There's nothing like escaping into a good book but when life gets busy, reading is often one of the first things to be forgotten.
Getting back into a reading stride can be tricky once you’re out of the habit but it’s not impossible and author Daisy Buchanan has some great tips for anyone hoping to read more.
Daisy spoke with EVOKE as her latest book Read Yourself Happy launched and explained how reading is an important part of her daily life as it helps to quieten her anxiety.
The idea of reading yourself happy is intriguing, and something Daisy strongly believes in. As an author, she’s long been a keen reader but the idea of reading to improve her mental health really struck her at the start of the pandemic.
Daisy explained: 'It came home to me in a very specific way, rather than it just being a general sense that I definitely felt better when I was reading, at the beginning of the pandemic. Like all of us, I was trying to read the entire internet before 9pm and thinking, "the more information I can discover, the safer I'll be” but quite early on, I thought, “none of the news is news... I’m not learning anything, I'm just getting more and more scared.” So I thought "I'm going to take my phone away and read".’
Rather fittingly, Daisy chose to read Marking Time which is the first in the Cazalet Chronicles by Elizabeth Jane Howard and is set right before the outbreak of the Second World War. She said: 'It really took me there, imagining what it would be like knowing what we know now in the 21st century, to have that horror and terror dawning on you, but to still have your very normal, quite dull concerns… It was one of those books that just made me think, oh, “nothing ever changes”. We're living in unprecedented times, but we're not because there's always going to be something.
‘It made me think “I am so lucky”, yes, there are people who I am worried for, but [reading this book] was giving me the perspective that I needed. I definitely find that my own anxiety can make me very self-centered in the way that I think I'm the only person with problems. Reading is the best cure I know for that.
'With novels, the stories are made up but the dilemmas are real and you know that everyone has lived some version of those stories. In novels, everyone's undergoing some kind of crisis, it’s very rare to read a novel with someone who's got a perfect life fine. It’s not normal to have a perfect life.'
Speaking more about her anxiety, Daisy added: ' I'm about to turn 40 and I'm really aware of just how much dashing about I do to no real effect or purpose. I find it hard to be in the moment and stay in the process and I think reading helps with that… [reading] is about being in this moment, in this story, and that’s something that I think is a really good antidote to anxiety.'
That all said, Daisy knows that reading doesn't come naturally to everyone and, while the effects once you're in a good reading stride can be incredible, it can take a while to get to that point. If you're hoping to start reading more or get back into reading, here are her top tips to reignite your love for reading:
Go back to a favourite
Don’t put pressure on yourself! If there’s a book you loved, revisit that as you’ll reconnect with a part of yourself that loved stories. If you’re really stuck, think about what you love. If you love food, read a cookbook, or if you love sport, read a non-fiction book about it.
Daisy stresses that it doesn’t matter if what you’re reading isn’t on the Booker Prize List, reminding everyone that ‘your specialist subject is always going to be the most fun thing.’
'When we read purely for fun, the more ambitious we get,’ Daisy added. ‘ I've always said that it's only because I have read every single thing that Marion Keyes and Jilly Cooper have ever written that I eventually wanted to go and read Charles Dickens and George Eliot.'
Embrace the guilty pleasure
Another top tip is don’t force yourself to read high-brow books just because you think you should!
‘I think Sophie Kinsella's books are ferociously smart but people do write things off and dismiss them and I think that’s a notion of the guilty pleasure. I do think there's a bit of sexism in there, that anything created primarily by and for women, obviously not exclusively, is much more likely to be dismissed that way. So, reading and saying, “no, nothing guilty about it, it's just pleasure,” that is a bit of a radical act.'
Accept that not every book is for everyone
It’s ok if you don’t love every book. While something might be the best thing you’ve read in months, it might not be loved by whoever you recommend it to and vice versa... and that’s ok!
It’s ok not to finish a book
‘The worst thing you can do is resent your book because that will really damage your relationship with reading,’ Daisy explains. ‘When you've got a regular reading habit on the go, you're much more prepared to like something but not love it, or you think, "well, I'll give this a chance."
'But if you're in the early stages of re-establishing your connection with reading, just go for it [walk away from the book]. One rule of thumb I've heard is to try to give it 50 pages, or as the librarian Nancy Pearl said, "if you're over 50, 100 pages minus your age." Then, if you still don't love it, feel free to go.'
Be patient with yourself
Perhaps the biggest message to remember when trying to find a love for reading is, give yourself grace. ‘Be patient with yourself and kind to yourself,’ Daisy said. ‘It’s not going to stick straight away.
'Books are not a phone and we're so used to all the things that phones give us, there will be a little bit of resistance. Be kind to yourself and be kind to the books.'
