How I Entered My Reading Era

When I was growing up, I would avoid reading at all costs. I had no idea why people would ever read when you could just watch a movie or stick reruns of Friends on the television.

However, when I turned 16, I bought an iPad with my newfound riches (from the money from my grandparents) and when I set it all up, I received an email from Apple. I had been given a voucher for iBooks and from there I decided that there was no harm in browsing the top charts.

 

 

What started me out reading.

As I mentioned above, it was my first iPad that got me reading. I downloaded my voucher onto my iPad and delved into iBooks for the very first time. The first book that I was ever recommended via iBooks was a new up and coming author called E L James and I had been selected at random to read her new novel ’50 Shades of Grey’ as part of a small sample audience to get some online reviews.

This was before the book has ever been released and there was no hype around it. Nobody at the time had even heard about it.

I read it, lost my mind for it and became one of the original fan girls. From there, things blew up for me in terms of reading. I got lost in a world of romances and there was no turning back for me!

 

What kind of books do I enjoy reading.

When I first fell in love with reading, this was one of the biggest things that I was ashamed of. I had some friends that would read cultured literature and god knows what else. However, when I tried my hand at reading those, I would be bored to tears. In the end, I realised that if I was going to spend all of this time reading, I wanted it to be something that I truly loved. Because of that, I stick to smut.

Romantic, smutty books. That is all I want.

And over the years, I have learnt that there is no shame in that. Don’t get me wrong, there are some people that think my reading efforts are poor because I’ve never read the classics and I love it when a strapping MMC comes in and sweeps a  FMC off her feet, but to be honest I just don’t really care that much.

 

The waves I’ve been through.

When I first started reading, I hammered it. And by that, I mean I spent a fortune and read books endlessly. I would stay up all night reading, turn up late for college the next day because I was too exhausted and I treated it a little like a sport. Over the years, I have certainly picked reading up in phases. I get addicted to it, can’t read enough and then I will set aside my iPad or Kindle and focus on other things.

Normally I pick it up around holidays when I am laid on a beach and I will work my way through 20 books during a fortnight. Then usually when I get home, when other priorities take back over. Reading is set aside.

However, in the turn of the New Year in 2024, I set myself a reading goal and ever since it has played a huge part of my life. I would say that for the first time over the years, it has been a constant rather than something that I pick up and set aside when other priorities come into focus.

 

More recently how reading has played in my life.

You may know that I am currently very bloody pregnant and alongside that I am trying to juggle my OCD so that I stay in a good place. However, part of dealing with my OCD tends to be having clear plans, occupying my mind and ticking things from my list. The huge benefit of reading for me has been that when I sit down with a good book that has sucked me in, nothing else matters. It doesn’t matter to me how long my list is, or how overwhelming my thoughts have been. Reading takes me away from that and calms me. That is certainly why in 2024, which has been a pretty overwhelming year, I have read more books than ever before and I smashed me reading goal before June!

 

How I think things will go.

We all know that things are going to be changing for me. With a baby that is going to be here any day now, I know that the time that I once had to sit down and zone out is going to be spent in other ways. However, I know without a doubt that reading is a hobby that I want to continue. Moreso than anything else that I have ever implemented into my life before, reading is the thing that calms me and I know that I need to continue to make it a priority in the spare time that I do have.

 

As I am sure you guys can tell from this post. I have really caught the reading bug. If anything, I need to try and remember to do other things and put the book aside every now and again. I can get so lost in a novel that I don’t move. I completely zone out until I reach the end and I can log everything on my Goodreads.

However, on the other hand, I have never had a hobby that has centred me as much or made me as calm. When I am reading, I am able to set aside all of my stressors for a while and I get lost in the words.