Immersive Reading: Can This TikTok Trick Really Fix Your Reading Slump?

Whether your current reading feels lacklustre or you haven’t actually touched a book in a while, a reading slump – that period when books feel more like a chore than an escape – can be quite unsettling for booklovers. I know the frustration well: typically I tear through books, with reading an important part of my daily routine to feel settled, calm and mentally well. So when they just don’t sit right, I feel off kilter.

There are plenty of antidotes: read something short, revisit an old favourite, put down the book that started the slump in the first place. But they don’t always work. So when I saw BookTok was peddling a new solution to my age-old reading slump problem, it caught my attention.

What Is Immersive Reading?

Many creators on TikTok swear by something called immersive reading, which involves listening to an audiobook while also reading the text – essentially like being read to. BookTokers say this helps them focus on the text at hand and find a steady pace to read at, while others describe immersive reading as calming.

To lifelong bookworm and bibliotherapist Lucy Pearson, immersive reading helps readers ‘disappear so completely into a good book that you genuinely don’t want to pick up your phone, and when the outside world seems to melt away. It’s when you look up from the page, and an hour has passed without you realising.’

Immersive reading is nothing new: Amazon brands Kindle and Audible have jointly offered Whispersync since 2012, which allows readers to switch between ebook and audiobook reading without losing their place in the text – or to utilise both simultaneously. But it’s certainly having a renaissance, which Lucy pins on ‘our addictions to our phones’ and ‘the ever-present temptation of doomscrolling that is so hard to curb’.

Why BookTok Is Obsessed With Immersive Reading

‘Our attention is constantly being fragmented by notifications, emails, and endless scrolling, so being able to sink into a good book feels like a bygone luxury,’ Lucy says. Indeed, settling down with a book in your hands and also listening through your headphones feels incredibly intentional. When I tried it, it signalled to my brain that this is reading time – not just a snatch of time before work, before bed or on the tube, but a specific time that I have carved out specifically to read.

‘I don’t think people are craving more content – there’s enough of that around – they’re craving more depth,’ Lucy says. ‘We spend so much of our time consuming bite-sized content that sitting down with the intention to read for an hour, even though our daily screentime is often five times that, can feel both indulgent and rebellious. Immersive reading offers something our phones simply can’t: sustained attention, imagination, and the chance to inhabit someone else’s world for a while.’

The best genres to try immersive reading with? ‘Books with a really strong sense of atmosphere – thrillers, memoirs, literary fiction with rich settings, sweeping family sagas and page-turning mysteries all work well because they create a world that readers genuinely want to spend time in,’ Lucy says. ‘Ultimately, though, the best immersive book is simply one that makes you forget you’re reading – and everyone’s version of that will look a little different.’

Does It Actually Work?

That said, when I settled down to try immersive reading, I didn’t find it relaxing, exactly. When you’re used to reading in silence, being read to can feel quite overwhelming at first. Even when you’re reading with both eyes and ears, the mind can still wander – and it’s harder to backtrack a few paragraphs when that also involves pausing, rewinding and finding the right place on the page. Then there’s the speed of the audiobook, which probably won’t naturally match your inner voice – and can sound cartoonishly distorted when sped up to match your own pace.

Perhaps, then, what matters isn’t the immersive element itself but that intentional carving out of time. ‘There’s no doubt about it that it’s much easier and takes far less effort to lose yourself in a rabbit hole of TikTok reels and Instagram stories than it does to read,’ Lucy says. ‘And – given that most of us spend our days switching between tabs (both literally and metaphorically), replying to emails and looking at screens, it can take a while for your brain to settle in. But once it does, reading can become one of the most restorative things we can do. It requires intention, and attention, to begin with, but it’s always worth the effort in the end.’

Indeed, there’s an important distinction to be made when suffering a reading slump. For one, it might not be about books at all, Lucy suggests. ‘Reading slumps are often more about life just life-ing. We’re tired, we’re distracted, we’re overwhelmed, and it can sometimes feel impossible to really sink our teeth into a novel. The beauty of immersive reading is that it’s a real choice to slow down, rather than race through a book for the sake of it. Instead of focusing on how much you’ve read, and chasing a GoodReads goal or reading a classic to tick it off an imaginary list, you’re simply enjoying the experience of reading – a rare approach in the age of doomscrolling. Once you’ve experienced it, it often reminds you why you fell in love with reading in the first place.’

How to Get Lost In A Book Again

So how else can you get lost in a book again? ‘Try to make a ritual out of reading: put your phone in another room, make yourself a cup of coffee, or pour yourself a glass of wine. Rid yourself of any distractions, and commit to reading for an hour in the way you schedule yoga classes or gym sessions. Give yourself the permission to read without the guilt that you should be doing something else,’ Lucy recommends.

‘Don’t worry about choosing a book that everyone else is reading: pick one you genuinely want to read, and one that you’re not intimidated by – you’re far better off starting with a book you loved as a child or a pacy thriller, than a Russian classic,’ she adds. ‘Speak to friends, booksellers, or a bibliotherapist if you’re not sure where to start, and reading retreats (I run several a year) are also a great way to get back into a love of reading. And if you start something, and find you’re not into it after a couple of chapters, move on to something new – life really is too short for bad books.’

‘And finally, don’t underestimate the power of making reading part of your routine,’ Lucy suggests. ‘Carving out a reading nook at home, getting up an hour earlier than usual to read, or finding a cosy bookstore-café in which to read can help your brain associate reading with pleasure rather than productivity.’