Top Ten Tuesday - How My Reading Habits Changed

   

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. Here is the topic of the week:

⏳ How my reading habits

changed over time ⏳

I don't know who thought of this topic but I love it! It really made me think about my teen years, how I started reading and blogging, how things changed since then...

I don't know if I'll manage to find 10 things that changed so I'll just start writing and see where it takes me 😂

1. DNF-ing books

One of the best changes that happened to me is not caring if I finish a book or not. I used to make myself finish every book even if I knew I'd hate it. I felt like I owed something to the universe or something and that people would judge me if I left it. Ridiculous, I know. 😅 Now, many years later, I'm living my life to the fullest by dropping books whenever I feel like it. Read 2 chapters and realized it didn't pull me in? DNF. Halfway in noticing I don't care if all of the characters suddenly died? DNF. There could be plenty of reasons for DNF-ing a book and I won't expand this topic further, but my main point is - when I drop books I don't like, I'm saving myself from the negativity, feeling bored and like I have a chore AND I have more time to read books I actually like.

2. Making TBRs

This is a fun one. When I first started, I just picked up whatever book I randomly stumbled upon online or at my library. Then I started making ultra specific TBRs and not giving myself any breathing space. This, of course, wasn't working either. Now I have the perfect routine - I make a "moody TBR" in the sense that I make a list of books that fit my current mood and not a list of books i "should" read (either bc they're new releases, picked by a generator, everyone's reading them right now, etc). I also don't make too long lists so I have time to deviate and pick whatever book I'm feeling during the month.

3. Blogging

Another interesting thing is that blogging changed the way I read. I used to just fly through books and not think much about them afterwards. When I started blogging I also started noticing more things in books - the way they are written, what topics they cover, what kind of main characters they have...Basically, I started making little mental notes so I could talk about them later on my blog.

4. Casual approach

This is sort of connected to the point above. I started blogging 10 years ago and over time I expanded my reading "goals" and I would read 100+ books each year because I thought I had to. That if I didn't, I would somehow be a lesser blogger. Teen me was obviously too anxious and thought too much about what other people think 😂 Nowadays I don't care at all. I read at my own pace and know that sometimes, you just don't have the time or will to read.

5. Reading hyped books

I used to think that if I didn't read every (currently) popular book, it'd be so embarassing. Like, people would be so disgusted by my lack of knowledge that I'd be kicked out of the book community 😂

"Fourth Wing was so good right?"

"well...uhhh I haven't read it."

"wHAT...

Obviously that's not reality and nobody cares 😂 Now, I read whatever I want and whenever I want. I don't care how many times I see a book on booktok or how much praise it recieves on various prestige websites, if I'm not in the mood or I don't like that topic/genre, I won't read it. 

6. Switching to Kindle

Since I live in Croatia, for a long LONG time, we didn't get those shiny new releases translated fast. Also, for some reason, most publishers focused on adult novels and nonfiction, while I, a hard-core YA sci-fi/fantasy fan suffered in silence. 

What this meant is that I couldn't read many books from my library. When I read every YA novel they had (and that wasn't much) I had to switch to ebooks. Reading those became very tiring after a while. Staring at the screen is not a smart idea, especially when you already wear glasses and mostly read during the evening/night. My eyes suffered a lot but I just had to read 😅 During the recent years, we got more various novels so I could switch between the two more often. The real change happened last year when I bought my Kindle. 😍 I can read whenever I want and whatever book I download on it. Not only are my eyes blessed, I also read quite faster than I used to. Basically, Kindle is life ❤️

I think this is it. I can't think of any more things that changed in my reading life 😅 

💬 How did your reading habits change? 💬