You finish the last page, close the cover, and the room goes quiet. Then your hand drifts toward your phone. Most readers know that moment, and it’s rarely the one they want to have after a good book.
It isn’t only a feeling. A 2025 study in iScience, drawing on the American Time Use Survey from 2003 to 2023, found that reading for pleasure in the US fell about 40% over those twenty years. By 2023, the average person read for just 16 minutes a day, and only 16% read for pleasure on any given day. The time hasn’t disappeared. It’s going to screens.
One fix is to stop fighting for a few quiet hours and fill them with something slower. A hands-on hobby that sits right next to your reading chair does that well, and paint by numbers might be the easiest one to start.
A Hobby That Feels a Lot Like Reading
Think about what you love in a reading session: no notifications, a warm drink, a lamp, and a task that absorbs you completely. Paint by numbers gives you the same setup. You sit down, pick a numbered section, and work through it one small shape at a time.
Custom kits take it one step further. With Number Artist, you can turn your own photo into a numbered canvas, which means the finished painting can be your actual reading corner, your bookshelf wall, or your dog asleep on the armchair. Before you order, check the product page for current sizes and turnaround times, since those details change.
No Talent Required
Most people who stall on a creative hobby stall at the blank page. Paint by numbers removes that page. The outline is printed, every color has a number, and your only job is to match them. Nobody needs to know how to draw.
Why the Structure Helps
Readers like a clear next step; it’s why we say “just one more chapter.” A numbered canvas works the same way. You always know what comes next, and finishing a small patch gives you a stopping point, much like the end of a chapter. The tradeoff is real, though: the big sky or wall areas can feel repetitive. Put on a podcast or save those sections for your lowest-energy evenings.
What the Research Says About Creative Downtime
The iScience findings are a reminder that reading now competes with everything else on our devices. The good news is that a creative habit seems to help the mind settle. A University of Arizona Health Sciences feature from February 2026 points to a 2016 Drexel University study in which a 45-minute art-making session lowered cortisol, a stress marker, in 75% of 39 adults, whatever their experience level.
Keep the caveats in view. That was a small study of a single session, and it looked at art-making broadly, not paint by numbers specifically. That kind of evidence shows correlation, not proof that painting causes the improvement. Treat it as a good reason to try, not a medical promise.
Build a Paint-and-Read Ritual
The simplest routine is the one you’ll actually keep. Set the canvas, brushes, and a small cup of water on a tray near your chair. Paint for 20 to 30 minutes, then switch to your book for a chapter. Alternate if you like, or let the painting be your wind-down after you finish reading.
UCLA Health notes that research suggests about two hours a week of art delivers the most wellbeing benefit. That’s four or five short sessions, which fits neatly into the evenings you’d otherwise lose to scrolling.
Take a position on sound: skip audiobooks while you paint. Following a story and matching color numbers both take attention, and doing both at once splits it. Silence or soft instrumental music works better.
Your setup matters too. If you’re still shaping the space, our collection of cozy reading corner ideas shows how little room a good nook needs, and a side table is often all a canvas requires. For a moodier atmosphere, a calm green reading room pairs surprisingly well with the quiet of a paint session.
Turn Your Favorite Reading Spot Into a Canvas
Book lovers are hard to shop for. They already own the bestsellers, and another candle won’t cut it. A canvas built from a photo of their own library, a favorite bookstore, or themselves reading with a pet gives them something to do and something to hang.
A few tips for picking the photo:
- Choose a sharp, well-lit image; blurry shots turn muddy once they’re converted into numbered shapes.
- Favor simple compositions with clear shapes over crowded shelves, which can mean hundreds of tiny sections.
- Match the subject to the reader. Our guide to different genres to try can spark ideas, such as a gothic window for a mystery fan or a sunny garden for a romance reader.
Plan ahead as well. Custom kits take time to produce and ship, so order about two weeks early for a birthday and well before mid-November for the holidays.
Final Thoughts
Reading and painting pay off in the same way: they make you slow down. In a year when pleasure reading keeps sliding, a quiet companion hobby is a cheap way to protect the hours you’ve set aside for yourself.
Try it this week. Put a small canvas next to your chair, set a timer for 30 minutes, and paint before you pick up your book. You may find the book feels better afterward.
