Uploaded March 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
For Lent this year, I decided to give up fiction.
As someone who runs a book channel and spends most of her time reading novels, this felt like a meaningful and slightly uncomfortable Lenten practice. In this video I talk about why I chose to give up fiction for the season of Lent, what I hope the practice will do for my reading life, and what I’ll be reading instead.
Lent is traditionally a time for fasting, reflection, and reordering our habits. For me, stepping away from fiction is an experiment in attention, discipline, and curiosity. What happens when the stories I usually reach for disappear for a while?
In this video I discuss:
• Why I chose to give up fiction for Lent
• How this fits into the tradition of Lenten fasting
• What kinds of books I’ll be reading instead
• Struggles of making changes
• Reflections on reading, discipline, and intentional living
0:00 intro
0:58 Context (check-in one)
4:14 Why fiction?
5:25 Fat Tuesday and Ash Wednesday
7:45 Struggles (A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra)
10:11 The Color of Water by James McBride
13:30 The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman
15:30 Percy Jackson by Rick Riordan
16:00 Thoughts so far
17:30 Check-in two - preamble
18:33 Struggles continue
24:03 Struggles/fiction/ambitious projects
26:32 Bad habits reemerge
28:50 What reading fiction means to me
33:22 The plan going forward
39:50 final thoughts
word salad:
memoir
nonfiction
Tudors
Elizabeth I
literary fiction
literary books
literary fiction meaning
book genres explained
fiction genres
booktube
booktube analysis
reader personality books
booktube essay
book analysis youtube
Makeup used:
Hannah Louise Poston X Salt New York saltnewyork.com/?srsltid=AfmBOoph11sTSWTtHEC29jmbZOj9FJRr_zNY9j-lwPrR4n_qhlAS5BR3
Amuse me in my inbox - rachelle.e.swearingen (at) gmail.com
Befriend me on Goodreads -goodreads.com/user/show/139310469-shelly-swearingen
Drop by on Instagram - Shellyish
For Lent this year, I decided to give up fiction.
As someone who runs a book channel and spends most of her time reading novels, this felt like a meaningful and slightly uncomfortable Lenten practice. In this video I talk about why I chose to give up fiction for the season of Lent, what I hope the practice will do for my reading life, and what I’ll be reading instead.
Lent is traditionally a time for fasting, reflection, and reordering our habits. For me, stepping away from fiction is an experiment in attention, discipline, and curiosity. What happens when the stories I usually reach for disappear for a while?
In this video I discuss:
• Why I chose to give up fiction for Lent
• How this fits into the tradition of Lenten fasting
• What kinds of books I’ll be reading instead
• Struggles of making changes
• Reflections on reading, discipline, and intentional living
0:00 intro
0:58 Context (check-in one)
4:14 Why fiction?
5:25 Fat Tuesday and Ash Wednesday
7:45 Struggles (A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra)
10:11 The Color of Water by James McBride
13:30 The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman
15:30 Percy Jackson by Rick Riordan
16:00 Thoughts so far
17:30 Check-in two - preamble
18:33 Struggles continue
24:03 Struggles/fiction/ambitious projects
26:32 Bad habits reemerge
28:50 What reading fiction means to me
33:22 The plan going forward
39:50 final thoughts
word salad:
memoir
nonfiction
Tudors
Elizabeth I
literary fiction
literary books
literary fiction meaning
book genres explained
fiction genres
booktube
booktube analysis
reader personality books
booktube essay
book analysis youtube
Makeup used:
Hannah Louise Poston X Salt New York saltnewyork.com/?srsltid=AfmBOoph11sTSWTtHEC29jmbZOj9FJRr_zNY9j-lwPrR4n_qhlAS5BR3
Amuse me in my inbox - rachelle.e.swearingen (at) gmail.com
Befriend me on Goodreads -goodreads.com/user/show/139310469-shelly-swearingen
Drop by on Instagram - Shellyish
