Let’s Talk Bookish: When Are Reading Breaks a Good Idea?

Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme, created and hosted by Rukky @ Eternity Books and Dani @ Literary Lion, where we discuss certain topics, share our opinions, and spread the love by visiting each other’s posts. You can check out more about this meme here!

This week’s topic is: When are reading breaks a good idea?

I might be making myself look really dumb here, but I’m a little confused by this topic because I can’t tell what it means by “reading breaks.”

Does it mean breaks from reading or breaks for reading? Because honestly, it’s always a good idea to take breaks for reading–waiting in line, sitting in a waiting room, driving down the interstate…all appropriate reading break times. Okay, maybe not that last one. Don’t read and drive, people. Is dangerous.

As for when it’s a good time to take breaks from reading, I can only speak from my own experience.

I would say any time that reading for fun begins to feel like work, it’s a good a idea to take a break. I think that’s it is possible to have too much of a good thing, and that it can eventually wear us down. After my first semester of grad school was when I took my first break from reading. Getting a master’s degree in English and education in only 2 years was hard, and I almost lost some of my love for reading.

I took another break from reading during my second pregnancy because my brain refused to retain anything at all. I could read the same page 19 times, and I’d still not have a clue, but that’s pregnancy-brain for you.

In my opinion, unless reading is part of your career, you should feel free to take a break. Enjoy your hobbies!