Earl Grey Books

I’ve been really struggling to make time to read for a while now. Life just kind of got in the way, and I feel like there’s just always so much that needs to be done and never enough hours to do all those things. Then I thought, what if I switch it up a little and make the time to read?

And so, for an entire week, I set myself specific time blocks in which I was going to read. Today I’m going to talk through those blocks, how much reading I did/what I read and how I’m feeling at the end of the week. So let’s go.

Saturday

10:20am – 10:40: The Knight and the Moth by Rachel Gillig (38 pages), started this morning, figured it would be my main read for this week.

Sunday

9:15am – 9:30: The Knight and the Moth (36 pages), still enjoying this so far.

3:30pm to 3:45: The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie (30 pages), a reread for me, already 50 pages in before today.

Monday

9:15am to 9:30: The Knight and the Moth (39 pages), chipping away at this bit by bit.

7:15pm to 7:35: Brazil: A Biography by Lilika M. Schwarcz and Heloisa M. Starling (24 pages), this is part of a non-fiction challenge I’m working on.

Tuesday

7:30pm to 8: The Knight and the Moth (62 pages), I was really getting into this tonight.

Wednesday

8:15pm to 8:35: The Knight and the Moth (35 pages), I was exhausted tonight, and it was a slog to get through these pages.

Thursday

8:30pm to 8:50: Brazil: A Biography (13 pages), this is a very slow and detailed read.

Friday

9:30am to 10: Brazil: A Biography (23 pages), I’ve really not made a dent in this book this week, but here’s hoping I can read some more next week.

3pm to 3:20: The Knight and the Moth (58 pages), this was just a quick bit of reading as I waited for an appointment.

6:50pm to 8: The Knight and the Moth (116 pages), I decided I was going to finish this book tonight before I worked this weekend, and I did!

Saturday

4:30pm to 5:15: Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell (89 pages), this was a completely random selection off my TBR when I wasn’t sure what to read next. I didn’t expect to read so much of it in one go.

Final Thoughts

I’m actually really impressed by the amount of reading I managed to get through this week. In total, I read 563 pages, which included one book in its entirety as well as starting three others. Considering there have been a few times this year when I’ve read less than that in a whole month, I think that’s pretty amazing for a week!

Setting myself specific times to read and knowing which book I was going to pick up at that time was extremely helpful. Part of the reason I struggle to finish books is because sometimes I’ll spend so long picking what I could read that I run out of time to actually read. Taking some of that decision paralysis out of the situation meant that I was actually enjoying my reading time.

On the whole, I don’t think this is something I can maintain every day but I think I’ll be trying to time block my reading now and again. I think this experiment was a success!