How to cultivate the habit of reading.
A lot of us want to read books, which implies establishing a habit
of reading. For some of us just starting to get in reading or developing the
habit of reading becomes difficult, at the beginning. And because of certain
reasons most of the people give up the idea of reading.
There are a number of benefits to reading. Reading can upgrade
your mind and helps you see the world in a different and better way. It makes
you empathetic, and an essential way to help you out in any action. Through
reading, you build a more solid foundation of communication. When you’re
reading, you’re actually gaining experience, as books are the essence of
someone’s lifetime experience. And you learn from that experience just by
reading. If you want to explore the benefits of reading you can read: https://quilltoscroll.blogspot.com/2020/05/reasons-why-you-should-start-reading_3.html
Let’s begin with some powerful
techniques to develop the habit of reading.
Read
Everything:
The first and foremost technique to start reading is to read
everything that you see. It can be disposed of newspaper, the wrapper of a
candy, pack of chips, the bags of your food, a signboard, flyer. Just start
reading everything that has words on it and you’ll find yourself reading most
of the time without any efforts.
Quit
Books:
Now you must be wondering, while I’m here to tell you the
techniques to develop reading habits and yet telling you to quit books. Well,
hold on…
Sometimes the most important factor to give up the habit of
reading is starting with the wrong book. The most important part of reading is
enjoying the text that you’re reading. However, if you do not enjoy a book that
you have just started, you might get bored, and hence completing that book would
feel like a burden. So what to do??
Quit Reading
There is a misconception that, if you start a book, you must
complete reading it. But it’s not right.
Life is too short to spend reading a book that you do not enjoy
and read just for the sake of completing it. You’ll end up not reading much.
Why read something that you don’t find enjoyable or satisfying?
If you want to cultivate the habit of reading, you must learn to
enjoy the book and quitting the books that you don’t like.
BTR:
This one is the easiest technique to keep yourself hooked to
reading. Always know which book you’re going to read, and have it ready to
read.
This is a very small thing as it seems, however, not knowing which
book you’ll read next or not having it ready might just kill your momentum or
flow of regular reading. The time and effort involved in selecting your next
book to read is a source of friction in constant reading habits.
Here’s a little trick, which would let you know when it’s time to
select the next book for your reading.
Whenever you start a new book, put a mark where the last quarter
of the book is starting. So when you hit that page, it’ll remind you to queue
your next book to read.
Read
summaries:
One of the best ways to ensure a good book is to read the
summaries first. As discussed in technique #2, quitting a bad book earlier is a
good strategy. But what’s even better? Not
getting into bad books.
There are a number of websites that give concise and accurate
summaries of many and most popular books.
The other way which is relatively quicker is to hear book reviews
and recommendations by different readers around the globe, on YouTube. In this
way, you’ll get a brief summary of the book and would decide whether it’s worth
investing your time in or not.
Beat
the boredom:
Another very effective strategy to cultivate reading is to carry a
book at all times. Reading should be your default to boredom, read when you are
bored. If you can’t carry a book at all times, you can have an E-book on your
phone. There are a number of apps which are providing E-books of all genres.
If you find a section of the book repetitive, Skip to the next. As long as you know the point that the author is
trying to convey, feel free to skip ahead.
Read
with a pencil:
I always read with a pencil in hand, underlining words, making
small notes, etc. This engages me effectively in the book and makes the reading
journey more enjoyable. Furthermore, it leads to a better memory of the book.
So here’s how I go about it:
Underline the words that I find difficult and write the meaning of
that word on the side.
If there is a piece of text or quote that I find interesting I
draw a vertical line next to it.
A new idea or thought put a star next to them or write them on the
first page of the book with reference to page number and line number.
Write your thoughts about the ideas, attach small sticky notes to
express your thoughts about specific pieces of writing.
Write short book summaries at the end of the book, which would
allow you to remember and recall the big ideas and main points from the vast
majority of books.
These steps not only make the reading experience more engaging and
fun but also makes it really easy for any other person to skim through the book
and get the ideas in a matter of seconds.
Happy reading!
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