This week’s question is from Dani @ Literary Lion, who asks about balancing reading with other hobbies.
Reading enough to keep a blog running can be stressful in the best of times, but what happens when other hobbies start to get in the way? Do you force yourself to prioritize reading even when you want to be drawing/knitting/playing music/watching a new show/gaming? Has another hobby ever made you miss a reading goal? What is your strategy to balance reading among your other hobbies?
I love the Let’s Talk Bookish questions. Let’s start there. This meme, y’all…it’s so well thought out every week. It’s obvious to me that Rukky and Dani put so much work into this, and I wish more people knew about it.
Now, on to the topic—yeah, is the easy answer. I’m a notorious dilettante when it comes to hobbies. I pick them up, get obsessed for a bit, spend far too much money in support of them, get bored, move on. Repeat.
As an example, I decided that Adult Coloring was my thing. I now own probably thirty coloring books, and over a thousand pencils. I bought Prismas. I bought Polychromos. I bought two different lines of Caran D’Ache. I bought watercolors (for backgrounds). I bought pan pastels (for backgrounds). I bought a set of limited edition Copics (for…something). Sigh.
So, yeah. When I’m in the throes of some new thing, reading gets compromised. And writing a blog about books does require a certain amount of reading. I have to read at least one new book a week just to keep the metaphorical lights on.
So, if nothing else, I try to read at bedtime. Even if I only get 60-minutes in before the kindle drops directly on my nose, that’s enough.
The real trick, though, is to realize that, in the end, reading always wins and to stop distracting myself with hobby after hobby after hobby when they all fall away and all that’s left, ever, are the books.
The Let’s Talk Bookish meme is hosted by Rukky @ Eternity Books & Dani @ Literary Lion.
fifty-two 
I try to balance reading and gaming and other hobbies. I try to only have one crafty project going at a time. The beauty of crafts, is that I can usually listen to an audiobook while I do it. I try to do all things in moderation, but it is hard to not get carried away now and then.
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Back in the before times, when I was actually in the office, I’d always read a bit during my lunch hour – so reading never got fully displaced by other interests (and that 20 minutes a day can add up). But I’ve certainly had times when reading dropped back to some bare minimum as my focus got temporarily shifted to something else (often a new video game – though lately sometimes just a massive Youtube rabbit hole).
I almost never treat reading as a chore (though there’ve been a few books I should have given up on that I slogged through anyway); and if I miss my self-selected reading goal so be it. (Though I generally don’t because I set it to around 90% of what I think I’ll actually read; so there’s some margin there). Obviously work, or previously school, reading is different and could be dreadfully chore like.
Still, I’m basically reading what I want to because that’s what I enjoy, and not trying to keep a specific schedule for a blog or book club, so while things may distract me for a little while I don’t worry about it and don’t try to force it — I know I’ll be back to binge reading soon enough.
(Minor exceptions for a borrowed physical library book; something I can’t extend just by putting the kindle in airplane mode — those I will need to make time for before they’re due)
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I have to actively avoid social media as I can spend untold hours doing effectively nothing! All that wasted reading time. Like you I try to read each night, though I’ve been so tired of late I’m lucky to get 10 minutes read before I start dozing off.
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