2 Simple But Effective Tricks To Become A Lifelong Reader

If you are like me who wasn’t into reading thingy, an open book makes you feel sleep right away, words like fiction and non-fiction are bit too much then you are at right spot. It’s hard for me put it on words how much I hated reading, I used to find every possible excuse to run away from it.

But guess what I ended up in an engineering college for my four years degree course, I was fortunate that I made to that college looking at my work ethics and hate for reading 🙁 . At times, I label myself as smart than hard worker, ha ha that’s absolutely not true. We will discuss about my journey to the entrance to engineering college in some other post, but for now let’s concentrate on READING.

The first day I went to college I met few of my classmates who were quite fluent in English, it was quite impressive actually. I thought of making an entry into that friend circle.

Not just my classmates, I met with many other folks from different branches who were pursuing their engineering degree from my college and who were quite fluent in English. Again, my strategy was to learn from the experience of others than inventing the wheel myself.

To be very frank, I was looking for a magic trick which is quick and short, that could help me to become fluent in English. But guess what, answer came from all was to read 🙁 as much as you can. At this point of time I was mainly Math’s and Science guy, reading was a distant dream and was never a priority.

Now it was clear that I had to read to become fluent in English, question was how to start the love affair with reading as we were in hate agreement all lifelong.

The very next day I told my father to subscribe to an English newspaper, which he did very positively looking at my enthusiasm. The reading affair went for few days and after that it started fading quickly, and the newspaper was traveling from doorstep to a dustbin very quickly.

Not sure what and when I heard somewhere that in order to build a reading habit start reading something of your interest. That’s somewhat struck a chord with me. I started reading about cricket in the newspaper, I made a habit to read almost every news about cricket from that newspaper. That started helping a bit, by now I was able to sit for almost good 30 minutes at a stretch to read, but goal was still far, but everything starts with the first step, which I took already.

Another thing I noticed was that people who are good at reading normally carry a novel with them. They are so addicted to reading that they won’t waste a minute if they get a chance to read whether they are travelling, watching TV, on a beach…….

Guess what,  my curiosity buds started ticking again. After bit of research I noticed that novel is like reading a conversation, and when I got a hand on a novel, I could sense that reading a conversation is always gripping and exciting, and that’s what did the trick for me. I borrowed a novel from one of my friend and started reading it. I liked that novel so much that I galloped it within a week! Then on to next novel and next and the list went on and on. Now a days I am reading a novel by author Chetan Bhagat titled “The Girl in Room 105”, quite an interesting read.

With time I have realized one thing, you will find so many people saying I like reading, but I don’t get time to read. Fair enough, knowing how much life gets busy for people with kids and professional jobs specially if you are a nuclear family. If you are in the same boat then I can give you a small tip, the 20 minutes rule.

20 MINUTES RULE

What’s the 20 minutes rule and how I got to this number? If you reading my blog articles then you will notice I am big fan of 20 minutes power naps, so I took the same theory and started applying it for my reading to steal time here and there without big commitment to reading, which also kept MY family happy, kind of Win Win situation. Whenever I feel like reading, I will tell my family I just need 20 minutes for reading, I sneak into a quiet place and start reading with a TIMER, yes timer. This trick did wonder to me actually, and also made sure I stick with the promise I made to my family as reading is very addictive habit once developed.

There are times, once in a blue moon actually, when I don’t feel like reading, and I noticed 20 minutes rule does the trick every time. One day I was in a no mood to read as I was out of books, and somehow forced myself to read an old book. This is something worked for me really well, and I find it much easier to find 20 minutes whenever I want so I am over the excuse I don’t get time. Trust me, we all have time, it’s just we need to manage it a bit.

Best thing about reading is it’s hard to start and hard to stop, that’s where timer does the trick. It did for me, and I am sure it will do for you also. Give it a try.

READ AS PER YOUR INTEREST INITIALLY

As I said above, in order to build a strong/lifelong reading habit start reading something of your interest first, and try to do it daily, even 10 to 20 minutes a day is a good start. Reading a novel or conversation is always a good way to get into habit of reading.

I am writing this blog during a lockdown period due to COVID-19 outbreak, I am in India which is currently under 21 days lock down period till April 14, 2020.

Luckily, I bought few books in advance before the lockdown, I will list few of the books below that I have read or reading currently.

That’s pretty much from my side, one quote by Harry S. Truman to end this article:

“Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers.”