When do you read?

I breathe therefore I read!! There's (almost) nothing more I like than reading. I wake early then read. After I've read the daily paper I read. I read while eating lunch on days that DH is out. I read in bed at night. Between those times I also manage a few pages too. I download anything I fancy to my Kindle and follow up recommendations find in all sorts of places.

I usually have two books on the go. My book club book for daytime. Morning or afternoon.. whichever I feel like; and my kindle for when I am awake during the night.

Might I suggest starting off reading for 15 to 20 minutes?
An hour is a long time to concentrate.
I hope you get back into reading again and let us know how you are getting on. 📚

I read most evenings before going to sleep. Rarely in the day unless we are on holiday. I always have a book in the car in case I have to wait around for any reason eg. wait for someone or when in an appointment waiting room.
I have recently found I can now read when in the car when I am a passenger previously it would make me feel carsick.

Apparently someone who reads in bed is a Librocubicularist

Good grief, I never knew!

i don't sleep much at night as i have lymphedema (fluid in my legs) so i am up and down every hour to the loo, i read about 3/4 books a week in bed, i love reading and can't bear the thought of not being able to read, as my eyesight slowly got worse my son bought me a kindle, i have so many books free from amazon, so i am never short of something to read.

I read in bed for about an hour.

Apparently someone who reads in bed is a Librocubicularist. I think I learnt that on GN!

I used to read a lot more but have to admit to spending too much time scrolling these days

Charleygirl5

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.

Can you use a Kindle, Charleygirl?

You can increase the size of the font.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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 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,

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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’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!