Tag: Fiction

5 Tips for Restoring Your Love of Reading

I hope these simple practices help you as much as they’ve helped me!

Upon graduating college, I realized that even after earning a degree in English, all my years in school had stolen my enjoyment of reading!

School and technology have taught us to skim texts for key details rather than slow down and enjoy the journey. And when we’re required to spend hours reading books that feel either uninteresting or purposeless to us, we are more likely to hesitate in spending free time reading.

I can’t blame school entirely, though. It’s hard to prioritize reading when there are so many other entertainment options out there. But nothing beats being immersed in a wonderful story.

If you’re like me and you miss leisure reading, then you’ve come to the right article! Here are five (plus one) key practices you can use that will hopefully spark your love of reading again.

Listen to AudioBooks

If you’ve found yourself skimming or losing focus while reading, then perhaps you’d enjoy listening to a story rather than reading it. Audiobooks allow us to slow down and pay attention. They are even more fun when the voice actor(s) get into character!

Audiobooks also have the perk of allowing us to multitask while listening. Just make sure you’re doing an activity that doesn’t require too much thought, or else you might realize you missed a significant detail in the story!

You can access audiobooks through paid subscriptions like Audible or Spotify, but my favorite way to listen is free through my local library app!

Reread a beloved classic

My all-time favorite story is The Lion, the Witch, and The Wardrobe. What’s yours? Have you reread it lately?

We often discount our classic favorites (whether they be ‘true’ classics or contemporary classics) because we deem them childish. However, children’s and young adult literature contain valuable lessons and compelling journeys. Writing to a younger audience often requires even stronger writing skills because authors have a stricter set of parameters to follow.

Sometimes, we just need to know we can finish a book, even a shorter one with more comprehensible language. Write down your top five favorite childhood/YA books and then read them again! You might be more encouraged than you realize.

start a book club

This one might seem daunting, especially if you’re struggling to even finish one book on your own. However, there is truly power in numbers. Sometimes, we just need one other person alongside us with a similar goal!

Your book club could consist of you and one other person, or you could gather a group of people to read with you. All you have to do is find someone who is willing to devote time to reading again. Then, pick a book you both would enjoy and find time to regularly discuss it.

This will not only keep you accountable, but it will also deepen your understanding of the book when you hear someone else’s perspective on it!

Move chapter by chapter

Perhaps the reason why you haven’t been able to read lately is because you don’t have enough time. That’s okay! We all have busier seasons of life, but even in those seasons we must find time to rest and restore.

If reading is restorative to you, consider blocking out time each day to simply read one chapter of a book. Or if the chapters in your novel are too long, then set a goal to read for a specific period of time each day, like twenty minutes. It’s okay if it takes you a long time to complete a book. All that matters is you are enjoying the process.

read in a new location

Reading allows us to enter new worlds and explore new possibilities. But perhaps escaping through the printed pages isn’t exhilarating enough for you. Maybe you need to find an interesting new location to read.

Here are a few ideas to get you started in your search for the perfect reading spot:

  • A local park
  • By the beach
  • In a quiet coffee shop
  • At the library
  • In your backyard
  • In a location that’s similar to a setting in your story

Extra tip: ask friends for reading recommendations!

For my birthday, one of my friends gave me a book list of her personal recommendations. Not only did this help me go in more openminded and trusting that with a fair shot, these would be interesting stories, but I ended up loving her selections!

If you are looking for some recommendations, here are a few of mine organized by genre:

Classic:

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

YA:

So Not Happening by Jenny B. Jones

Once Upon a Wardrobe by Patti Callahan

Children’s:

The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis

The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary

Poetry:

All Along You Were Blooming by Morgan Harper Nichols

Historical:

The Girl in the Blue Coat by Monica Hesse

Daughter of Rome by Tessa Afshar

Just Mercy by Brian Stevenson (nonfiction)

Mystery:

The Maid by Nita Prose

Allegorical:

The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis

Hinds Feet on High Places by Hannah Hurnard

Writing Advice:

Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott

Christian Nonfiction:

Letters to the Church by Francis Chan

Now and Not Yet by Ruth Chou Simons

Breath as Prayer by Jennifer Tucker

Comment below your favorite book and what you love most about it!

Pamela’s Problem

Enjoy a short story about a high school senior who must surrender her future to Jesus.

