I Tried Not Reading for One Week. Here's What Happened.
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The book that gave me the idea of taking a week off from books
If you’ve visited the Serve Me the Sky Digital blog before, then you may already know: I love reading. I love reading so much that I read 118 books last year. I’m well aware that I can’t perpetually read more books, so I decided to cut back in 2020. Still, I never would have guessed that in 2020 I would take a week-long break from reading.
Following the recommendation of my therapist, I skeptically picked up a copy of The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. The book is a twelve-week course where you’re supposed to get in touch with your inner artist-child by journaling daily, doing a fun activity once/week (your “artist date”), and trying out recommended tasks that make you sit with your feelings. The whole way through, I’ve been doubtful that any of this will work. What would it even mean for it to “work”? I’m about five weeks in, but I’m plugging away.
One recommendation in a recent chapter stopped me in my tracks. “Engage in a week of reading deprivation.” I stared at the book aghast. I nearly threw it across the room. Excuse me? ME? Not read for a week?! It’s true that I’m an obsessive, habitual, voracious reader. But it’s also true that I’m extremely stubborn. So I decided to try it out.
Curious for the rationale behind the week of reading deprivation? Cameron claims that it’s intended to make you more observant and in touch with your own creativity. Here’s what I got out of the experience of one week of reading deprivation.
I got cranky.
The simple act of reading the phrase “don’t read for a week” made me grumpy, so I should have known that not reading would make me even grumpier. But damn, I was really cranky. I complained endlessly to my poor husband. What am I supposed to do with myself?! This week-long break from reading made me realize it’s really hard to change your habits! I typically read from 9-10:30pm each night; I had to find another way to fill that time.
I felt out of the loop culturally.
This one was unexpected! I didn’t realize how many articles I read every day. The Artist’s Way said you can’t even read a newspaper or magazine article, so I avoided them. My bookmarks list was quite lengthy by the end of the week. On the first day I was allowed to read again, I read 12 New York Times articles in a single sitting. I enjoy staying up to date with cultural conversations on Twitter every day, but not being able to read the articles people share made me feel left out.
I spent more time on my phone.
Should’ve seen this one coming. My phone is the easiest thing to reach for if I can’t reach for a book. Need a distraction? Time to check Twitter for the 50th time today. We came home from errands on a Saturday afternoon and both of us were ready to rest and relax. Tim went upstairs to play music, and I curled up in my reading chair and looked at my phone. For an hour and a half. How did that happen?! Well, I read my entire Twitter feed, watched Keith from the Try Guys eat every item on the menu of Shake Shack, then fell down a TikTok rabbit hole. Initially, I was upset with myself for “wasting” so much time. Then I stepped back and reminded myself that this whole week was an experiment. I tried to be nonjudgmental and observant. After that Saturday afternoon, I didn’t fall into the phone black hole quite as dramatically for the rest of the experiment.
I observed the world around me.
Julia Cameron claims the whole reading deprivation thing will make you more observant. I was skeptical. Then one night, we were out for a walk and I turned to my husband and said, “Wow, did you ever notice they have a stained glass front door?” I’d walked by that house hundreds of times and never noticed it. I started to think that there may be something to the whole reading deprivation thing.
I started writing.
It was Day 5 of no reading, and I woke up from a strange dream. I lay there, chewing on the dream for a bit, then crawled out of bed and grabbed my laptop. I sat on the floor in my office and wrote 1,500 words in 25 minutes. It was a short story idea. I’ve always struggled with creative writing, putting too much pressure on myself to write something good, whatever that means. I make excuses like lack of time or lack of ideas. I tell myself I’m not creative enough, I don’t have anything to say that doesn’t come from real life. But by the end of that Monday, I had written 3,000 words. I think taking a break from reading cleared some mental space for me to have an idea and write it down.
Would I do it again? I can’t believe I’m saying this...but I think I would. I haven’t finished the short story, and I’ve already read a whole novel since breaking the reading hiatus. I may return to the short story. And I may try taking a week off reading once a quarter or every six months. Though it wasn’t an enjoyable experience, I’d be lying if I said I got nothing out of it. I didn’t discover new hobbies or have a magical epiphany, but I started writing words down, and that’s certainly something.
Have you ever tried taking a week off from a beloved hobby? What did you learn? I’d love to hear about your experience--tweet me at @servemethesky!
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