Today is the day! What is Australian Reading Hour? It’s a day where everyone is encouraged to stop for an hour, pick up a book, and read it. Read it to yourself, read it to your children, read to someone else’s children. Read to another adult who can’t read. Just read!
It may seem odd for someone who reads for more than an hour every single day to be making a fuss about this, but it’s the bigger picture of course, the large scale encouragement of reading that I like to get behind and support.
Because I do read everyday, all the time, I still wanted to do something a little different with my reading time today to mark the occasion. So I got up earlier than normal and read over breakfast, not something I generally do on a work day. It was extremely relaxing and while I probably couldn’t be organised enough to set aside an hour every morning before work, it made me realise that even fifteen minutes of reading over breakfast, instead of scrolling through social media and answering emails, is probably a better way to start my day. Food for thought!
So, what did I read this morning for my reading hour? I have been working my way this week, in between other books, through a short story collection that is due for release at the end of October. An Evening in Paradise by Lucia Berlin. It’s a posthumous compilation of previously unpublished stories. I don’t read a lot of short stories; the shortness of them tends to inhibit my enjoyment. I want to get into something, not have it all over not long after it has just begun. Surprisingly though, I am finding that Lucia’s writing is breaking through this barrier for me. She has a way of wielding a lot of power with few words and her stories are incredibly engaging. I can see why her work continues to garner so much attention.
I hope you set aside some time to read today and if you do, please let me know what you read. You can find more information on Australian Read Hour over at their official website.
Theresa Smith Writes 
It was part of my morning routine to read over breakfast before I went to work.
Much more enjoyable – but my guess is that it would perhaps also be less stressful? Emails and social media can sometimes bring time-consuming obligations, things you have to do or even occasionally hurt feelings, and so it’s better not to have them preying on your mind all day:)
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I always read over breakfast on the weekend, but there’s no real time limit then. I have a routine at present where I do my blogging social media and answer emails related to that while having breakfast, but it does always lead to this and that and requires a level of concentration different to simply being in the moment with a book. I should do a trial!
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It was why I always took longer to read NF… because I read NF at breakfast and novels at bed time:)
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That’s a good idea!
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I read everyday and I read to my granddaughter most days but I had a special book, that she was very keen to read, set aside for this special day. She was very excited when I said today was the day. We read a story from Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Bat. Pirate Dance Party. It was so funny and I’m sure I will be reading that story again and again.
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I love how you set aside a special book for the day and built the excitement!
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Hahahaha I approached it kind of the same way – reading is as much a part of my daily routine as cooking dinner or taking a shower, so perhaps I’m not the real target of the Australian Reading Hour, but I wanted to give it a go anyway. I really struggle to read in the mornings the way that you did, mostly because I find I “just one more chapter” myself into falling completely behind in everything, so it’s best saved ’til the end of the day where all I’ll miss out on is sleep.
For my Reading Hour, the tweak I made was actually putting a clock on it: making sure I was fully, 100% focused on the book (no checking phones, no topping up the wine) for the whole hour. It felt really different! On the one hand, it made reading feel a little more chore-y, which I didn’t love, BUT it also made me a lot more conscious of what I was doing and where my mind was, and I was surprised how quickly an hour flies by when you’re properly focused on what’s in front of you.
I think it’s a great initiative, especially for families (I love the idea of a whole family sitting down to read together for one whole hour, instead of gathering around a TV or staring at their phones – so Dickensian!).
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I like how you clocked it. Good idea! I had no luck at all with getting my kids to read for an hour and I didn’t even entertain the notion of mentioning it to my husband. It was a solo effort in my house! But all reading usually is.
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Hahahahaha they don’t know what they’re missing! 😉
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That’s what I keep telling them!
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