How to Get Back into Reading as an Adult

A gentle guide to finding your way back to books

I used to always have a book on the go. One on the nightstand, one in my bag, and I never gave it a second thought. Then work got busier, my parents needed more of my time (and I wanted to give it to them), and the books slowly stopped coming along for the ride.

I just looked up one day and couldn’t remember the last time I had actually finished one.

If you’re trying to get back into reading as an adult, you’ve probably noticed that it’s harder than it sounds. Choosing a book feels strangely unfamiliar, at least it does for me. Sitting down with one, you read the same paragraph three times and wonder where your concentration went! The good news is that you don’t need a strict routine or a big, shiny reading goal to start reading again. You only need to find what works for you now, and we’ll walk through a few gentle ways to do that.

Why it’s hard to get back into reading

I never made a decision to stop reading. There was no final chapter. I’d get home from work, deal with whatever life needed from me, answer the emails that had followed me through the front door, and by the time everything finally went quiet, I only had the energy to scroll. A book felt like one more thing asking for my attention.

Maybe that’s close to your story, maybe it isn’t. These are only possible reasons, and yours may be completely different. But a few tend to show up. Responsibilities crowd out the gaps where reading used to live. Phones and notifications can pull us from one thing to the next, so a book that once absorbed you can suddenly feel slow. You might find yourself reading the same page over and over, wondering why you can’t seem to settle into it.

Getting back into reading after a long break can feel clumsy at first, and then there’s the comparison trap: measuring yourself against the reader you used to be, the one who finished a book a week, and deciding you’ve fallen behind at something that was supposed to be fun.

Before you try to bring reading back into your life, it helps to work out what’s actually in your way.

Start with books you actually want to read

For most of my adult life, I was a nonfiction person. If a book couldn’t teach me something, I wasn’t interested. Fiction felt like dessert I hadn’t earned.

Then came cancer, and my taste in books did something I never saw coming. I wanted Christmas romances. The cheesier the better! Small snowy towns, a bakery about to close, a stranger with a suspiciously good jawline (you know the ones). I read them one after another, completely without apology, because for a few hours at a time they gave me somewhere else to be. A book I would have rolled my eyes at a few years earlier turned out to be exactly what I needed. The right book, I learned, is whichever one you want right now.

So when you’re choosing your next book, don’t assume that you’ll still want what you used to want. Interests shift. The devoted nonfiction reader may crave a story, while someone who used to read novels might find themselves drawn to memoirs, history, or a subject they’ve always wanted to understand better. Ask what you’re after today: something absorbing, something light, or something that scratches a curiosity?

When you’re returning to reading, it helps to choose a book that’s easy to settle into. A page-turner, a shorter book, an author you already trust, or a genre you know you like are all good starting points. If you’re not sure what to pick, try a sample or ask a friend whose taste you trust for a recommendation.

And please skip the books you feel obligated to read. The bestseller, the classic, the one someone insists will change your life … none of them is automatically the right place to start. A book that interests you will do more for your reading life than one that merely looks impressive on your shelf.

Start small and let your reading stamina return

The first step back into reading can be smaller than you think. Five or ten minutes. A few pages. One chapter, if it happens to be a good one.

A short session lowers the barrier to starting, and starting is the hard part. An hour feels like something you have to clear your schedule for, and we all know how that goes (the schedule never clears). Ten minutes can slip into the gaps your day already has: before bed, over lunch, while you wait for an appointment. When my days were at their fullest, an hour every evening would have sounded like a joke, but ten minutes? I could always find ten minutes.

Keep the book where you’ll see it. A book on a shelf has to be remembered, while a book on the coffee table, or tucked into the bag you carry everywhere, gets picked up almost by accident.

Don’t expect to be swept away right away. After a long break, it can take a few pages (or a few sessions) to settle in, so give yourself that adjustment time.

Making reading easy to start and making yourself read are two very different things. The first removes friction. The second turns a pleasure into homework, and nobody builds a reading habit out of homework. So skip the streaks, the trackers and the yearly book count. A reading habit can be as simple as something you look forward to at the end of the day.

Make reading easier in a world full of distractions

Sometimes the book is perfectly fine, and everything around it is the problem. The phone buzzes on the arm of the chair, a quick check turns into twenty minutes, and the page you were on is still the page you were on.

If you find it hard to settle into a book, start with the interruptions. Silence your notifications, leave your phone in another room, or try one short stretch with nothing competing for you. It’s easier to stay with a book when your phone isn’t within arm’s reach.

Then think about what setting suits you. Some people need complete quiet. Others read beautifully with a television murmuring in the next room. There’s no correct answer, so skip any advice that insists on a perfectly peaceful environment.

The format counts too. Paper books, e-books and audiobooks are all reading. Audiobooks can be a good way to ease back into reading, whether you’re out for a walk or folding laundry. A physical book is lovely when you’d like a break from screens.

Timing matters more than we admit. If you’re exhausted or your mind is still at the office, a shorter session or a different time of day might help. If you keep losing your place, resist the urge to decide you lack discipline. Ask whether it’s the environment, the timing or the book itself. Sometimes, concentrating on a book simply means noticing which of those three needs to change.

Give yourself permission to put a book down

You’re allowed to stop reading a book. Many of us were raised to finish what we start, and when you’re trying to return to reading, that rule can quietly sabotage you. When you push through a book you dislike, the dislike spreads. Before long, it attaches itself to reading in general, and the whole thing feels like a chore.

A simple test: if you keep finding reasons to avoid a particular book, ask yourself whether you’re still interested in it or you just feel obligated to finish. If it’s the second one, set it down. You can pick it up another time, when it might suit you better, or never.

The same freedom applies everywhere. No page quotas, no monthly counts. Read fiction on Monday and nonfiction on Thursday. Keep two or three books going at once if that suits you. Finding books you enjoy takes some trial and error, and the ones you abandon are simply part of working out what suits you.

You also don’t need a reason beyond enjoyment. A book doesn’t have to teach you anything, improve you or make you more productive (if you need proof, see my Christmas romance era). Sometimes, the best way back into reading is to choose a book simply because you want to read it.

Find a reading rhythm that fits your life now

Once you’ve had a few good reading sessions, you may start wondering how to make reading a regular part of your life. Start by picking one or two times in the week when reading could fit without a fight. Sunday mornings with your coffee, perhaps, and the quiet stretch right after dinner. Keep a book wherever you’d actually read it, so there’s nothing to hunt for.

Let the rhythm bend. Some weeks you’ll read every night and other weeks the book will sit untouched, and neither means you’ve failed. If it helps, borrow from the library before you buy a stack of books you may never finish (the library asks nothing of you but a return date). Then pay attention to what makes you want to come back: a certain author, a certain time of day, a certain chair.

My own rhythm is still a work in progress. My life looks very different from the days when I always had a book going, and I’m learning to make time for reading in the life I actually have. Maybe that’s where you are, too. You can find your way back slowly, and a good rhythm should serve your enjoyment, never become one more standard to measure yourself against.

Start with one book that interests you

Coming back to reading after years away may take a little experimenting, and that’s perfectly fine. You don’t need to recreate an old routine, stick to a certain genre, or set a target for the year.

One small step for today: choose a book that genuinely interests you, read a few pages, and see whether you’d like to keep going.

You don’t need to do more than that to begin. Reading can find its way back into your life without ever becoming a project, and one evening you may look up and realize you’ve been turning pages for far longer than ten minutes.