It’s Perfectly Fine to Be a Mood Reader
It’s been a long month. So, I did what I do best – watch loads of rom-coms (some in languages I don’t even know) and wipe out vats of ice cream.
Everyone has a coping mechanism, right?
What I also discovered was that I am a mood reader.
If you’re a bookworm who
☆ Creates never-ending TBR lists
☆ Has endless Pinterest pins about mangas you want to read.
☆ Compulsively screenshots every intriguing book cover you stumble upon.
☆ Abides by a strict reading schedule.
☆ Follows reading challenges.
… chances are that you experience a sense of guilt while indulging in mood reading.
Mood reading essentially is to read whatever you want to, whenever you want to based on a vibe. You just feel the attraction to a certain trope or genre.
This means that all those TBR lists or unread books on your shelves are thrown out the window.
So no more tight schedules for reading and a temporary goodbye to those reading challenges in your inbox.
And that’s where the guilt starts. You think that you have to read those books you’ve bought. Eventually guilt leads to insecurity—that maybe because you aren’t persisting with your reading schedules, you don’t deserve to be called a bookworm.
Instead of saying that our to-be-read novels should be read, we say they could be read. We just don’t want to. That reduces the insecurity and guilt around mood-reading.
Don’t we all love spontaneity? Remember those impromptu drives to the ice-cream store you went to as a child? Or, those out of the blue movie dates? Aren’t we always in the mood for something? Why not integrate it into reading too?
There comes a time when you just want to read, for the sake of reading. Perhaps, you don’t want to read anything. And we should allow ourselves to do these freely.
So forget about the cons of being a mood reader, and focus on its pros, some of which include:
☆ Reading anything and everything, anytime and anywhere. Or perhaps even avoiding reading altogether. Kind of like binge-watching a random Netflix show or staring off into space.
☆ Reading a greater variety of books. The keyword here is variety. I’ve found mood reading helps me read more diverse works, expanding my present understanding of the world.
☆ It’s not stressful—and we all know how hectic life is. Mood Reading = Mood Booster.
Embrace Mood-Reading!
