I have something to confess. Sometimes I hate reading. Okay, so maybe I exaggerated a little. Just a little.
Lately, I’ve been having a hard time getting in the mood to read. And since I’m a mood reader, I have to be in the mood or else I’m not going to make it past the first five pages. It’s not that I’m in a reading slump when no books seem appealing. I just don’t want to read. I don’t know what happened. But nowadays I would rather watch YouTube videos or TV or stalk people on social media than pick up a book and read. Maybe it’s the stigma bookworms get. Or maybe it’s the fact that Wattpad exists (gradual updates instead of everything at once). Or maybe it’s that I don’t have the time to read when I want to and by the time I have time, the urge has passed (why can’t this happen with food cravings?)
Whatever the reason I guess what I’m trying to say is not that I’ve started to hate reading, but that I don’t prioritize it anymore. It used to be something I had to do every single day but now I don’t bother making the time for it. Instead, I spend my extra time procrastinating or focusing on other interests like blogging. In fact, I’m pretty sure that my amount of reading has declined since starting a blog, but that might also be because I started the horrible place known as high school at the same time.
Sometimes it’s not even just the fact that I’m not in the mood or don’t have time. Sometimes it’s the way I like to read. I like to read books in one sitting. Crazy? Maybe a little, but I like the flow better than if you break it up. Sometimes I feel like once I start reading, I’m like a bike going down the hill, gaining momentum. But then I’m forced to put the book down (usually because of time and other obligations like sleeping, eating, and studying), that momentum is ruined. When I start up again, it’s like I’m trying to bike up a very steep hill.
And then there’s the fact that the act of reading can be a chore. It’s much simpler to just watch TV – it doesn’t involve as many brain cells, and thus, is easier to do. Sometimes I’m just in the mood to be lazy. When I don’t feel like using my brain beyond its core functions (you know, the ones that keep us alive) and to stare at a screen. Uh!
Do you sometimes hate reading too? Or is it just me?
If you do, why?
I definitely go through cycles where weeks can go by and I just don’t feel like reading at all. It’s happened before while I was reading really interesting books but I ended up putting them down because I got tired, not of the book, but of reading. And I too like to read books in one sitting. Actually, if a book takes me more than a week to read I count that as a book that I really didn’t enjoy much!
I pretty much stopped reading in high school! Over all, I think I read about a dozen or so books during the four year period. I actually started reading after I graduated – especially since I haven’t gone to college yet. But in the past six months, I’ve not read much at all, and didn’t even hit my 2015 book goal (which was 50 books, and I was only two off!).
It’s pretty normal to love books and love reading and not feel like it for a while, I think. Plus I’ve got an attention span issue, and with life stressing me out at every turn, I don’t want to.. associate a book with that, if you know what I mean. Life is weird! It’s best to do things you love when you feel like it! Otherwise it ends up as a chore and everything is super zzz. That’s pretty much why I stopped book blogging (If you check out DL, I don’t think we’ve made a post in 4+ months) because reviewing became a chore. I love giving my opinion about all the things, but when it becomes something I feel I /have/ to do, it’s not fun anymore!
I am feeling like that now. I’ve only read two books since Dec. 23 and I’m not very interested in books right now. Between school, yearbook advisor, keeping up the house, and being out of town every weekend with the man, I’m not real interested. There are definitely other things to occupy my time.
[…] get in the mood for it. Because of this problem, I take what I get. Last week, I mentioned how sometimes I hate reading even though it’s something I historically have taken pleasure in doing. Much of that is […]