Making Time to Read

Many people say they want to read but just don't have time. This blog post wants to give you a few ideas on squeezing reading into your life.

Truthfully, we don't buy that time argument.  If you don't think that you have the time, download an app on your phone that will tell you how much time you spend on social media every day. Start spending some of that time on reading.

In fact, download a book onto your phone and read it there. Did you know you could do that? Books and magazines (and music) can all be downloaded free from your library. Use the Libby app to organize all the downloads from various sources.

And if you say you still really don't have time to stare at a screen...and maybe because you spend your day staring at a screen, we still have a solution. Listen to your book. Download an audiobook and let someone read to you. (It's not that much different than listening to a podcast or radio show.) Being read to is a fond memory from childhood for many of us. In addition to the library, LibriVox is a site claiming the acoustical liberation of books in the public domain; find mostly classics there.

You can also get short bits of literature sent right to your 'inbox.'  Take a look at Serial Box,
WattPad, or Radish. Fond of comics? Try Tapas. And if you are a text junkie, try the mobile app Hooked; marketed to teens and young adults, you can read thrillers in text sized bites.

Readers know that you make time to read. Compulsive readers can't make it through a day without reading; they'll read the cereal box ingredients if nothing else is available.

If reading isn't a compulsion for you, give one of these options a try. Hint: don't start with something you've always meant to read, War & Peace or The Fountainhead. Start with something fun and interesting. Keep it up for just two weeks and you have a new, good habit to begin the new year.

Contributed by Kelly McBride Delph