One of the questions I often get asked by my friends is how am I able to read two or sometimes three books a week especially since I work full time as a Software Engineer and also engage in a number of other activities. So in this article, I want to talk about how you can also develop the habit of reading and enjoy the great world of books out there.
Why should you read more?
Before I tell you how can you read more, I feel it’s important that I tell you that why should you read more. We can agree that books contain some of the most profound and in-depth insights ever recorded. And if you are not reading that much you are probably missing out on these. There are a number of other reasons why reading is a great habit to develop such as, it enhances one’s vocabulary, imagination, and understanding. I believe there are a few reasons why people are not able to commit to reading. Let’s see what are those.What NOT to do to develop the habit of reading?
- In my opinion, the biggest mistake people make is that they consider reading as “work”. More often than not we think we have to read something just because everyone else around us is reading that. When we start reading with that mindset we don’t enjoy the process. I would rather read a book about a wizard going to a mystical land with talking trees and falling in love with another attractive wizard with supernatural powers than a book on human anatomy. Simply because I will enjoy reading that. I will not read a book if it doesn’t appeal to me. What is most important to understand is that people’s choices differ and what may be interesting for your friend may not be interesting for you.
- This brings me to the second thing which you shouldn’t do. You shouldn’t get demoralized and give up reading altogether if the first book you picked up wasn’t able to hold your interest. I read this book recently, “On Writing Well” by William Zienser and in that book, he mentions that it is up to the writer to write in such a way that keeps the reader glued to the book. So if I open a book and don’t enjoy reading it, I close the book and move on to the next one.
- And finally, another problem why a lot of us are not able to commit to the habit of reading is that we give up reading a book midway. Just think about the number of times it has happened to you that you were reading a book that you liked, and then you got so caught up in other activities that you stopped reading and now it’s just another book in your unfinished list. This I believe is the easiest obstacle to get over from.