            The long, dark hallway loomed ahead of Pamela. Yellow lights flickered overhead. Her imagination ran wild as her heart thumped in her chest. She half-expected the fuzzy lime-green monster of her childhood nightmares to pop out of the doors lining the hallway. She couldn’t quite explain why this monster was scary to her as a child. He just was, as many things continued to be. Hence, why she was here to begin with.

            You see, Pamela was not exploring a haunted mansion or creeping through an abandoned warehouse on a top secret mission. She was visiting her therapist, Dr. Jennifer Stevens, who went by Jenny even to her clients, and whose building manager frequently forgot to change burnt lightbulbs in his building.

            Pamela rapped on the door three times before it swung open. Jenny sat at her desk with a perky smile on her face. Thunder, Jenny’s hound dog, lay on the pet bed by the desk, thumping his tail rhythmically.

            “Welcome, Pamela,” Jenny said. “How are you doing today?”

            Pamela shut the door behind her and slumped into the chair across from Jenny’s desk. It wasn’t the most comfortable chair, and it certainly wasn’t some Freudian couch. But it was better than the stiff plastic chairs at Pamela’s high school, and the company was worth it.

            “I heard back from all the colleges I applied to,” Pamela said. She reached into her backpack and handed Jenny a stuffed manila envelope full of letters. Mainly rejection letters.

            Jenny filed through the papers while Pamela stroked Thunder’s slick head. Jenny smiled as she held up the one acceptance letter Pamela received. It was from a small state school just a few miles up the road. Pamela’s safety school.

            “Congratulations!” Jenny said.

            “Didn’t you see all the rejections?” Pamela asked.

            “Well, sure, but it’s not like you could’ve gone to all those schools at once,” Jenny said. She waved the acceptance letter in the air. “Doesn’t this count as a victory?”

            “All my friends got into the other schools. The better schools,” Pamela said, crossing her arms.

            “They all did?”

            “Well…most of them.”

            Jenny nodded. She never made fun of Pamela’s exaggerations or held it over her head when she was right.

            “Are you planning to attend this school?” Jenny asked. “Or will you take a gap year?”

            “There’s no way my parents would let me take a gap year,” Pamela said with a laugh.

            Jenny smiled. She had met Pamela’s mom in college. They were even roommates one year. She could understand Pamela’s problems better than Pamela even realized, despite how much Jenny adored her long-time friend.

            “So what will you study? Or is that the most annoying question to be asked?” Jenny said.

            “Creative writing,” Pamela said. “It’s actually the only school I applied to with a creative writing program.”

            “That sounds like the perfect program for you,” Jenny remarked. “You’ll get to study what you’re passionate about.”

            Pamela nodded, but she still felt a heavy burden on her chest.

            “It’s just hard when I think about how my future will look different than my friends’ futures,” Pamela said. “My parents are making me live at home since the dorms cost so much money and we live close to the school. And I won’t have a very prestigious name to put on my resumé. All my friends will live near each other while I’ll have to start over.”

            Jenny rested her elbows against her desk and folded her hands together.

            “Senior year is certainly a year about thinking through the future,” Jenny said. “We’ve talked about surrendering your future to Jesus this year, haven’t we?”

            “I know!” Pamela burst out. “But it’s not fair. What if Jesus doesn’t have as great of a future for me as He has for my friends?”

            “It’s all about trust,” Jenny replied. “Do you remember Jesus telling his disciples about how when a son asks his father for a fish or an egg, the father certainly won’t give him a snake or a scorpion instead? The father cares about his son, just as Jesus cares about his children.”

            “Then why can’t I go to the same college as my friends?” Pamela asked.

            “Jesus knows what’s best for you,” Jenny replied. “Our wants and desires fluctuate like our emotions do, but Jesus knows the path that will lead us closest to him and allow us the opportunity to grow into our full potentials.”

            Pamela sighed. She knew this was true. Her emotions often curved high and low like a rollercoaster track.

            “The question now is, do you trust that Jesus loves you enough to provide you with a beautiful future, even if it doesn’t look the way you anticipated?” Jenny asked.

            “I want to,” Pamela said. “but it’s really hard.”

            “That’s okay,” Jenny said. She offered her hands to Pamela, which she accepted. “Let’s ask Jesus for help. Even if it takes years to learn to trust him, we worship a very patient God. Every day, the more you lean on his strength, the more natural it will be to trust him.”   

“Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

Luke 11:11-13