Paper Trident/Getty Images
I have this daydream where I go to the park and read under a tree. The sun is shining. It's not too hot. The ground beneath me is comfortable. I have snacks on hand, I'm hydrated, and I am captivated by the book in front of me.
The problem is it doesn't usually pan out like this. Two minutes in, I'm sweating, my butt hurts from sitting on tree roots, I realize I forgot the snacks and I can't focus. So I close the book, go home and turn on the TV. Perhaps you've had the same experience. We think reading should feel romantic, like this landmark event in our day. "But if you wait for all those moments, you're never going to finish a book," says Kevin Nguyen. He's the author of My Documents and New Waves, and is a reading evangelist. In 2017, he wrote a popular article for GQ magazine titled "How to read a whole damn book every week."
The point here? Allow yourself to read whenever, wherever. There's a lot more you can do to start or restart a reading habit. A neuroscientist, the organizer of a children's book festival and the host of a book podcast share their best advice. Look for smaller opportunities to read throughout the day Standing on the train platform? There's a few minutes to read. In a long line for lunch? You can get a few pages in! Read when you're early to school pickup or when you're waiting for your clothes to be done at the laundromat. Don't forget your commute, Nguyen says. "You're driving to work? It's audiobook time. You get on the subway? It's time to open the book, not play videogames on your phone or listen to a podcast."
