I Went on a Reading Diet. Here’s What I Learned.
I (mostly) avoided books, texts, mags, and social media for a week. It was hard but worth it.
I went on a seven-day reading diet and while it didn’t change my life, it certainly inspired some… adjustments.
For an entire week, I didn’t read a single novel. I stayed off Facebook and Twitter, I avoided my three-newspapers-a-day with coffee in the morning, I skimmed texts and only responded if an emergency, and I avoided my newly acquired poem-a-day habit thanks to a new-to-me daily read of Rumi. No going down a Google rabbit hole about the latest racist incident at The Bachelor, no bedtime stories for my children, no tarot or astrology Instagram posts, and no newsletters about the latest problems or solutions for pandemic parenting, selecting a summer school program, women’s politics, everybody-is-reading-this-magazine-article articles, or baking a better apple pie.
It was almost cold turkey for me on the reading, except I did permit myself the grace to read for work — after all, I am an editor and I read for a living. But a mentor suggested I pick up The Artist’s Way, after hearing my troubles finding a deeper well of creativity, and the book suggested that I shut off all the external noise and get to listening to myself. It initially sounded absurd…
