Reading is an adventure that opens up your horizons…but you have to see a way to making the time.
If you want to read more, the solution is not to find time to do it. Well, actually, that’s a part of it. But more often than not, the mistake people make is they pick books they feel they should read—like the latest New York Times bestseller, or something to improve themselves, such as a “how to” book that purports to make them happier, or richer, or thinner, or healthier, And while it’s one thing to want to be happier, richer, thinner, and healthier, these goals require work to achieve—and you work hard enough as it is just to get through a normal day.
The solution is to find a book to read that relaxes you and gives you pleasure—something that really interests you, or an author who really speaks to you. How do you find books that will encourage you to make time to read? Go online. Read book reviews. Talk to friends, go to the library and see what people are reading, join a book club. How about an over-the-top romance by Barbara Cartland or Jackie Collins? Are you into history? Read Doris Kearns Goodwin or Gerda Lerner. Love the classics? The Bronte sisters, and of course, Jane Austen immediately come to mind. Into needlepoint? Go find a copy online of Mary Martin’s Needlepoint. Long out-of-print, the late Broadway star threads wonderful memories into one of the best “how to” books on the subject.
You may find the book you choose to read is one you’ve seen as a film adaptation or TV series. Take, for example, Daphne Du Maurier’s 1938 gothic thriller, Rebecca. It was an overnight bestseller when it was first published and Alfred Hitchcock immediately bought out the option and produced the first film adaptation, starring Joan Fontaine and Laurance Olivier. There have been 15 film adaptations since, the most recent in 2020, starring Lily James of Downton Abbey fame, five-time BAFTA Award winner Kristin Scott Thomas as Mrs. Danvers, and as Maxim, American actor Armie Hammer, who stars as Hercule Poirot in the upcoming remake of Agatha Christies, Death on the Nile, directed by Kenneth Branagh. Speaking of Agatha Christie, her 1939 detective novel And Then There Were None (Ten Little Indians) has been adapted ten times as a major motion picture and eight times as a television miniseries.
Film adaptations inspire viewers to buy books—and read. One of the best recent examples is Outlander, by Diana Gabaldon. Her first book about an Englishwoman who travels through time became a bestseller, but after it was adapted into a television series, sales hit the roof. The television series is now in its sixth and purportedly final season. Yet, Gabaldon released her 9th Outlander book, Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone, just three weeks ago, on November 23, 2021—and fans could not wait. Of course, that’s exactly what happened when Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was first published. Today author J.K. Rowling’s empire is valued at over $25 billion, with sales of over 500 million books.
So, if you make a New Year’s resolution to read every day, do it. Reading opens up new worlds, provides you with new insights, and makes you think. The secret is, read what truly interests you because when you do, you’ll make the time.