It's the time of year again when people start thinking about sticking to their New Year's resolutions. And more than a few people have confided in me that they really need to read more books this year. But more than a few people have also told me that they struggle to find time to read.
I was inspired to write this post after reading an article on BookRiot, How to Read More in 6 Easy Tips. If you're serious about increasing your reading volume, you should definitely take a look.
Personally, I can't do Audiobooks (my mind wanders too damn much), but I want to emphasise and elaborate on one of their tips in particular.
E-books
I know that loads of you are die-hard print book fans, but hear me out here. E-books changed my life.
When I was younger, I used to read voraciously. Every spare moment, my nose was buried in a book. As I got older, and particularly as I left school and started working, I just didn't have the time. Not only that, but I couldn't see myself as one of those people who carried books around wherever they went. No, I was far too self-conscious for that.
And then, about nine years ago now, something amazing happened: my boss at the time bought me an iPad. I'd heard about this Kindle thing before, but didn't think it was for me. Well, now I had an excuse to try. After playing around and getting comfortable with my new toy, I installed the iOS Kindle app.
I didn't think I'd buy anything, you understand. Just looking. The thing is, I didn't need to buy anything, what with the proliferation of free books at the time. It was fantastic.
Fast forward to present day, and while I'm not the fastest reader out there, and plenty of people get through plenty more books than I do in a month, I'm reading more now than I ever did before.
Now, every spare moment I get, be it waiting for things to happen, while sitting on the toilet, lying in bed, or whatever, I whip out my phone and read a couple of screens of my latest book. Then, when I have a good long stretch of time to play with, I switch to my tablet (no longer an iPad; I graduated to Android a long time ago now) and pick up where I left off.
It's incredibly liberating, and it feels... productive. Way more productive, anyway, than aimlessly surfing Facebook for those few minutes, which you might be doing now.
Amazon's not the only show in town, either. Nowadays, we have
- Amazon,
- Kobo,
- Google Play Books,
- Smashwords,
- Scribd (for unlimited reading that, unlike Kindle Unlimited, is actually available in South Africa),
- and more.
If you literally have zero budget, fear not. Libraries have moved on to e-books, too. Here's a blog post I wrote a couple months ago with a list of South African provincial and municipal libraries that allow you to borrow and read e-books, free of charge, all from the comfort of your own home!
I hope what I've said here has made some sense to you, and if you don't read nearly as much as you should, I hope it will spark the beginning of your journey. Right now, there's no reason anybody should deprive themselves of the joy of reading (yes, even if you have to read audiobooks. Just because they're not for me doesn't mean they won't be just perfect for you).
So what's holding you back from reading more this year? Feel free to hit me up in the comments, and let's start a conversation; I'd love to hear from you!
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