Hello my lovely bookworms! So today I’m excited to bring back Self-care for Bookworms. I thought as last week was Mental Health Awareness Week, wouldn’t I started it last year and I really enjoyed creating it so I have a few more tips and posts lined up over the next few months. If you missed my previous posts then check out this page here!
Today Self-Care tip #5 – Always Mood Read!
So this is something fairly new to me which seems strange to say. But we all have those endless TBRs right!? I know I do and I always feel bad if I’m not reading something that’s coming out soon as I largely create a TBR for the month based on that. For the last few months I’ve been doing EXACTLY that and the result…. very little reading. It takes the fun out of it slightly knowing you HAVE to read that book. You can tell from my blog I’ve got a lot of blog tour, which I love especially if I love it but hate when I have a time and date to read this book by! It’s pressure and reading, your hobby shouldn’t be like that, should it!?
So I started May with a plan, no TBR! There are a lot of books out this month that I’m so so looking forward to reading. If you know me and seen my social media – you’ll know it’s from my favourite author, Holly Bourne which I’m loving. So far I’m on my third book of the month, which for me is really good as I’m reading a total of 3 a month these days. I’ve read two book which has been on my TBR for years and loved them. I read for mood and feeling and it makes a difference.
The feeling of mood reading makes me feel so good about life but also knowing that I’m actually enjoying my books. There’s no pressure and with work I want to go home and get stuck into a book without knowing it has to be read by a certain date. I think as a reader, a book blogger and book reviewer we give ourselves such a hard time and hard standards with reading we take the fun out of it.
We know that our mental health has suffered more than ever this year and reading helps our reading more than anything. So shouldn’t we at least give ourselves that freedom to pick what we want and enjoy it.
I feel like I’ve had this sudden revelation when it comes to reading. But what we need to do is remind ourselves occasionally. Life is too short, we need to enjoy it and embrace and that includes what and when we read.
Are you a TBR Reader or a Mood Reader? Let me know in the comments. Remember to look after yourself bookishly and otherwise.
This is really interesting because I have found that I am actually the opposite to this! I have always been a mood reader up until I started by blog and began taking part in blog tours. I only ever take part in tours for books that I think I will really like and try really hard not to overcommit myself. I make a monthly tbr and always try to stick to it and since doing that I have found I read a lot more than I used to x
I’m 100% a mood reader. I simply cannot (and don’t want to) stick to a TBR. I have a list of books I eventually want to read, but I consult it very rarely since I basically just read whatever I feel like in the moment.
I always have a TBR each week, but it is not written in stone unless I have a commitment like a blog tour. Otherwise, I often veer off and read something totally different.
This is a fabulous tip! I used to be a rigid TBR reader, too, and couldn’t figure out why I couldn’t get through hardly any books. Why torture yourself, though? Reading’s supposed to be fun! There’s interesting things that come up as a mood reader, but that’s part of the fun, too. I hope mood reading works well for you!
I’ve always been a mood reader and I agree, it always work better when I just follow my mood instead of forcing myself to read a particular title 😂 It always works better in a way that I love the book I read and can immediately read more!