2024 Reading Reflection

[forestofglory]

2024 was a mixed reading year for me. I read some books that I loved, some books that were fine. You can see all my 2024 books at Goodreads. I also spent a lot of time wanting to read new to me novels and not having the focus.

The best thing for my reading that happened in 2024 was I got a new bigger ereader. The primary goal was to reduce page turns and button presses for hand pain reasons, but having a bigger screen made it way easier to read PDFs and I read a lot of papers! I love the note taking features of the new ereader too!

A major focus of my reading in 2024 was research for projects I was working on. I learned more about Tang dynasty China for Harmonious Kinship and lot about doasist history for Wei Furen

My reading goal for 2025 is simple: Read joyfully! I’m sure what that means in practice but that’s the point.

Before the pandemic started I easily and happily read well over 100 books in a year. I read 170 books in 2019. Since the pandemic started, the most books I’ve read in a year is 73, and I’ve gone through months and months of not reading any fiction but fic. I miss being a person who reads that much. Reading has been a key part of my identity since I learned how to read. But I don’t think my reading brain is coming back, so I want to learn how to read joyful with the brain I have now.

And while I miss being that person who reads all the time, I think it's helpful and important to recognize that I do like being a person who reads academic papers, studies classical chinese and watches silly chinese reality shows. Those other things take time. I don’t think that’s the only reason I’ve been reading less, I really do think I’m less able to engage with new stories, but its good to keep in mind that other things have changed too.

I am going to be experimenting with reading differently. Maybe I’ll try reading in different times and places, maybe I’ll try reading less. I am not going to push myself to read things that I'm not feeling. And I’m going to acknowledge that change happens and that’s ok.

Comments

[kilerkki]

I really struggled with reading books in the early years of the pandemic. New books were just way too stressful to contemplate. I found my way back in by rereading old favorites, sometimes twice in a year: somehow the comfort of a story I already knew helped me cross that anxiety hurdle. Reading new books by favorite authors or in predictable, comfort genres helped too (Westerns or midcentury British middlebrow women’s fiction are those comfort genres for me). I don’t read new SFF with the same rapidity that I used to, bc I still find it really stressful, but I’m reading much, much more now than a few years ago.

(Almost no fic at all, though. I’m not sure if that was a necessary part of the exchange, but I’ve found that my reading joy is found mostly in solitude now, not in fandom.)

[asakiyume]

I hear you on this crucial part of yourself, and on how that's shifted and on finding comfort with it. I feel this way with writing *and* reading, and yes: I feel like part of it is embracing your movement: "I think it's helpful and important to recognize that I do like being a person who reads academic papers, studies classical chinese and watches silly chinese reality shows. These other things take time." --Yes, exactly.

We live in a world that's always changing; we're always changing. It's a kaleidoscope and we're part of the design. So yeah, how we be and do the things we love changes, too.

[shipperslist]

My reading goal for 2025 is simple: Read joyfully!
That's a good goal!

I used to be a voracious reader earlier on but that very much stopped for me after the kid was born and only got back to reading a lot of books last year. I've read a massive amount of fic in the past decade but books have been on the back burner. Last year showed me that yep, I still have it but perhaps making the point was enough and now I don't have to read quite SO obsessively. But because I'm me, my this year's goal is to finally tackle some of the books I've been marinating on my Kindle for years and years. 😁

[ambyr]

An excellent goal!

[doseybat]

Adding you on Goodreads

[hamsterwoman]

and I’ve gone through months and months of not reading any fiction but fic. I miss being a person who reads that much. Reading has been a key part of my identity since I learned how to read. But I don’t think my reading brain is coming back, so I want to learn how to read joyful with the brain I have now.

My reading numbers were never as high as yours, but I've seen the same thing qualitatively, my reading (which has always been overwhelmingly fiction) cut in half or more in the post-pandemic years. And similar feelings about it -- missing being a person who reads a lot and is always reading, but also sort of accepting that a shift has happened and "this is how we live now".

I've also decided not to push it and to just sort of see what happens organically, while being open to trying new things. Will be curious to see how your experiments go!

[lirazel]

Your new ereader sounds like a great success!


My reading goal for 2025 is simple: Read joyfully!

Yes!

And while I miss being that person who reads all the time, I think it's helpful and important to recognize that I do like being a person who reads academic papers, studies classical chinese and watches silly chinese reality shows. Those other things take time.

GOOD.

For what it's worth, I went through a not-reading-very-much time and I have come out of it. I've come around to thinking that we have seasons in our reading lives just like we do in other areas of life. So maybe you'll read more in the future, but I think your attitude of taking joy in whatever reading you can do in the moment is just fantastic! I wish you happy reading in 2025!

[rekishi]

wow but even 73 is a lot! I'm always fascinated by people who can do that, as I most certainly can't even get through a book in a week, most weeks.

And well. I think academic papers should count as books. ^^;;

[kaberett]

<3

[lokifan]

<3 This seems very insightful.

I know what you mean a bit. I used to be a huge reader of books and it somewhat got replaced by fic and Dreamwidth and stuff - probably 150 books a year to 50, though the 150 books a year was when I was a teenager so it would've gone down a bit anyway. I'm also slower at reading words on a page than I used to be. But it's about enjoying the journey.

[lunabee34]

I do a lot of academic article reading that doesn't "count" on Goodreads, so I feel you. Reading is reading!

[anehan]

Which ereader do you use? *is curious*

A lot of what you say about struggling with accepting that you can't read as much as you used to sounds very familiar. Here's to learning to read joyfully with the capacity we do have now!

[forestofglory]

I have kindle scribe (I'm a little ashamed of supporting the evil river)

And thank you!