If you’re anything like me, you love reading. You just hate getting started. Between the new characters, backstory, world-building … it’s mentally exhausting. And yet, we keep coming back to our books because we know they’re worth slugging through the exposition. These three tips have helped me push past those dreaded first chapters and launch myself into the meat of the tale.

Set a Timer

In a go-go-go society, it’s hard to make time to stop and read. Especially if you’re already dreading the newness of the plot and the mental effort it will take to become invested in your next novel. The easiest way to slow down is to make the time for it. I tend to set an alarm for ten minutes. Whether I’m listening to an audiobook, or I’m settling in with the text in front of me, I don’t allow my focus to move from the story for the entirety of that ten minutes. (It doesn’t have to be ten. Maybe five works better for your timeline. Or you think twenty is ideal. Adjust as needed!)

I now have a routine as a reader where, when I have a new novel, I set that timer. And it’s worked! I usually have to go three rounds (so thirty minutes total) to fully move past the nitty-gritty bits at the beginning. But then I’m immersed in the plot. And I typically don’t want to remove myself from the experience when that first alarm goes off, so I reset. And reset. And reset again! Until I no longer need the reminder to focus and I’m excited to read one more chapter.

Listen to Audiobooks

If you’re already doing this, then it’s intuitive. I held off from audiobooks for a LONG time because I thought they would tarnish the reading experience. That couldn’t be further from the truth! In fact, audiobooks have helped me read more novels than ever because they allow me to complete mindless daily tasks while concentrating on the story. I tend to need to do something active while listening to my novels, whether that’s laundry, design creation, or simply playing a game on my phone while I wind down from my day. Dare I say, I look forward to chores now … ? No, probably not. But I do look forward to time listening to my book while being productive!

Even more, I’ve gained access to genres I was never able to digest before. With the aid of audiobooks, I can consume nonfiction just as I do my other favored genres because it sounds like a podcast! And with dyslexia rising to become the number one recognized disorder among student populations, audiobooks have opened doorways for elementary and secondary kids to have the same opportunity as their classmates.

Interested in the research? Here is the super duper scholarly article from The Journal of Neuroscience. If you prefer a summarized version (I did!), take a peak HERE.

Mood Read

Mood reading is exactly what it sounds like—you read what you’re in the mood for. I used to force myself through books because I had decided I was going to read them. It almost felt like cheating to pause one book in order to start another. Especially if it was a good book; a book a knew I’d enjoy, but just couldn’t get into no matter what I tried. It took TikTok for me to realize that it might not be the novel, but my emotions, that kept me from soaring through a great text. It’s okay to put a book down and come back to it later. It’s also okay to DNF (Do Not Finish) and never go back to a book that simply isn’t your cup of tea.

My recent example is Goddess of the River by Vaishnavi Patel. In the first hour of listening to this, I knew it would be a beautiful, haunting tale. But the themes were heavy, and I had a lot of heavy happening in my life. So, I set it aside and picked up a YA urban fantasy instead. Which I finished in two days (first novel pictured below). By giving myself the grace to say “not now” to a novel, I’ve been able to cruise straight through others. It’s liberating, and I feel it adds to my enjoyment because it doesn’t feel like a chore to wade through.

And that’s the thing. Reading should be done for the enjoyment. I fully anticipate loving the novels I read. Sometimes, it’s just difficult to get started and hurdle hop the growing pains of the exposition. These three tips have become my triple threat to soaring through books … and setting aside others.

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