Top Ten Tuesday: Changes in My Reading Life

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and Bookish and hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl where we get a new topic for a top 10 list.

Over the years a lot has changed, especially in my reading habits. I’ve gone from not reading at all to devouring books and everything in between. A lot of circumstances can have had an impact on my reading habits, but these are the most notable changes in my habits.

1. Reading Less

Image result for i'm not reading gif

The sad reality is that, as most of you know, I’m not reading as much as I use to. A couple of years ago I would breeze through 30+ books a year. Fast forward to today and I can just about get to 10. I’ve never been a fast reader, but it’s still quite a change in my reading habit. A lot of factors contribute to this reason. Time and mood are the main contributors to this habit. Nevertheless, it is what it is, and as I will explain later on I’ve long accepted that I just can’t read as much as I use to.

2. No more dystopia

Taking a more thematic approach, I’ve noticed that over the years dystopia has fizzled out of my reading life. When I re-discovered a love for reading, I predominantly read dystopia. As time has changed, so has my interest, and while dystopia is quietly making its comeback, it’s going to take something extraordinary to get me back into reading the genre.

3. Reading What I Like

Image result for i like what i like gif

Sounds simple enough. I’ve read enough books over the years to know which qualities I like in a book, making it easy to narrow down my selection. It makes me picky, but I would rather read books I know I will enjoy over the latest trending book.

4. Stopped thinking about stats

Statistics tend to dominate our lives. From blog statistics, the number of followers you have, and the number of books you read, there is always a lingering awareness of how much you’ve done compared to other readers/bloggers. I’m just as guilty of measuring my success based on the stats, especially with regards to the blog. However, when it comes to books, I’ve all but ignored the number of books I read. To start, I’ve not set a Goodreads challenge and since I know I won’t read as much, my priority has shifted into the fun of reading. 

5. Less Pressure

Related image

The changes I’ve listed so far all contribute to this feeling. It’s so easy to agonise over the fact that I’m not reading as much, that it’s going to affect my blog stats, or I need to read the most recent books. By embracing the changes in my reading life, the pressure to stay on top of everything has drastically increased. Now, I can go at my own pace, read the books I want, and enjoy reading.

6. Changes in Interest

This largely has to do with my relationship with contemporary novels. I find that I’m reading less Young Adult contemporary because I’m searching for books that I can relate to. I will always have a soft spot for Young Adult novels, but sometimes I find that I want to read about struggling characters in their 20’s, who are trying to navigate adulthood and everything that comes with it. Sadly, there is still quite a big gap in that market so, for now, I’ll just wait and stick to my Young Adult contemporary novels.

What are the biggest changes in your reading life?

21 thoughts on “Top Ten Tuesday: Changes in My Reading Life”

  2. I’ve definitely noticed that my interests have changed a lot since I started reading more again. I’ve tried re-reading books that I remember enjoying before, but have mostly forgot a lot of the plot, only to find that it’s really no longer floating my boat 😂 And a big yes to reading what you like! Great list 🙂

    My TTT post

    Liked by 1 person

  3. Great list! Yes, I’d love to see more books about characters in their 20s who are struggling, too. As someone currently in their 20s I do enjoy reading YA, but I can’t deny I feel a bit like hyperventilating when these characters have their entire lives sorted out at 17…

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I think it’s why my reading has taken such a hit and even when I find books with characters in their 20’s they’re usually romances, which I adore with all my heart, but I want more than just a romance to define books with characters in their 20’s.

      Like

  6. The biggest change in my reading life is that I’ve decided to divide my TBR list in two separate categories; night-table-reading and serious reading. The serious reading includes all the non-fiction and the fiction of writers of whom I’m hoping to learn something. Of these books I’m getting a hard copy and a kindle copy (to read while traveling), I take notes and think about them.The night-table-stash is just there to entertain me and I’ll rarely come back to it; they’re exclusively on my kindle. I’m purging them every now and then from my kindle and send them back into the amazon-cloud, where they remain available for me in case I should have a change of heart. Sometimes one of them gets an upgrade to the other stash.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. That is such a good philosophy to have, and I’ve cut down on my spending with of physical copies and use my kindle for those one-off reads as well. It saves so much shelf space. Plus, you always need an entertaining read to ease the mind after reading those serious books.

      Liked by 1 person

  11. I definitely get what you mean about reading less YA, as I don’t relate to it as much. And I also don’t read much dystopia anymore. It’s really interesting to see how your interests have changed and good that you’re not focusing on stats! I always think that’s a really positive outlook 🙂

    Like

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s