There are a few standard responses I get to the amount that I read in a year — are you okay, what’s wrong with you, I wish I’d never asked — but several of them boil down to the same thing:
I wish I were a reader.
Whether it’s a matter of time, or of energy, or of attention, there are plenty of people out there who feel unable to start.
My knee-jerk response to “I wish I were a reader” is “You can be,” but let me elaborate:
You can be, and you can be again, and here’s where you should start.
For best results, you should reread a childhood favorite of your own, which will imbue reading with the kind of joy and whimsy perhaps unknown in your life since your youth. But if you weren’t a bookworm as a kid, you can try your hand at some of mine:
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll: This is my favorite book of all time, so I am always looking for excuses to shill for it (and I include Through the Looking-Glass as part of the fun). This is so playful and delightful and clever. It has something for everyone.
The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart: I reread this one this month, so you can trust me — this is a riddle-filled middle grade adventure that is smart and pacy enough for adults.
Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery: I didn’t join the Anne bandwagon until adulthood, and to say I fell in love with this series would be an understatement. When I think about what might have been…
Romance is probably the genre I am the most picky within, which is why I am uniquely qualified to say that nothing cures a slump like a good love story. I chase them with a 90% failure rate so you don’t have to. Try one of these to end even the most pervasive reading-free period.
You Deserve Each Other by Sarah Hogle: The only romance I’ve ever five starred, and it doesn’t seem like anyone is coming for its crown anytime soon. This is actual enemies to lovers, none of the mealy-mouthed imitation stuff just trying to claim a popular trope, and it’s so unhinged and hilarious and too far. Inject it in my veins.
Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert: I tend to like women’s fiction over romance, because my favorite part is often the Female Love Interest’s Self Development Character Arc, but the Brown Sisters trilogy nicely strikes the balance between yearning and personal healing for me.
Before I Let Go by Kennedy Ryan: Maybe my favorite example of the aforementioned balancing act. Plus food descriptions!
I have admitted before that to me, “unputdownable” is a character-driven book or a family saga or something that can be described as no plot, just vibes. But for this special occasion, I will use the term as most people understand it. A breakneck pace and a story you can’t quit is a great way to get back into the swing of things.
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn: There’s a picture of this book next to “unputdownable” in the dictionary. Or there would be if that were a word. If you have not read this or watched the movie, go now. Enjoy it. You’re the luckiest person in the world.
Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby: If you’re looking to read more to replace time spent doomscrolling the news, this will be especially cathartic. I’ll leave it at that.
Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah: Haunting, gory, unfathomable, resonant, and somehow very real. Like all the very best dystopian.
I hold two diametrically opposed truths in my heart: that people can read whatever sounds good to them, and just about all reading is good reading; and any adult who is reading exclusively YA should try their hand at mixing their own age range in. I think they’d be pleasantly surprised, is all.
Still, young adult books are intentionally readable, so picking them up in circumstances like unending slumps is foolproof.
Emergency Contact by Mary H.K. Choi: This book! It has such a voice and an edginess to it. It’s complex and yet somehow also a sweeping romance and a coming of age story. I had never read anything like it and I still kind of haven’t.
I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson: Strong prospect of breaking you in half and putting you back together again. And maybe your newly rebuilt self will be a bookworm.
Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo: I really wanted a beautiful pastel array here. I tried to think of an equally good alternative. I googled other covers. It didn’t happen. It’s a heist book!
(Also, Emily Henry should go without saying. I’m just trying to mix it up.)
Okay. This one is kind of break-glass-in-case-of-emergency.
If you’ve tried your hand at the other tactics and they’re not working for you…one way I can always get through a book is if it’s making me so sad I have to nonstop read it until I either find a happy ending or am otherwise put out of my misery.
So I’m not strictly recommending these books, but…they’re here if you need them.
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara: Lives up to its reputation.
Betty by Tiffany McDaniel: You know how the main character in Sex and the City is NYC? The main character in this family saga is violence.
The Bee Sting by Paul Murray: Activated my fight or flight instinct to an extent that bordered on agoraphobia.
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