I know that everyone is talking about how rubbish 2020 was/is, and I wholeheartedly agree with them. But one of the things that I wanted to concentrate on today was how lockdown actually ruined my reading.

At the beginning of the year, I set my Goodreads goal as 50 books, which I thought was reasonable. It was 1 book a week (ish), and that seemed like a goal that I could achieve quite easily.

WELL… that just wasn’t the case, was it?

 

No, it really wasn’t.

When the year first started out, I was in a reading slump anyway, and I only read the books I had to read for my MA course, which meant I probably read 4 books in the duration of January and February.

Then March hit, and that was when the first lockdown happened in the U.K. Even though I was upset – at first – that I was out of work (I work in a pub), I took the opportunity of not working to try and read some of the books that I was really excited about.

 

 

I started with The Shadows Between Us and I thought ‘RIGHT! This is it! March is going to be the month where I read loads.” I read 2 books. April was actually the month where I read a lot, and I owe a big thanks to Audible for this. My love for audiobooks grew so much during April, as I just couldn’t find the motivation to pick up a physical book.

May was an okay reading month as well, but then I didn’t read ANYTHING until September. NOTHING. AT. ALL. Part of this was due to the fact that I started back at work.

 

 

Since pubs had to make sure that they were being as safe as possible, I went from working 16 hours a week, to 34-38 hours a week. It was insane. But another part of the reason why I didn’t read a lot was because my mental health just wasn’t good at all. I don’t even know WHY my mental health hit a low. It just did. I didn’t want to do anything apart from watch TV, and not even audiobooks could entice me to read. I stopped reading, I stopped blogging, I stopped going on Twitter, and I WAS COMPLETELY out of the loop when it came to new book releases.

Now, we’re in the second lockdown in the U.K., and I really did think that I would – again – use this opportunity to catch up on reading. Because I wasn’t working, I just felt lost. I love my job, I love the people that I work with, and I just miss it so much. I felt like my life didn’t have a purpose. I didn’t have a routine, and the feeling of wanting to pick up a book just wasn’t there. I’ve listened to a few audiobooks, but that’s about it.

 

 

I’ve seen loads of people talk about how lockdowns have been the best thing for their reading, and they’ve read 100-odd books, and I just look at them and I’m just so jealous. My mental health has been a HUGE barrier in my reading habits this year.

The past couple of weeks have been better. I was so determined to reach my Goodreads goal, and at the time of writing this, I’ve read 40 books this year, and I’ve got 15 days left to read the final 10. I don’t want to FORCE myself to read, because I know that this will mean I’ll end up in another reading slump. I’m just trying to find books that I KNOW that I’ll enjoy, and I guess I’m just trying to hype myself up as much as possible.

For now, I’m just going to try and read as much as I can. And if shit hits the fan, then at least I’ve got some manga and graphic novels that I could read to speed my Goodreads challenge along!

 

 

 

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How have your reading habits been during this year? Have you lost the motivation, like me? Or have you been powering through and smashing that TBR pile? Let me know in the comments!

Until next time…

 

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