How to get back into reading. I never thought I'd see the day where I'd have to get myself back into books. A self-confessed bookworm, I didn't read properly for a good 14 months while real life took hold and I pushed responsibility aside in favour of reading blogs, reading magazines (remember those?) and simply not picking up new tomes to add to my shelf.
A Routine
The one thing that helped me pull my head out of so many blogs and back into books was to establish some sort of routine. Like Bee suggests, making time to read is key: perhaps there's a spare half hour after work where you usually scroll through Twitter or you could simply not channel hop between two favorite TV programmes. I personally found 20 minutes in the morning before work as well as an hour or so before bed really helped me to unwind and bash through novels.
Making Goals
It's surprisingly hard to wean yourself off digital and back to paper, but I personally found that signing up to Goodreads and being able to log all my reads and book progress helped to get me into a routine. Essentially I'd be juggling multiple books - such is life - but seeing them relayed to me in percentages and page progress helped me to rotate around books. This way I could set myself mini goals and challenge myself to read X number of months in X amount of time.
Enjoying It
Don't read something just because everyone else is. (Although I'm terrible with this and have to see a title through to the end.) If you're not enjoying a book, it'll only slow you down or make you stop reading altogether again. Give that awful book to a friend and pick up an old favorite. I actually love rereading books to spark that original feelgood thing and get me back into wanting to read more.
Get Reviewing
So the chances are if you're reading this, you're also a blogger. And by the nature of our trade, writing after doing anything is a given. So pen a review about that book you just finished. Publish it on your blog, post it on Goodreads, send a Tweet. I like seeing something come out of what I've done, so I often post book reviews just to spruce up the mixture of content on ye olde Daisyb.
