Reading Routine 2016

I spend a great portion of my spare time reading, it is definitely my number one hobby - as you can probably tell if you read this blog with any regularity! I love reading books of all kinds: fiction, non-fiction, history, biographies, all sorts. I also love reading magazines and have spoken previously about Readly - the Netflix of magazines! So fitting in all I want to read on a weekly basis can be a challenge. I will separate this out into books and magazines, to give you an idea of how I try to make sure I make enough time to read everything I want to.

Books
I have spoken about my approach to selecting titles before on this blog - I set a seasonal reading list well in advance. This means that I can take a look at the genres and lengths and fit them into a typical 13 week season. I like to make sure that I have a good range of genres and book types and lengths, this allows me to follow a heavy history book with some light chick lit, for example. So once I set my seasonal list, I put dates beside these based on how long I think it would take me to get through. These dates are then put into my planner and I aim to work with those dates to get through all the books I need, giving more time to heavier books, longer books or classics, and less time to more frivolous and shorter works.

I curl up at the weekend, Saturday afternoons usually on the sofa with a coffee and a blanket, and that's my favourite reading time. In comfy clothes in my own house. During the week, I get about 45 minutes - 1 hour of solid reading done each morning on the train. I always read my book on my morning commute with my coffee, I feel most energised and really enjoy the journey to work.

Magazines
This is a little more complex. This is where my inner planning nerd and my book worm personality meet and they have a huge geeky party, and nobody else is invited because nobody else wants to bloody go.

I have a good few magazines - both monthly subscriptions and weekly - that I have on my Readly app, as well as additional subscriptions the the weekly Economist magazine, its bi-monthly sister publication 1843 (previously Intelligent Life, but recently rebranded) and the monthly National Geographic magazine. I have a set list of magazines for each week, that usually looks something like this (I counted five weeks in my April planner, but this would be over four weeks in months with four, for example):

Week 1:
Weight Watchers magazine
Delicious magazine
Good Housekeeping
Paris Match
Hollywood Reporter
Economist

Week 2:
Olive magazine
National Geographic
Women's Health (UK)
Rolling Stone
Paris Match
Hollywood Reporter
Economist

Week 3:
1843 (half, as this is bi-monthly)
Lonely Planet magazine
BBC Good Food
Paris Match
Hollywood Reporter
Economist

Week 4: 
Total Film
BBC History
Ideal Home
Rolling Stone
Paris Match
Hollywood Reporter
Economist

Week 5:

Fast Company

Cosmo Deutsch

Wanderlust

Women's Running

Paris Match
Hollywood Reporter
Economist

I tend to read these with a flask of coffee on my commute home, and for an hour or two in the evenings during the week. It's the perfect time to read magazines, as you jump from article to article and it is great for the end of a long work day when your brain is a little frazzled. I also read magazines when I first get into bed, which is one of my favourite times of the day - when D and I cuddle together for 25 minutes and spend time winding down reading our own little things. It is the most relaxing time of the day, for sure. I sit at the start of the week and I will schedule when I will read each magazine in the week, to make sure I can fit them all in.

So there you go, that's my reading routine and how I try to make sure I fit it all in. How do you approach your reading lists? I would love to hear from you :)