A great article titled Lost For Words in The Guardian’s G2 about Briton’s declining reading habit. One quarter of Britons say they have not read a book in the past year. We also tend to buy “challenging literature” that we don’t read, like Tolstoy’s War and Peace and Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment. In my case, Heloise and Abelard and Simone de Beauvoir sit on my bookshelf collecting dust, staring down at me mocking my reading aspirations.
Stretches of time have also gone by without me picking up a book. To kickstart a reading habit in trouble, I know now to always give Martin Amis a wide berth, and there is nothing like a spot of chick lit. Fashion Babylon most recently came to my rescue.
National Literacy Trust director Jonathan Douglas shares with The Guardian tips to overcome reader’s block:
1. Be in charge To read for pleasure you have got to be in charge of your reading and that means knowing that it’s OK to stop reading if it gets boring. Lots of books drop off halfway through. For me, that includes Brideshead Revisited and Wuthering Heights.
2. Get recommendations Talk about books and ask friends for recommendations but avoid getting trapped in a tyrannical reading group for literary point-scorers. Life is too short to read books you do not like.
3. Have a varied reading diet After a satisfying course of Philip Pullman, cleanse your palate with a sorbet of Heat or Grazia.
4. Make sure that the book you have got fits the time you have got to read If your life is a frantic race and you only get to read on five-minute tube journeys or among the suds in the bath, do not start War and Peace. Grab one of the fantastic Quick Reads series that celebrity authors are now penning, or try a poetry anthology.
5. Read aloud Importantly, 76% of mothers and 42% of fathers read bedtime stories to their children, but sharing a book is a wonderful way for anyone to spend time.
6. Go for alternative ways of reading Try listening to a good book on tape or eavesdrop on Book at Bedtime on Radio 4.
