Are you reading right?

You’re reading wrong. You’re not doing it right.

That’s the message I get often on social media. Especially Bookstagram. I have such a hate/love relationship with Bookstagram. I can feast my eyes for way too long on these gorgeous pictures of new hardcovers set next to luxurious steaming cups of coffee, shelves full of expensive editions and books with colored edges, and a fluffy chair just waiting for a lucky reader to spend hours in a fantastical world. Oh, and there are usually super cute girls with big swords and perfect manicures.

Of course, it’s not just social media that makes me feel like my reading is inferior. I just finished attending Nebula Con a few weeks ago. And it was a fantastic experience. I came away with so much knowledge and writing inspiration. I also came away feeling like a dipshit who eats crayons regarding my reading choices. It seems like everyone else is reading large, important, influential works while I’m over here reading young adult fiction most of the time. And I can’t even do that right. I never seem to like the popular thing. I’ve never read a single Sarah J. Mass book, for instance. And as a child, I hated A Wrinkle in Time.

I still don’t like it.

All of this is to say that I have been feeling down on myself for the books I read. And really, the way I consume stories in general. Because frankly, I watch a lot of TV and movies. I listen to a lot of podcast fiction. I even, gasp, read comic books. The amount of time I spend sitting down and reading is small compared to the time I spend doing almost anything else.

I am not the only one who gets down on myself for this, I’m sure. So, I’m here to ask all of us a simple question today.

What in the hell are we doing to ourselves?

I didn’t start to love reading as a child because I loved bookshelves and proving I was smarter than everyone else because I finished a long and difficult book. I wasn’t the little asshole reading Anna Karenina during recess. I was reading Goosebumps, Bunnicula, Babysitter’s Club, Laura Ingles, and Sweet Valley High (my mom had them and I was bored one summer). I read Calvin and Hobbs, Far Side, Harry Potter, every Roald Dahl book, and Power Rangers. Lest you think it was all fluff, I also read Tuck Everlasting, Bridge to Terabithia and Where The Red Fern Grows, Chronicles of Narnia and Dragon Riders of Pern. I didn’t read these books to impress anyone. I read them because they were fun to read. And reading for fun shaped a lot of who I am as an adult.

I don’t want to lose that love of reading for fun. And I don’t want you to either. So today I want to answer four questions you might be asking yourself about your reading habits. Starting with the biggest one.

Am I reading enough?

I get it. I like numbers that go up too. I like feeling challenged, and I sure do the Goodreads goal every single year. But I do that mostly so I feel like I’m accomplishing something when I’m reading, otherwise I find it hard to relax and actually allow myself to read.

Otherwise, I feel like I’m just slacking if I’m not reading something educational or reviewing it. And this, I think, is the true curse of adulthood. We feel like we must be productive in all things.

But we don’t. And we certainly don’t have to speed read through 100 books in a year to prove that we are well-read. First off, when would you find the time? We all have work or school. We’re all trying to survive in this late-stage capitalist hellscape. Most of us are taking care of other people as well as ourselves. And it would be nice if we saw the sun sometimes.

If your goal is quantity, not quality, you’re going to have a shitty reading experience. You’re going to shy away from longer books because they’ll take too much time. You’ll be skimming, not consuming the stories. And that’s just not fun.

I want to read The Stand and enjoy the gory, dark tale without worrying if I can still finish five books this month. I want to dive into a book and experience it, even if that means I don’t get through more than a chapter a day. And I want to continue to eat food, so I do have to do actual work sometimes.

So if a reading goal helps you give yourself space to read, that’s fantastic. But don’t let it consume your reading joy. Don’t let it make reading just another burden.

Am I reading the right books?

Let me tell you a tale of two books. One is This is How You Lose The Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. The other is Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki. Both won Nebula awards. Both came highly recommended by other SFWA writers. Both were getting a ton of love online.

I read Time War in a day. Granted, it was a novella, but still. It was fantastic. I’ve never read anything like it.

I didn’t finish Light from Uncommon Stars. It seems like a good book, but the story wasn’t grabbing me. I found myself making excuses not to read, which is always a kiss of death.

I think my dislike of the book stemmed from the romantic plot. While I like a little romance, it bores me quickly if there isn’t something else to catch my attention. And for me, there was too much romance and not enough sci-fi in this sci-fi story.

I think a lot of us feel like we aren’t reading the right books. We don’t know the classics. We aren’t reading the right authors. We aren’t reading things that are challenging enough, impressive enough, or thought-provoking enough.

My problem with this is that nothing is going to be thought-provoking if you’re not provoked to read the damn thing.

Yes, we should read out of our comfort zone. We should read indie books, books that we’ve never heard of before. Books that everyone’s talking about and books from authors no one recognizes. We should certainly read books by people who don’t look like us. We should read old books and new books. We should read banned books. We should read books we might not even agree with.

But just because you try a book doesn’t mean you have to finish it.

Stephen King gives an example in Hearts in Atlantis. Reading a book is like priming a water pump. You have to give it some work before it kicks in, but you wouldn’t keep pumping if nothing is coming out. He suggests getting ten percent of the way through a book. At that point, you can give it up if you don’t like it. My latest book is 250 pages. If I don’t have your attention by page 25, then the story isn’t for you. And that’s fine!

We all have different tastes. We should absolutely try new things and expand our pallets. But just because you try something doesn’t mean you have to finish it.

Am I consuming stories the right way?

This is the one that upsets me the most if I’m being honest. I cannot stand it when people put down movies and TV shows. Granted, some are hot garbage. But so are some novels. I don’t think someone who reads Twilight is intellectually superior to someone who watches Dr. Who, for instance.

Stories are stories, no matter how we tell them. TV and movies are just another medium. The same goes for comic books. I started this year reading Bone, and it was a good time.

The worst thing I’ve seen, though, is people who put down audiobooks as being somehow inferior. First off, that’s a privileged argument. Not everyone can read a physical book for many reasons. Vision issues, certain neurodivergent problems and physical health can all be boundaries to people reading. But it could also be a lack of time. I can listen to a book while I’m cleaning, cooking, or walking Oliver. All of these are things I have to do, so I can consume a story while I do it. I am not choosing to listen to an audiobook over reading, I am doing what I have space for in my life.

(And yes, before anyone points this out, I know that my books aren’t yet available as audiobooks. It’s expensive and time-consuming and I am working on it. As much as I want to provide my stories to people who can’t read a physical book, I also need to make sure that I’m creating a quality product that I’m proud of, paying people for their time and talent, and not overworking myself in the process. There’s a reason most indie books don’t come in audiobook form.)

This post has already gone on long enough, so let me finally answer the question we came in on. Are you reading right? Well, if you’re enjoying the story then the answer is, and will always be, yes. Don’t let anyone tell you any different. Not even yourself.

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