Five years ago today, I was officiating a basketball game when the girls at the scorer’s table told us – at half-time – that an NBA game had been cancelled due to concerns over the Coronavirus (as it was known at first). The next day at work, we were told that the school would be closed on Friday because of an expected snowstorm and the ever-accelerating threat of the virus. Then everything came to a halt.

It was a weird time. All of us had to adjust on the fly and figure out how to deal with the blizzard of news heading our way. A lot of things happened. Information and misinformation flowed incessantly. Looking back, it feels a bit surreal that it even happened.

For an introvert like me, it wasn’t that huge of a deal. I could live with being somewhat isolated from other people for multiple days or weeks. I like having time to do whatever I want to. Play video or board games, build Lego sets, do puzzles, spend a bit of time on whatever streaming service I was subscribed to at the time. I also started jogging everyday to stay in some sort of shape.

Furthermore, I now look at that time with some sort of affection because it affected my reading habits to a large extent. Before March 2020, I read maybe five to fifteen books per year. This might seem like quite a reasonable sum to many. And for the most part, I agree. However, I still felt at that time like reading more would be a net benefit.

Slowly but surely, I started reading more and more. First, I told myself the last thing I would do in bed before going to sleep was read. Then I decided to read when I felt I was on my phone for too long. Then I was reading instead of being on my phone. Then I started reading during the commercial breaks of sporting events. Then every morning while drinking coffee. You get the idea. It became a habit deeply embedded in my everyday life. That year, I read thirty-five books. Then a bit more the next year. And a lot more the following year. I went over seventy for the past couple of years and I’m on pace to do so again. All told, in the five years since the start of the pandemic, I’m very close to three hundred. Even when life came back to normal and free time was not as abundant, reading remained a daily practice.

I feel fortunate ; I was able to fit a solid reading routine in my every day life without sacrificing anything of real value. It has so many benefits. Among other thigs, it requires me to settle down and relax, it helps me learn about any subject I want to and it allows me to explore new worlds and fascinating characters.

Coincidently, I am currently reading a book about the value and art of reading, especially for children and teens. It also highlights how much this habit has fallen out of favour in the past few decades and the major consequences of this drop for society as a whole. I was somewhat aware of that trend – I am en elementary school teacher, after all – but I am saddened by its scope.

What I’m trying to say is this : reading is one of the healthiest and easiest daily habits you can get into. Especially now with e-readers and the staggering amount of used book stores (not to mention local libraries), it’s increasingly accessible. There is no good reason to deprive yourself of that pleasure, so get started!