Lawful Good Reading Hacks: The Rule-Follower's Way to Upping Your Goodreads Game in 2021

Over a year's worth of quarantine has meant many things: changes to daily routines and means of living, losing out on major life changes and opportunities, and having your regular social interaction facilitated by way of a litany of various screens and browser windows. And, of course, no Dungeons and Dragons meetings with some of my best friends. 

So you'll forgive me, of course, for wanting to go with a bit of a theme? 

I've talked about it on and off for the past year, but while Covid may have unceremoniously dumped a surplus of free reading time in our laps, it did not exactly yield the kind of mental state that led to wanting to make best use of it... at least, not for me. I lost out on my Goodreads Challenge for the first time ever last year, and even into 2021, it's been a bit of a struggle. 

But with the oncoming Spring, I've found myself considering making a bit of a lifestyle change: what if I gave it a real shot, a good one, to reinvest in myself and my readerly lifestyle? What if I made a plan and a deliberate choice, to plot out my TBR and schedule my reading time, thereby doing something that is beneficial for both myself and the people around me? 

Sounds like the sort of thinking a Lawful Good person might employ. 

So I struck out on a research assignment of my own making, scouring blogs - including my own - and YouTube channels galore, seeking out some kind of hint or hack that might make it easier to bring my own reading hobby back up to personal par. I wrote down what I felt was some of the best advice, organized it based on what I felt was a sensible direction, and drafted out a blogpost... but found frequent recommendations that might not align themselves exactly with my own favorite D&D alignment. 

Some of them, actually, came out a little bit more... chaotic. 

With that understanding in mind, I drafted out a second blogpost, too: whereas this one is more for the structured, plotting, rule-following among us, I've got another just up the pipe that gets a little more loosey-goosey with our favorite habits. Not that you won't find some kind of advice that appeals to both sides of yourself within these tidbits of advice... work with what makes sense to you! 

But at the very least, if you're like me - someone who's had a real devil of a time in trying to make sense of yourself and the world around you in the past year - I hope you give this post a read. We could all use a little help, after all. Maybe this way, you'll find a tip or trick that can help load the dice in your favor... or at least give you advantage on your next roll. 

favored terrain: 

it's all about environment

Get rid of time wasters with app blockers, screen time monitors, and more. Log out of accounts that are easily accessible to you, and the extra effort it takes to log back in might serve as enough of a mental check to keep you focused on your path, instead. 

Remove distractions from your reading environment. Find a quiet space, or use headphones or earplugs. Grab a blanket or some fuzzy socks if there's a chill. Bring your water bottle with you. 

Do you have what you need? Consider large-print books, or adjusting the view on your eReader device, which usually also come with a dyslexia font function. Make sure you're not straining your eyes by reading somewhere that's not getting enough adequate light. 

Take yourself out on a reading date. I sometimes get annoyed with the amount of pictures on my bookstagram that show someone chilling in a cafe, with a pretty beverage, with a book and journal out in front of them on the table... but honestly, that's the perfect way to make sure you get reading done, if that's what it calls for. You get a nice afternoon to yourself and a nice book, get to enjoy a hot beverage and the fun environment of a coffee shop, and even can make for a moody picture to post to the 'Gram about it later (but only after you're finished!). Other options include an outdoor picnic during the Spring and Summer, chilling out on your patio or balcony, or even in your car, on the road! Just make it something new and different than what you normally get to experience. 

bag of holding: 

what've you got?

Make best use of bookish systems that work for you, be it a Goodreads account, keeping an Excel tracker or a book journal. Book journals are an especially good choice, because they can help you keep track of what you've been reading in a physical, hands-on way... they also serve as a great place to keep your goals and habit trackers in regards to reading, as well as jot down a few notes about books as/ after you read them, so you can remember them better later on!

Get some cute bookmarks, and use them. They're pretty to look at, and you'll want to show them off! 

Make sure you always have something new and exciting on hand. Whether this means you stalk local book sales, check out other retailers, like Book Outlet or Thrift Books, or get good with your library's eBook and hold systems, it's easy to generate lots of new material, for a much less daunting price than buying new, especially hardcovers. By prioritizing easy access to new material, you know that you'll always have compelling reads close on hand. And by keeping track of things like sales, going thrifting, and especially making best use of your library, your new favorite hobby ends up being pretty darn cheap! 

Keep a book always attached to your phone. Consider them a bound-together kind of pair... that way, you'll always make sure you have both in your purse, sitting next to you on your desk, etc. 

Use page flags to mark your aspirations for how far you want to read in a day. Want to make sure you make it to at least 50 pages? Slip a post-it note or second book mark as to where that segment ends. Work your way towards it at your own pace, but make sure to keep going until you hit it! 

roll for initiative: 

it all takes practice

Read "at your level." Are you so desperate to claim or reclaim your title as "book-reading smart person" that you're reaching for The Brothers Karamozov before you'd even really cemented yourself back in the habit? Try taking things a little slower. Meet yourself where your skills are first, and build up from there. 

Change up the genre direction. Nonfiction, memoirs and informational reading. Literary fiction, romance, fantasy, mysteries. YA, NA, middle grade. Short stories or novellas instead of novels. Even try your hand at a comic book, or a manga! 

