Sometimes, the only solution for you to commit to a habit is: romanticizing it. And reading is not exception.
Hear me out! Romanticizing a practice is making it seem more attractive and interesting to you. It’s the mental connections you put in place to make you love and fancy doing the thing. Or simply, making it sweeter and more effortless.
Reason why, I thought it would be good to share with you, dear friends, the things I do to romanticize reading. How I prioritize it in my daily life, and forever feel like the ‘main character’ holding a book open.
Attention: the main rule to romanticize reading is to READ. Sounds ridiculous right? However, the whole concept of romanticizing activities may be distracting or superficial. Therefore, let’s fall in love with simple slow reading first, then take the steps to make it fancy!
1- Try reading in beautiful places
When we say ‘main character’, we think of a beautiful view and a magical movie scene. So romanticizing reading cannot happen without at least a similar moment.
A beautiful dress, a calm green park, and a happy book. They all seem to be the best circumstances to live that moment with your readings. Besides, by beautiful places, I do not mean anything luxurious. It can be a place that you simply find calming. Such as a big field with a pretty sunset, or a high window with a cute view. This will work for traveling as well!
The point. Reading will be more fun in your eyes if you mix it with YOUR beautiful places.
2- Read what makes you excited
Reading what excites you will be your essence. It will only give you power and more energy. On the other hand, reading a boring book will make you hate the whole thing so fast.
What we feel while doing something is essential in how we view it. Therefore, we should prioritize joy while reading before any other thing. Making sure the pages we read are exciting and not quite the opposite.
3- Re-read your favorites
Listen, this tip is the best one you could ever hear. Re-reading your favorites will do you a great favor. It will get you out of a reading slump if you fall into one, will make you love reading all over again, and push you to look for similar books.
What are the titles you wish you could forget to read again? Pick them, and start from there. Because even if you know the story, going over it again will remind you of the feelings you had the first time. It will bring back memories, happy ones. And you will soon remember how great it is to read!
4- Go to libraries
Do you know that libraries are the most precious places ever? Or at least from the view of a reader!
Libraries are beautiful. They’re great to get your work done and stay focused. But also, the best place to read your book! There is something about getting into a book while you’re already surrounded by many. It makes you forget real life for a while, get inside the book world, and feel as if back in your natural habitat.
In other words, to romanticize your reading you must try it in a library where everything is already romanticized!
5- Talk and write about the books you read
This can be a hidden gem. In fact, it is very special when you discuss a book instead of keeping it all to yourself. Write about it in your journal, or join a book club. Or even post about it, summarize it, give your opinion, and receive others.
If you have reader friends, you must know that book conversations are the best. Discussing the same books you read and analyzing them all will give you the main character energy you’re looking for.
Generally, if you want to make your reading time fancier, make it a part of your discussions too. It will encourage you and excite you to read more.
6- Start annotating your books
A beautiful quote that I love and admire is “Do it for the aesthetic”. It works like magic when it comes to romanticizing life too. And it goes around doing things just because they look good and satisfying.
When it comes to reading, annotating is the most aesthetic practice to implement. No one can deny how cute it looks, while it’s also serving you and helping you read better.
Annotating, for those who do not know, is when you use little stickers or sticky notes to mark the book pages.
It is pretty common to do so with emotions; like color coding the stickers and marking events according to that. It could simply be used to remind you of passages you like or good information too.
The final result? A well-organized book that you can smoothly go through and an aesthetic work of art!
Conclusion
The act of romanticizing life every now and then will add some sparkle to your life. While doing so, you leave no trace of boredom in your life and replace it with happiness and joy.
And as you learned today, it only takes 6 steps or less to romanticize reading. Either you read in pretty places, go to libraries, annotate your books, or tell every human around you about your readings. Whatever the romanticizing style you choose, your reading journey will be more sparkly…
Now, did you know that reading has many special benefits, such as imagination improvement? You may want to read more on that!
These are some really great ideas, I’m going to try them since I need to restart my reading habit again!
Yes – these ideas are so true! I had been in a reading slump for years (having kids can do that to you!) – but I joined a book club about a year ago – I love it, we’ve even re-read a few of my old favourites and I feel I’m back into reading again – just wish I could find more time! My problem is once I find a great book, I just can’t put it down!
Yees I knoow life takes us away from our comfort little activities very often. Yet, tips like these help us stay connected. I would recommend you stick to shorter books until you find the right momentum to include reading daily!
I couldn’t agree with you more! I’ve recently bought some supplies to start annotating but haven’t started yet.
Yeey happy news! Stick around and tell me how it goes. I have a post about annotating coming soon, I’m sure you’ll love it.