Advice for re-kindling your love of reading after college

1. Take a break from it.

Counter-intuitive, yes, but the problem for me was that I had done so many reading assignments by the end of my college career that reading anything felt like an assignment, even if it was something I really wanted to read. Reading had become something where I read as little of the material as possible to glean as much information as possible, forcing myself to focus on the words, and then moving on to the next item on a seemingly endless list of resources so that I could crank out three 10-page essays by the end of the week. For me, taking a break from reading gave my mind the rest that it needed in order to break away from that mental space and start the work of getting back into it. There is no set amount of time for this step; it just takes as long as it takes. Taking this step doesn't mean that you no longer get to call yourself a reader or bibliophile, and you don't have to force yourself to read when you don't want to. Remember, the whole point of this journey is to re-claim your love of reading. In order to do this, however, we have our work cut out for us, as we will have to break old habits as well as form new ones.

2. Take it slow.

When I first began trying to reclaim this part of myself, I started by trying to re-read The Lord of the Rings trilogy. It took an embarrasingly long time to get to chapter three of the first book before I finally gave up. The thing about setting goals for yourself is that when you set the bar too high you are setting yourself up for failure and dissapointment. I found myself frustrated, becuase I love the whole Tolkien universe. When I was in high school, I could read a whole novel in less than a week. Now, I have to force myself not to skim, which makes me a very slow reader by comparison. Just like getting back into working out, you will be tempted to compare yourself to what you used to be able to do, just as I have done. I may have been able to force myself to finish it, but just finishing a book is not the point; the point is to enjoy reading again.

3.Change it up.

One of the most helpful things that I have done while on this journey is to "read" in different ways. I started listening to them on audiobooks or podcasts, and watching miniseries based on novels (my personal favorite is Alias Grace on Netflix). Listening to books, instead of visually reading them, forced me to absorb every word instead of skimming, as my brain was wont to do. I then began reading with genres that I either had not read before or did not read in college; this excluded Classic Literature, History, Fantasy, SciFi, and even magazine articles to name a few. The genres that I explored included Memoirs, True Crime, Mystery, and collections of Poetry. By branching out to new genres, I discovered some great works (i.e. The Broken Circle by Enjeela Ahmadi - Miller) that I otherwise might not have even considered.

This process will most likely not be linear. You may have to take a few breaks instead of just one. You may find that you have an easier time visually reading with things you are familiar with rather than new things. You may find succes by forcing yourself to read.The most important thing to remember is that this process will take lots of trial - and - error, as well as patience for yourself. Listen to your body and mind, and eventually you can re-claim this part of yourself.