Some of my favorite, most peaceful, childhood memories involve books and reading.

I can remember reading Little House on the Prairie while lying in bed on an unusually beautiful fall day, a warm breeze blowing in through the open window.

And reading an entire Nancy Drew mystery in one sitting, while listening to rain falling on the corrugated metal of the root-cellar door, just on the other side of the window.

And being so utterly transported by certain stories and settings that I fervently believed I might discover an actual secret garden gate or hidden cupboard door, or even meet a few fairies or tiny gnomes in the woods.

If this 👆— or something similar — was your experience, too, do you struggle to find that same bookish bliss now?

Or, let’s be honest, do you even remember the last time you read a book just for the fun of it?

I don’t mean a book you were “supposed” to read, but a book of fiction — or a short story — that you read because you wanted to. A book or story that transported you to your blissfully bookish happy place as easily as your early favorites used to.

Do you miss the simple pleasure of curling up with a book that makes you feel good?

The only reading advice you’ll need …

When you’re searching for the hidden gate, the cupboard door, the mossy path that will lead you back into the enchanted forest of your bookish imagination, most of the advice you’ll hear is some variation of “read this specific book,” “read this entire list of books,” or “join a book club” … “just read already!”

But that advice won’t get you very far when you’re feeling burned out and, frankly, exhausted after reading too many serious, “heavy,” sad stories … or if you believe that you’re no longer “allowed” to read fiction at all, or no longer “allowed” to read simply for the fun of it … or if you have absolutely no time or focus to spare.

Instead, I’d like to offer my secret — okay, two secrets — to (re)discovering a reading life that’s enchanting, blissful, and easy.

First: To feel like a book-crazy kid again, you need to read like a book-crazy kid again.

And, second (yes, I know this runs counter to everyone else’s advice): Read less, not more.

When you “go back to the beginning” to rediscover your bookish bliss, there’s no need to read ALL the time, like you used to when you were a kid. Or to read ONLY children’s books. Or even to join a book club or read the book(s) everyone says you must.

I’d like to invite you instead to find — and savor, in bite-sized pieces — the books and stories that remind you of the ones you used to love, back when reading still felt magical.

The ones full of the same bookish goodness you reveled in when you were a book-crazy kid: adorable animal characters, cozy garden and forest settings, delicious food, and an enchanting written world you want to climb inside and live in.