The Read With Us Lounge: Challenge Your Reading Rules

Today, Bonny and Kym and I want to talk about all the strange little rules we create around reading. Not rules about library due dates. (Those are real.) But rather, the unwritten rules we somehow absorb over the years, the ones that whisper that there’s a right way to be a reader.

You know the ones . . .

You have to finish every book you start.

You have to read every book in a series.

You can’t skip ahead.

You can’t skim.

Audiobooks don’t count.

Graphic novels don’t count.

Listening while you fold laundry isn’t “real” reading.

Says who?

The older I get, the more I think we spend far too much energy trying to be “good readers” instead of happy readers.

Recently I decided to stop reading a cozy mystery series that I’ve enjoyed for years. The first few books were fun, but somewhere along the way they started to feel… bland. The plots became predictable. The dialogue became painfully saccharine. At one point the main character actually exclaimed, “What the fudge!”

I mean . . . come ON.

There are thousands of books I’ll never have time to read. Why would I spend my precious reading hours on books that no longer challenge me or bring me joy? The same goes for all those other imaginary rules.

If reading the last page first makes you enjoy the journey more, go for it.

If a chapter spends fifteen pages describing a battle and you’re really just interested in what happens afterward, skim away.

If you discover that an audiobook fits your life better because you can listen while commuting, gardening, or walking the dog, that’s reading too. Your brain doesn’t care whether the story arrived through your eyes or your ears.

If you put a book down halfway through because life is too short to spend with characters you don’t enjoy, you have my full permission. (Not that you needed it.)

Reading isn’t a test. No one is handing out gold stars for suffering through books you dislike or finishing a series out of obligation. The goal isn’t to follow the rules. The goal is to build a reading life you actually love.

So here’s my challenge for you: Think about one reading rule you’ve been following. Then ask yourself the simplest question of all:

Who made that rule?

You might discover that the only person enforcing it… is you.