Reading During Quarantine

I don’t know about y’all but when quarantine started I was at a loss for what to do. Craft? Can only do that so many hours of the day. Get a head start on school work? Um… no. Exercise? ……… So I didn’t have that much going on lol. But for the first time in a long time, I suddenly had the time to sit down and read a book. And boy oh BOY did it feel good.

These last few years have been a little bit of a change of pace for me reading wise. School would have so much mandatory reading that by the time it was the end of the day or the weekend I would either have to do readings for class or I would be so tired that I would just go to sleep. And as a result, I wasn’t reading that much. Like last year, I hardly read 30 books in the entire year (not to mention that some of those were graphic novels, which only take about an hour). So really, more like 25. As someone who for a long time considered herself to be a bookworm, I had really fallen out of the habit of reading. You really don’t realize how much you don’t want to read until you have 40 pages of mandatory reading to do in front of you.

But this quarantine alone I think that I’ve read almost 30 books. Having the time to really sit down and enjoy a book is so nice, and it’s something that I want to keep making time for even when things fully open up again and COVID is a thing of the past. I think a part of it is that I’ve always kind of used reading as an escape from the present. By immersing myself in other worlds and other people’s lives, it’s easy to put my problems on hold and take a bit of a breather from my real world problems. Escapism has been a part of my reading for a long time, and I think that I really find solace in being able to take a step back.

I’ve also really gotten into my library’s app and through that I’ve been listening to audiobooks galore! Through the app Libby I was able to connect to the Public Library system, and thats to that I’ve listened to books like The New Jim Crow, a mercy, and The Tiger’s Wife. It is, in words, life changing. I’m never going back! Also I really like it because they’re quality audiobooks and I’m not giving money to Amazon through Audible! I really suggest that you check out the Libby app, and if possible utilize your local library more!!!!

So basically, my renaissance of reading happened this year, and I’m determined to make it last a long time (we’ll see how that goes in practice, but hopefully it’ll work out!). Did you find that your reading increased during quarantine? Or was that not one of the coping strategies you used? Do you use your local library? Let me know!

Have a great week ducks!!
~ Mon