, especially since I don’t sleep well so will often be reading my Kindle for half an hour at lest twice during the night. During the day, if I put my feet up on the sofa with a book/Kindle, it’ll usually be for 20 minutes or so before I nod off.
I get through a lot of Amazon’s 99p offerings, and some from the library/charity shops. I must always have something to read or I’ll go mad.

Thanks for replying. I’ve just treated myself to a new Kindle in the hope that it will help if I keep it in my bag so I can read it wherever I am. I also wake in the night, so will try to pick it up instead of my phone. There are so many books on there that I’ve bought but not read (usually the 99p ones) that it should keep me going for years!

I used to read for ages before sleeping, but DH would nudge me to turn out the lights, so I read for a shorter time.

I also love to lounge in the tub with a book on a cold evening, adding a bit more hot water as it cools.

Book or magazine at breakfast and lunch, and out in the sunshine on a warm evening.

I only seem to have time to read books on fly and flop holidays, when I can get through one a day. (Just light who-done-it’s, nothing taxing!).

I’ve always read anything all the time including the cereal packet at breakfast. Now I read a book on kindle or actual book going to the loo, in the bath and before going to sleep.

I read in bed especially in Winter. I have a hot water bottle, lots of pillows and make sure I'm warm enough. However, a book that pulls me into the story is essential these days otherwise I just ditch it. I also like books with fairly short chapters. I've always got a book by the bedside and generally read for half an hour before settling down for the night.

I struggle to read nowadays, too, Doodledog. My concentration seems to have gone awol. I keep buying books that I can't seem to get into and end up donating them to the village library.

I’m exactly like you Doodledog. As a teenager I used to take 5 books out a week from the library and read them all. Later I used to always have one or two books on the go.

As a pensioner in my 70s I can’t settle to reading, even though I have a progressive lung disorder and am on supplemental oxygen and mainly chair bound.

I too get distracted with podcasts and audiobooks. I can no longer settle down for a good drama on TV. Really annoys me as I’ve now got a backlog of books I liked the look of hoping to tempt me into reading!

We have a routine ‘down time’ after lunch, at least half an hour for a cup of coffee and a book. It started when children were small and had afternoon naps and we have just carried on.

Anyone in the house is free to join in or not as they like, but it is our quiet time. Usually gc’s have their own books to read too.

Then half an hour in bed before switching off the light.

In recent years I have been travelling a lot by train and have got through many kindle books (and quite a bit of knitting) going up and down the tracks.

I listen to audio books while doing lengthy kitchen tasks, such as preparing fruit and veg for a chutney.

Hope you get your reading mojo back soon.

I wonder if I got addicted to scrolling in lockdown? I think I need to ration screen time- l like the interaction of it too much.

I read in the afternoon before I start on the evening meal. I read in bed too before going to sleep, but depending on how tired I am, that can be anything between 50 pages or a paragrah. Sometimes if Netflix, Prime, IPlayer fail to produce anything worthwhile I'll read in the evening.

I think I've pretty much always read since I could read. I certainly remember humping books around with me on my commute to work, Lord of the Rings went up to London with me for a while, I can't imagine ever wanting to revisit that book again, but it fired up my imagination late teens.

I don't think I read quite as much during the days of having very young children, probably too tired.

I love reading outside in the summer and on holiday.

I also listen to Audible usually when I'm faffing around in the kitchen or doing the ironing. Sometimes with ear buds in the middle of the night when I wake up and can't get back to sleep, often I have no idea what I've been listening to though.

Up to about 8 years ago, in bed. To fall asleep.

Then a got a new mattress.
Didnt need the reading.

Hardly finished a book since.

Kindle will shift between Audible and reading mode, which might help until I get back to normal. I could listen whilst cooking then go back to reading.

Thanks for the replies. I think I will try forcing it at first - an hour in the morning or something, until it gets more natural. I would never have believed this would happen to me- I’ve read voraciously since I was a little girl.

I only seem to have time to read books on fly and flop holidays, when I can get through one a day.

We did a Transatlantic sea crossing, for eight days, last November.
I'd been watching a television series "Home Fires" before we went, which ended on a real cliff hanger.
I found out that the series had been cancelled but there were three books which carried the story on, so I bought them and took them with me.

I woke quite early (helped by having to put the clocks back an hour on five nights of the crossing) so would sit on our balcony with a cup of tea and read for an hour and a half every morning.
Bliss. Something I'd never do at home.

I think modern life requires us to do a lot of reading, especially online, so to actually read a book can sometimes seem like a step too far maybe?
I currently have a book of short stories on the go, that's something I can dip in and out of at bedtime!

