{"id":493986,"date":"2025-10-12T16:23:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-12T16:23:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/493986\/"},"modified":"2025-10-12T16:23:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-12T16:23:10","slug":"try-these-habits-to-reinvigorate-your-reading-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/493986\/","title":{"rendered":"Try these habits to reinvigorate your reading | Books"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Emma Loffhagen\u2019s article about rekindling a love of reading echoed the development of a habit that I\u2019ve been following for some time now (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/lifeandstyle\/2025\/oct\/06\/the-one-change-that-worked-i-was-lost-in-the-infinite-scroll-until-a-small-ritual-renewed-my-love-of-reading\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The one change that worked: I was lost in the infinite scroll \u2013 until a small ritual renewed my love of reading, 6 October<\/a>). A few years ago, I found myself procrastinating a little too much each morning rather than getting on with my writing. Scrolling through social media and the news cycle was slowly eating into more of that precious time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Then I recalled an article about \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/lifeandstyle\/2014\/oct\/03\/morning-pages-change-your-life-oliver-burkeman\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">morning pages<\/a>\u201d, a daily ritual involving contemplation and free-form writing, and wondered if I could use this to develop better habits. I wrote down two questions: \u201cWhat did I read this morning?\u201d and \u201cWhat do I think about what I read this morning?\u201d Not only does this give me more purpose for my scrolling, it also serves as a warm-up before I focus on my word count for the day. Without this structure, I don\u2019t think I\u2019d be so productive.<br \/><strong>Rachel Amphlett<\/strong><br \/>Poole, Dorset<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\"> I write down and look up the meaning of unfamiliar words, which makes me tortuously slow at reading. I also like to reread certain phrases or sentences and think about them for a while. I enjoy books that are not mainstream too, although one of my favourites has been Orbital, which deservedly won the 2024 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/books\/booker-prize\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Booker prize<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">I recently joined a book club, where I suspect we will be reading one book a month \u2013 a challenging task for me as I enjoy slow reading. <br \/><strong>Pam Connor<\/strong><br \/>Belconnen, Australia<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\"> I have a similar practice to Emma Loffhagen, but rather than noting down words I don\u2019t know, I create flashcards from nonfiction. Will I ever need to know why medieval Florence banned buildings over a certain height? Probably not, but the flashcards keep small\u00a0facts\u00a0in\u00a0mind for context.<br \/><strong>James Mitchell-White<\/strong><br \/>Nottingham<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\"><strong> Have an opinion on anything you\u2019ve read in the Guardian today? Please <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/books\/2025\/oct\/12\/mailto:guardian.letters@theguardian.com?body=Please%20include%20your%20name,%20full%20postal%20address%20and%20phone%20number%20with%20your%20letter%20below.%20Letters%20are%20usually%20published%20with%20the%20author%27s%20name%20and%20city\/town\/village.%20The%20rest%20of%20the%20information%20is%20for%20verification%20only%20and%20to%20contact%20you%20where%20necessary.\" data-link-name=\"in body link \" https:=\"\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>email<\/strong><\/a><strong> us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/tone\/letters\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>letters<\/strong><\/a><strong> section.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Emma Loffhagen\u2019s article about rekindling a love of reading echoed the development of a habit that I\u2019ve been&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":493987,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3938],"tags":[3444,77,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-493986","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115362123472826034","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=493986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493986\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/493987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=493986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=493986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=493986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}