Вот бы у меня всегда находилось время не только читать, но и спокойно перечитывать любимые страницы.

Вот бы is a wish-making expression. In this sentence, it means something like if only or I wish.

A few useful points:

• бы is the key particle that marks unreality, wish, or hypothesis.
• вот does not literally mean here is in this expression. It adds emotional force.
• So Вот бы у меня всегда находилось время... means If only I always had time...

This is a very natural Russian way to express a personal wish.

Because in Russian, the subjunctive/conditional is formed with:

• a past tense verb form
• plus the particle бы

So находилось here is not really about past time. It is the form Russian uses for would be found / if only there were.

Compare:

• У меня находится время — sounds odd here and does not express the wish properly
• У меня находилось бы время or, more naturally in this structure, Вот бы у меня находилось время — expresses an unreal or desired situation

So the past form is grammatical, but the meaning is a wish, not past time.

Russian often expresses possession through the pattern у + genitive, not with a subject like English I have.

So:

• у меня есть время = I have time
• literally: at me there is time

Here the same idea appears in a more wishful form:

• Вот бы у меня всегда находилось время = If only I always had time

So у меня is not the subject in the English sense. It marks the person for whom the time exists or is available.

Because the grammatical subject is время, and время is:

• neuter
• singular

In the past tense, Russian verbs agree with the subject in gender and number:

• он находился
• она находилась
• оно находилось
• они находились

Since время is neuter singular, the verb must be находилось.

Both can be translated as there was time / I had time, but the nuance is different.

• было время = there was time, simply as a fact
• находилось время = time could be found, time somehow turned out to be available

So находилось adds the feeling that time is something one manages to find or make room for.

That makes the sentence slightly more expressive:

• not just having time
• but being able to find time

This is the standard Russian pattern for not only ..., but also ...

Here it connects two infinitives:

• не только читать
• но и спокойно перечитывать любимые страницы

So the meaning is:

• time not only to read
• but also to reread favorite pages calmly

A useful detail: in this construction, но и is normal and expected.

Because they depend on время.

Russian often uses время + infinitive to mean time to do something:

• есть время почитать
• нет времени читать
• находится время встретиться

So here:

• время читать
• время перечитывать

Both verbs stay in the infinitive because they describe what the time is for.

читать means to read.

перечитывать means to reread, often with the sense of reading again, perhaps more than once, or returning to something familiar.

So the sentence contrasts:

• basic reading: читать
• returning to beloved parts again: перечитывать

Also, перечитывать is imperfective, which fits the idea of a repeated or leisurely activity.

Because the sentence is about a general, ongoing possibility, not a single completed act.

Imperfective fits ideas like:

• habitual action
• process
• repeated activity
• activity in general

So:

• читать = to read, as an activity
• перечитывать = to reread, as an activity done from time to time

If you used perfective forms like прочитать or перечитать, the focus would move more toward completing a specific reading.

Here спокойно means something like:

• calmly
• unhurriedly
• at leisure
• without rushing

So it is not necessarily about emotional calmness only. It also suggests having enough time to reread in a relaxed way.

In this sentence, спокойно most naturally modifies перечитывать:

• not just reread
• but reread slowly and peacefully

Любимые страницы is the direct object of перечитывать, so it is in the accusative plural.

However, страницы is an inanimate plural noun, and for inanimate plurals, the accusative looks the same as the nominative:

• nominative plural: любимые страницы
• accusative plural: любимые страницы

So the form does not change.

Also, любимые страницы can mean literally favorite pages, but in context it can also suggest favorite passages or beloved parts of books.

The person is understood from у меня.

Even though Russian does not say я here, the meaning is clearly about the speaker:

• If only I always had time...

After время, the infinitives читать and перечитывать are interpreted as actions available to that same person.

So Russian does not need to repeat я. The sentence already makes the experiencer clear through у меня.

Because не только ..., но и ... is a paired conjunction, and the two coordinated parts are separated by a comma.

So:

• не только читать, но и спокойно перечитывать...

That comma is standard punctuation in Russian for this structure.

Yes, Russian word order is flexible, but changing it changes the emphasis.

This version:

• Вот бы у меня всегда находилось время...

puts the emotional wish first with вот бы, then quickly introduces у меня, and then всегда emphasizes the idea of always having that time.

So the current word order sounds natural and expressive.

If you move words around, the sentence may still be grammatical, but the focus shifts. For example:

• Вот бы всегда у меня находилось время... — stronger emphasis on always
• Вот бы у меня находилось время... — less emphasis on always if omitted

So the chosen order is not random; it helps shape the tone.