I don't sleep well either so read in bed a lot. Also read whenever I have a spare half hour during the day. I have to rest more often now so use that opportunity for a couple of chapters. Couldn't live without a book to read,

Short stories are a good idea too. I bought a couple of books of them at a book sale last week. I might put one in the bathroom and read in the bath.

I used to read a lot but since marriage and children, l just didn’t have the time.
Now, my preference is Biographies or Autobiographies.
Not much time for those either. With Netflix and YouTube, who needs books? I watch documentaries on Netflix and if I want a laugh, it’s YouTube.

V3ra I'd been watching a television series "Home Fires" before we went, which ended on a real cliff hanger.
I found out that the series had been cancelled but there were three books which carried the story on, so I bought them and took them with me.

I loved that series, I was so annoyed it was cancelled after leaving us on a cliffhanger. I had no idea there were books that finished the story, so thank you I shall investigate!

Doodledog I love audio books so easy to listen while you knit, or sew or even do the boring ironing. Sometimes when I've had to concentrate on a tricky bit of knitting I either pause or rewind a bit when I realise I'm not following it properly, but on the whole I love being able to do two things at once.

That’s another good point, thanks. I do like to do two things at once, so maybe listening when knitting (or even reading if the knitting is simple) would get me going.

Both of us at bedtime, actual books, not devices, we both have similar taste in subjects, crime of some sort, except my occasional chick lit.
When we used to holiday abroad and lived there, we read in the sun, out of the habit now.

I am a voracious reader and listener of audio books but I do lose my mojo every now and again, perhaps my body telling me I need a break.

I read and listen to both fiction (including plays) and non fiction. I will read at any time of day, in bed in the morning or before I go to sleep, if I wake 3:00am with insomnia, in the evenings rather than watch TV and any time I have to wait or travel.

It helps for me to have a theme and I make use of online resources to help me in that.

For example, I always read the major fiction prize-winners, and the shortlisted novels for those prizes, Booker, Pulitzer etc. I have been doing that for many years, since the mid 1980s, to while away the hours of commuting. A few years ago, I determined to go back to when those prizes began and read all the winners and nominees. It helps to have a very good county library service, part of the The Libraries Consortium, which can get hold of most books for me. It’s become a bit of standing joke with staff that I borrow books that haven’t been out of the stacks in years.

One year, I decided to use the online BBC Genome project (all the back copies of the Radio Times) to read the Book at Bedtime stories from the 1940s onwards. There were a lot of adventure stories, John Buchan and so on, not a genre I would ordinarily chose but it got me out of my comfort zone.

This year, I am using the Book Series in Order website to focus on particular writers to read everything they have published in order. I don’t read one writer non-stop but mix them up.

I take part in regular library challenges. These can also make me read outside of my comfort zone, to read books I would not otherwise chose to read. This winter there were 16 challenges including:

1. Read a book that was adapted into a TV show/film.

2. Read a book published in the year you were born.

3. Read a classic children’s book.

4. Read a book with a winter theme.

5. Read a book by an author who shares your initials.

My non-fiction choices tend to be more varied, whatever happens to interest me at the moment, but do include a lot of books on politics, geo-politics and political biographies.

I also enjoy poetry and was inspired by Frank Skinner’s Poetry Podcasts. He’s no longer doing them but the archive is still there.

castbox.fm/channel/Frank-Skinner's-Poetry-Podcast-id6310029?country=gb

Sourcing some of the collections was a challenge but even a hour spent browsing on Abe and a couple of random purchases can inspire me.

A good source of contemporary novel recommendations is Simon Savidge and his You Tube channel SavidgeReads.

If I have really lost my mojo, I will pick up an old favourite and read or listen to it again. I know the stories back to front so it’s just for the enjoyment of the words and the quality of the writing. I’ve lost count of how many time I have read or listened to Middlemarch and Great Expectations. Anything from Margaret Atwood will usually get me back into the swing. It need only be one of her poems or a short essay. I have everything she had every published on my shelves. Or a back episode of BBC’s A Good Read may prompt me to pick up one of the books they have discussed.

I do wonder if part of the lost mojo is feeling overwhelmed by choice and whether we need to narrow it down hence my need to read to a theme. I wonder too how much time we take to really think about what we are reading or whether it’s a case of Next! That’s when a short essay, a short poem or short story might help with focus and to think, which might then lead us out of the fog.

When I go to bed, which means I don't read as much now as used to.

Often I'll nod off after about half an hour but last night I read until the early hours, then couldn't sleep well.

When in bed, now on my own, I have a choice between TV and a book so frequently i alternate. I am now partially sighted and holding a magnifier can be a pain. I don't like audible books so I am my own worst enemy.