Set time- or activity-based goals while you're reading. For instance, "If I read for twenty minutes, I can take a social media break for five." "If I read for half an hour while the cookies are in the oven, I can have one fresh instead of putting it into Tupperware." Or you can think about time blocking your reading in a similar fashion: one episode of your tv show could instead be another 75 pages in your recent read, or one social media binge could amount to another chapter. Set expectations as to how you want to invest your time, and use it for either goal-setting or as a reward. 

Go for a reading sprint, where you dedicate a certain amount of uninterrupted time to reading, seriously, as much as you can. Even some twenty minutes of singularly-focused, dedicated reading a day, can lead to you finishing a book in a week or two that you might otherwise not have read! 

Get multi-media. Read a book your favorite movie or television show was based off of, look up inspired playlists on Spotify, try a recipe mentioned in your most recent read, or listen to a podcast discussing a book you've been dying to get to. By connecting the things you're reading to other favorite parts of your life, it inspires you to continue on. 

Find a niche subject you're especially interested in, and pick up a whole bunch of books on that subject. I have somewhat irrational fixations on both Culinary School and Urban Gardening, and have entire stacks organized around such subjects tucked into various corners of my room, not to mention that giant box of Paranormal Romance novels hidden behind my reading chair. Find what compels you! 

Join in on a Reading Challenge: one of my favorite things, every summer, is when the Seattle Public Library puts out their Book Bingo Reading Challenge. It guarantees that I'll pick up something unexpected over the summer, and I absolutely love the sense of validation that comes from checking off squares! 

party of adventurers: 

find your team

Join a book club! It's fun, and there's accountability in groups. It's easy and convenient to meet virtually, but it's also fun to meet in person. Go to an author event together, or a book festival, etc. and you'll find more ways to connect with like-minded, book-loving people. 

Which is important, because you should really try and surround yourself with other people who love books. If there aren't people in your real-life you can talk about reading with regularly - for instance, my younger brother and I have regular Zoom calls about Romance, while I chat with my friend Keller about Science Fiction - I would also recommend considering something like making a bookish Instagram account, where you can connect with book people around the world. There are a ton of different Facebook group pages where people meet up and talk about favorite authors and genres, too! 

Have a "Reading Party." I have only the best of memories about various Read-Ins we'd have in elementary or middle school, where we'd have entire hour blocks - or in one memorable instance, a whole afternoon! - dedicated to reading. We were allowed to bring in pillows and blankets, took snack breaks, had music playing softly in the background, and we could read wherever we wanted, including along the walls, underneath other desks, next to our friends, etc. Preserve that magic with your loved ones, by having a reading party all your own... grab a buddy or two, find somewhere quiet, and pull out something cool to read. Don't have any reading-minded friends? Ask if you can stay in a room with someone who is playing video games or cooking, doing a craft, etc. and make use of the time and proximity to read while they're busy. 

long rest to regain HP: 

take a break

"Go to bed" - or at least your bedroom - early. This forces you to either do a little reading in bed to wind your way down after a busy day, or it makes you sleepy and you wake up earlier, which gives you more time to read in the morning before you get your day started! 

Don't read in your actual bed, though. Make sure you're relaxed and comfy, sure, but try not to read in the place where you spend a lot of your day sleeping, too: on one hand, it may knock you out, and on the other, it may make it more difficult for you to sleep later.

In the words of my HR-focused, mission-minded sister, "try and take it back to the why." Give yourself a chance to really consider why you are so focused on reading more. Is it for the right reasons? Are you doing it because of positive pressure, or negative? Once you do some reflection on why it is important to you to make reading a priority, consider making those reasons into some form of external record: hang a poster next to your bookshelf, or write it on a bookmark to take with you. There are plenty of good reasons, but you need to find one that is most personal to you. Commit to making reading a priority. 

Think about how you feel when you read. What does reading, as a practice, feel like for you? Do you feel drained, frustrated, distracted? Do you feel renewed, introspective, rested? Where do you feel the effects of reading in your body... are you more relaxed, or do you feel cramped and claustrophobic? Were you constantly getting interrupted, did you feel like you couldn't relax, were you unable to focus for a long period of time? Listen to how you react to reading... if the overall experience is negative, then something needs to be changed, be it the location where you're reading, or the genre you're paying attention to, etc.

Don't try to force yourself if you're not having a good time. Sometimes there are just more important things to focus on, or you have other places in your life that require more attention. Reading should be an act of personal enjoyment, fun, a hobby instead of a chore. Don't be too hard on yourself if you're really not in a good place to be reading. 

Still, there's one more thing worth mentioning: at the end of the day, it's going to be the act of reading more that makes you... read more. Not only do your skills improve and you find yourself reading faster, but also, putting yourself into the habit makes reading a more likely way for you to pass the time regularly. 

Of course, if none of this all worked for you, there's another blog post coming in the next couple of days that might strike you as more helpful. (Particularly those of us who skew a little more to the Chaotic side of the alignment.) 

Whether you're a barbarian who dogears the pages of their Historical Fiction, or a warlock who needs to have at least one cup of hot tea and their favorite blanket to get comfortable with their favorite Romance author, I hope you find a way to read today! 

What's your favorite D&D alignment? Are you trying to up your reading goals in 2021, too? Let me know, in the comments below!