Each year I add a reading challenge to Goodreads. Each year I fail. Once upon a time, I would get through three or four books from the library in a week or so. What happened?
For one thing I don’t have as much free time as I used to have. Certainly as a kid and even as a young teen, I had plenty of free evenings in which to indulge.
As the years went by, I discovered outside activities; youth clubs and then night clubs! Full-time work got in the way too.
Over the years though, the amount I read has slowly increased again, so what gives with not meeting that challenge? It’s a low amount, usually twenty books a year. I used to read almost that many in a month all those years ago.
Simply, I don’t read as many books as I used to. I don’t really use my local library very much, which is sad to say. I do buy physical books from time to time, and I also have a Kindle membership and an Audible one too. They count towards my reading challenge though.
Thing is, much of my reading these days is online. Not so much social media; much of that is like reading a trashy tabloid. I read various blogs that attract my interest and I’m a great fan of Medium, where I have a membership.
I also subscribe to several magazines and newspapers.
The Telegraph, The Guardian, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Spectator, The Economist, The New Statesman, The Best of British, The Oldie, Chap, and Idler.
By the time I’ve read these, I simply don’t have much time for books! Also, by and large, I’m a non-fiction reader, so when I do read a book it tends to be historical, biographical or some kind of reference manual.
All in all though, I think I probably read now as much as did back when I was a kid, if not more.
I also don’t have time. I “read” audiobooks and don’t have a lot of time for that either but I listen while driving and when I get the chance. I have trouble concentrating on text and that is my main reason.
I can somewhat tend to be the opposite. I can more easily concentrate on text, whereas I can wander off mentally sometimes with an audiobook. My biggest downer with audiobooks is when I listen in bed. With a regular book I can easily find where I got to, but with an audiobook I can often have trouble trying to find the place that I actually remember last hearing before I nodded off!