One of the major parts of the Medieval anchorite vocation was the space and the time to read. So reading as a vocation!? In a time when books were rare and few people could read, the anchorite went into their anchorhold to read. The books were controlled by their spiritual director. But the advice is simple: if in doubt, read.

So the following from Speculum Inclusorum via Hermits and anchorites in England, 1200–1550.

And so, if your taste for prayer or delight in meditation decreases, immediately seek out some edifying reading, the profit of which exceeds all estimation, since it offers a mirror of all vices and virtues, clearing distractions from the mind, attracting and enticing all virtues to the soul, and also sundering it from all vices, by a kind of assault on the reason, and by the urging of fear, as well as of love. …

And so, you recluses, by edifying reading of this kind, ‘Look to your vocation.’