Books editor Claire Mabey on tips for getting back into reading for pleasure.
It’s December and you’re fritzed. Your concentration is at an all-time low and you’re dredging every particle of energy from your very bone marrow to get to the end of the working year, when you can put your out-of-office on and finally go and watch Twisters and ruthlessly compare it to the tornado film that stole your heart back in the 90s, Twister, starring Helen Hunt, Bill Paxton and Philip Seymour-Hoffman (you’d forgotten he was in it, hadn’t you!).
And you should. You should watch Twisters and then watch Twister. They’re practically Christmas movies (the gizmos that light up inside the twisters are reminiscent of the Christmas tree) and we all need to embrace joy. You’ve earned it after the cluster that was 2024. You’ve earned all the Netflix and the chance to take the kids to Wicked so you can zone out for two hours and 41 minutes with a family size bag of m&ms.
Except, after the Twister-rama, and the Wicked, I’m going to gently suggest that we all turn off the internet, close down the screens, stop all the clocks and pick up a book from our dusty to-be-read piles. It will be hard at first. You’ll be twitching to check something. I can barely write this without scanning multiple social media platforms for a hit of dopamine, such is the state of my fractured mind and my discipline at this point. But it will be worth it, if you persevere.
Summer reading is all about taking advantage of work-free, slow news (ideally) weeks – or if you work in retail, days – in order to reinstate the habit of reading for pleasure. You’ll feel the benefits of that activity from your brain down to your sandy toes. There’s loads of research to back up the claims that reading is good for us, but many of us already know it, it’s just increasingly hard to prioritise books when the ease of streamers, and scrolling, is only a device away.
Luckily, this is the time of year where every newspaper and magazine starts to toss Summer Reading lists and Best Books of the Year articles before your screen-stretched eyes. (The Spinoff’s are coming, just you wait.) They are accompanied by aspirational pictures of red-and-white striped umbrellas shading pinkening bodies holding books open against the sun. Not a smartphone or laptop in sight.
That could be you. Here’s how.
1. Re-enchant yourself. If you’re in an epic dry spell with reading then go back to the time when you were your best reading self. For many people this was between the ages of 8 and 12 when the world valued your time to read and wanted to build up your creative capacities (aside: for a great argument on the value of reading for adults, here’s an article on The Spinoff).
There is zero shame in returning to the books of your childhood. They are the catalyst for enchantment: remember the feeling of being totally immersed in another world, other lives, taken on a wild adventure? You need to feel like a kid again (all that wonder, all that hope, all that energy) and children’s novels will do that for you. Plus they’re pacy and will keep you focussed on the page. Reading children’s books will lift you right out of your digital malaise and shift your brain chemistry in the way only reading can do. You’ll come out the other end refreshed, de-stressed, and ready for more. You’ll remember why you loved reading in the first place and vow not to let so much time go by between books in 2025.
2. Keep reading children’s books. Once you’ve broken the seal with the books you loved as a child, and re-enchanted yourself, you might want to continue along that path and get up to date with the latest children’s fiction. We have a ton of brilliant writers in Aotearoa weaving magic for all ages: like Stacy Gregg (Nine Girls won the Margaret Mahy Book of the Year Award this year), Rachael King (The Grimmelings is described as “horsey girl folk horror” – irresistible), Jane Arthur (Brown Bird is a stunning novel about a quiet, sensitive child – it packs a punch), Lauren Keenan (her time travel series is brilliant and shoehorns Aotearoa history into adventure books). I can go on. You can see this article on The Spinoff, and the Storylines list of notable book awards for 2024 for more.
3. Reach for the beach read. This is an easy one and will be preaching to the choir, but it’s worth remembering that a major reason for reading is for pleasure. Reading for pleasure stats have plummeted worldwide, including in Aotearoa, which is a worry. It means we’re not modelling reading to our children, and our children are increasingly as fixated on their phones as we are. Research shows how reading increases chances of academic success, leads to better sleep, develops empathy, and increases levels of enjoyment in daily life. There is nothing more relaxing than reading Lee Child from the comforts of your beach towel / hammock / couch, so do your bit to boost the stats and read for pure, Reacher-fueled pleasure.
4. Investigate and nurture your interests. There is nothing that a book can’t cover. All subjects, from writers all over the world. It’s a universe of reading out there and you can hone in and dig right into your interests, no matter how bold or how niche. In a bid to read more non-fiction this year and learn more about evolutionary biology I read Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million years of Evolution by Cat Bohanon. It’s one of the best books I’ve read in years. It surprised me and made me realise just how much the humble book can continue to expand our worldviews, our understanding of our very blood and bones.
5. Investigate and nurture your gaps. One type of pleasure is the joy of being surprised and expanded by new information, or a challenge. It might be there’s a corner of history you’ve avoided, or a literary form you didn’t know would set your mind alight. Go on a reading adventure and journey to places hitherto unexplored. Find your final frontiers.
6. But don’t be afraid to not finish a book. Life is too short to struggle on when there are so many books in the world that might be a better fit for you. Move on.
7. Consult the best of lists and recommendations. The truth is they are compiled by avid readers with good taste and they will contain at least a knee-high stack of bloody good books if you need curation in your life.
8. Audiobooks count as reading. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. However, it is good training to cocoon with a hard copy. This is all about reminding your neurological faculties how good it feels to immerse in ink on paper.
9. Explore and cherish bookish places like they’re your local GP. Bookshops, libraries, secondhand bookshops are all friends to readers, especially lapsed or struggling ones, and the people who work there are excellent to talk to about all of the above. Booksellers and librarians are the frontline workers of this ailing reading-for-pleasure world and can prescribe all manner of material. Talking with booksellers is like therapy, basically. You’ll feel all connected with your fellow human and come out armed with reading material to extend and develop that communion.
10. Read aloud with your family. Even if your kids are well past the age of being read to, summer is the time to get primal with stories. Get an outdoor fire going, a bouncy pile of marshmallows, and find a story to enchant the whole damn lot of you. Take turns reading aloud to each other. Do the voices. Have a wholesome, healing time.