The idea for this post comes directly from the person I nerd out with the most about books and reading, my husband Michael. He thought of this great idea for a post and I wanted to shout him out right from the start!

Books have always been a part of my life, a thread made of book binding running through every stage. I have fond memories of my mom taking me to our local library a a kid, letting me check out as many books as my arms and tote bags could hold. I would sit in front of our brick fireplace and look at the pictures splashed across the pages until I came to the end, moving on to the next one in the stack.

As time passed and I grew older, books became more of background noise. Always there, but no longer front and center. As the material became more arduous, reading felt more like a chore rather than something done for fun. Television and music took the place of books and trips to the library became more infrequent. As a teenager, I would pick up the occasional book but it was much more sporadic.

As a young adult in college, reading became required. I read course books pertaining to my major, and didn’t make time for much else.

2016 is the year I found my way back to reading. I was 25, out of college, making a meager living as an educator, newly married and attempting to find hobbies to fill my spare time. It was around this time that I remember talking to my husband about how I wanted to “get back to reading.” Being an avid reader himself, he encouraged me to just start by picking up a book that looked interesting. It’s then that I created a Goodreads account and began picking up books. I haven’t stopped since.

My reading and my reading habits have evolved in the almost six years that I’ve been devouring books at rapid speed. Things I now do regularly, used to make me roll my eyes and scoff. This post is really a reflection on how my reading habits have changed over the years.

The first major change in my reading life is simply making time for reading. “How do you find all that time to read?” This is probably the most asked question of readers. And the answer, for me at least, is pretty simple: I make it. Reading is top priority for me. It’s ritualistic. It’s how I start and end every day. It helps ease anxiety and stress and allows me to escape my current world for a different one, if just for a short while. Reading has become much more important to me over the years and I have zero qualms about saying no to something if reading is on the agenda.

The way I track my reading has also evolved over the years. Before, I would just use Goodreads to track the books I read and their star ratings. Then in 2020, on the advice of my reader husband, I moved to using a spreadsheet on Google Docs in addition to tracking on Goodreads. In 2021, I also started using a book journal to track my reading. (Yes you’re reading that correctly: I use three different book tracking methods—overkill, I know. I was so excited to try this book journal method after seeing a few different people on BookTube do this, but after 10 months, I’ve found that it’s more work than I anticipated and I don’t find myself as excited about it as I was before. This will most likely be something I leave behind in 2022. At the beginning of 2021, I also revamped the reading spreadsheet I use to track my reading. I based my new spreadsheet off of the Book Roast’s CAWPILE book rating system and I’ve been loving using it to track different things about the books I read. The level of detail in this spreadsheet seems ridiculous, even to me, but I cannot wait to analyze the patterns in my reading at the end of the year.

*A quick note about tracking my reading: I used to be obsessive about setting a numerical reading goal (think 50, 75, 100 books for the year). I would track my progress on Goodreads and would stress whenever the end of the year was near and I hadn’t yet reached my goal. It wasn’t until a few years ago that I decided to drop the numerical goal completely and focus on different criteria. I no longer track how many books I read, but rather their genre, whether the book is a series or a standalone, if it’s a backlist title, what month I finished it, etc. I felt such a relief at dropping the number goal that I haven’t made one since and this gives me a better picture of the types of books I’m reading, rather than just how many.

The special edition of Way of Kings released by Brandon Sanderson last year is a stunning comparison to the alternative cover. Both of these are signed by the author.

I would consider both my husband and myself book collectors. Our three IKEA Billy Bookcases are currently bursting at the seams and random book stacks have started popping up all around our living room. This is directly correlated with the next major change I’ve noticed in my reading habits, which is buying different editions of the same book. There are so many beautiful books in the world and when I see a different edition of a book I love, it’s really difficult for me not to buy it. This is something I would have previously thought to be ridiculous. And, honestly, I still do. These are books we already own a copy of, we’re just purchasing the alternate cover because it’s pretty and we love it.

If you’re limited on shelf space, alternate dusk jackets are a great idea! We have the Nerdy Ink Book Jackets for our hardback Harry Potter set and we love them. We do have the original set of Harry Potter books in paperback as well, but that’s beside the point. We’ve also heard good things about book jackets from Juniper Books, but haven’t purchased any ourselves…yet.

We have both the US and UK editions of the the Mistborn Saga by Brandon Sanderson.

Another reason for the random piles of books on the floor in our living room is our book box subscriptions. I’ve tried quite a few over the years: Book of the Month, Page 1, Bookshelf Thomasville—all of which I’ve liked, but Fairyloot, my most recent subscription box is my favorite so far. I may or may not be on the waiting list for Illumicrate as well.

Both Fairyloot and Illumicrate subscriptions include bookish goodies (think mugs, enamel pins, stunning fan art, and more) as well as a custom book with sprayed edges, design on the naked covers, and is usually signed by the author. All music to my ears.

Our most recent Fairyloot books all include sprayed edges, STUNNING covers, and are signed by the authors.

Another significant change in my reading life happens to be writing book reviews. The previous me read books solely for enjoyment, with no strings attached. I picked up a book, read it, finished it, and moved on. Note: this is a perfectly fantastic way to read!

Nowadays, I usually pick up books with the idea that I will most likely write some type book of review, whether that be a longer review like ones I post here on my blog or shorter reviews on Goodreads. When I read a book knowing I will most likely be writing about it, my reading experience tends to be different. I think much deeper about the content I’m reading, remuniating on the atmosphere and how the characters interact with one another. It feels more like an immersive experience and it helps me work my writing muscles.

Finally, one of the biggest changes I’ve noticed in my reading life is more reading adjacent and has to do with watching YouTube. Previously, I didn’t understand why people would watch YouTube rather than watching a show or a movie. I didn't have a lot of experience with YouTube and found myself only visiting the site whenever I needed to learn how to DIY something around the house.

It wasn’t until a few months ago that I started watching a few select folks on YouTube discussing books. This corner of YouTube is known as BookTube and it’s quickly become an addiction. Over the last few months, I’ve found myself wanting to watch more and more BookTube and I even subscribe to a handful of BookTuber’s channels, finding myself giddy when a new video is posted. I really enjoy watching people talk about books that I’ve both loved and despised, books that I’ve both read and not. My to be read pile has only grown since this new inclusion of BookTube, but I’m happier for it!

As someone who used to not even understand YouTube, this is easily one of the biggest and most recent changes in my reading life.

Here’s a list of my current favorite BookTubers:

These are just a few of the changes I’ve noticed in my reading life over the last few years. As with everything, I’m sure these things we shift and evolve too, but isn’t there beauty in that?