HOW TO DEVELOP READING HABIT

George R.R. Martin beautifully put it when he said, ” A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies, the man who never reads lives only one. ”

From Bill Gates, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam , Mark Zukerberg to Bhagat Singh and you name it. Every great personality has a great impact of reading in their lives. Books are the real gem as they tell us who we are and what we can become by giving us a touch of roseate amalgam of various genres. Reading has the power to make the readers understand about themselves and about life. Books bring us closer to our own inner destinies. Leafing through the pages, readers get a glimpse of a fantastic journey of the author in form of comic charm, compelling story, tragedic tale and various other subjects spiced with different flavors, which gives an inspiration to follow one’s own dream.                          While some of us are bookworms, while some of us don’t find reading interesting. So how can people who are not bookworms actually enjoy reading ?

HOW TO DEVELOP READING HABIT WHEN YOU HATE READING ?
Here are some influential strategies that will make those enjoy reading who absolutely hate it.

1.  Don’t Overachieve – In order to get into the habit of reading, you need to set your targets comically low. Fix target of reading one page a day as it is an extremely trouble- free task. It only takes about 60 seconds to read one page even if you are an average reader. But remember to maintain the continuity. Don’t make not doing it an option.
2.  Pick Up A Book That You Cannot Put Down – A good book is the one that you cannot put down because you want to know what happened on the next page. And that is how you break into the habit of reading. So, here are some book recommendations that will make anyone fall in love with reading.

I) The Immortals Of Meluha By Amish

II) The Namesake By Jhumpa Lahiri

III) The Nine Chambered Heart By Janice Pariat

IV) Unhurried Tales By Ruskin Bond

V) Letters From A Father To His Daughter By Jawaharlal Nehru

VI) Men Without Women By Murakami

VII) An Ember In The Ashes By Sabaa Tahir

VIII) Norse Mythology By Neil Gaiman

IX) A little Princess By Frances Hodgon Burnett

X) Black Beauty By Anna Sewell

3) Find your Purpose – Ask yourself what are your interests, your goals in life, where you want to see yourself in the upcoming years. Select the genre that might actually help in claiming the life of your dreams.                                                                In case anyone wishing to become an entrepreneur, might find the books like ” Purple Cow” , ” Creative Confidence “, ” Who moved my cheese ?”, ” To Sell Is Human ” and similar genres, extremely beneficial.

4) Make Reading The First Thing After Getting Up – When you wake up in the morning your mind is relaxed and not pre-occopied. Reading in the morning helps to gain new insights that boosts your creativity and helps to plan your day in a better way. Read before your mind is zapped by the internet as it will help to observe the books/ magazines/ newspaper/ in a finer way.

5) Seeking Discomfort- For most of the people who don’t enjoy reading, find it difficult to buckle down, sit on a chair and focus on a book. But deep inside , they know that they are missing out on some of the most important , in-depth and profound insights.

In the words of Thomas Jefferson , ” If you want something you have never had, you must be willing to do something you have never done. ” You have to break your older records/ habits in order to built new one. If one really wants to be well-versed with the knowledge, facts, information, then he/she needs to come out of his/ her comfortzone to fulfill the desires.

6) Reading Your Favorite Genre As A Beginner – As a beginner, two things could happy with you. Either the book would put you to sleep or you would not understand the text even after reading it over and over again. For this the solution could be picking up a book that uses simple language or picking up a genre that you are interested in. Below mentioned are some genres along with their respective book recommendations that will help anyone break into the habit of reading.

a) COMIC BOOKS – Remember in school days, we all look forward to the books / magazines having pictures on them. One such recommendation could be “Tinkle”. Ones who are interested in comic charm can pick a book like Tinkle which is full of pictures. Pictures make the boring text appear interesting and that is how you will start to enjoy reading.

b) MYSTERY NOVEL – After comic if anyone wants to progress to novels but do not want to commit too much pick a thin mystery novel. Following series can serve the purpose:-

I) Nancy Drew’s The Hidden Staircase        II) Hardy Boys: The Secret Of the Old Mill  III) Goosebumps By R.L. Stine                            All three aforementioned series use simple English and one cannot just put them down.

c) ROMANCE :- Love stories help you to release your emotions and can act as a sort of catharsis. Below mentioned books could be a great read for those looking for recommendations in this genre :-                 I) The fault In Our Stars By John Green       II) Twilight

d) BIOGRAPHY : Reading a book full of achievements and life experiences could be tormenting. But if the writer is dope, then biographies too become interesting. In addition, one can learn a lot. Following biographies can be a great help for beginners :-                          I) Trevor Noah’s Born A Crime                       II) Elon Musk

e) Random Fiction:  Here are some of the fabulous fiction books and none of them will disappoint the readers.                                                      I) A Thousand Splendid Suns                        II) The Alchemist By Paulo Coelho               III) The White Tiger By Aravind Adiga         IV) Deception Point By Dan Brown               V) Harry Potter

HOW TO RETAIN WHAT YOU READ ?         

Every time you read, you come across some impressive sentences that you want to use in your daily life. Underline/ Jot down those sentences and say it out loud 2-3 times. Practice the sentences that you find useful. When you repeat those lines / sentences , you will understand sentence formation skills and ultimately your conversation skills will get improved. One can also jot down some inspirational quotes/ stories/ anecdotes, they come across. These could be quoted in writing impressive essays.                                       

 All of us are capable in our own way. Hence, we all need different methods of reading to retain the facts for a longer period of time.

METHODS OF READING                               

Below mentioned are some of the reading methods which can be implemented in reading a particular text.

1) Sub – Vocalized Reading                          

It requires reading along with internal sounding of words as if we are speaking normally. It is considered a bad habit as it lowers the pace of both reading and comprehension, while it could be a great help in reading a complex text.

2) Speed Reading

This method is used to increase the reading speed without reduction in retention. Keep a check of your current reading speed and tryto beat that speed to increase your reading speed. This will help to save a lot of your time.

3) Photoreading

In this reading technique we subconsciously try to retain facts and information what we have read earlier. For instance, when we are alone or while we are sleeping , we subconsciously feel what we read in the form of pictures in our mind. This is one of the best techniques to increase reading speed, comprehension and retention.

4) Proofreading

This method of reading is used for detecting typographical errors in a printed text. One can learn this method rapidly and can become professional proofreaders.

5) Multiple – Intelligence Based Method   

This method could be useful for someone who critically wants to analyze the text. This method helps the reader to understand the text in divergent ways including auditory, visual and logical intelligence while reading.

All the aforementioned methods could be a great help if one wishes to pursue knowledge or even a carrier by reading. While there are unlimited career options for to earn for a livelihood. Simultaneously, we all are aware of the fact that majority of the Indian population belong to middle class families for which only means of livelihood is education. All of us are accustomed to find a government job and reading is the key to crack such government jobs. From cracking SSC CGL to one of the toughest exams like UPSC , reading has a major role to play. However, here is the list of some career opportunities that you might be/might not be knowing.

JOB PROSPECTS IN READING                   

 Here are some of the amazing career options in reading that could help you as well as others to learn and grow.

1) Freelance Writing :- A writer learns more than a reader. This is because, in order to write persuasive articles you have to do a lot of research. And during the process you actually end up learning a lot. Freelance writers are self employed and need not be committed to a particular company/ organization. There are unlimited companies looking for freelance writers . A freelance writer must be good at English communication skills and that would be improved if you are a good reader as reading books improve your vocabulary. This will help in writing quality articles. ” Upwork” could be a great option for someone looking for career as freelance writer.

2) Booktuber:- A Booktuber is a person who gives book reviews or make any kind of videos related to books on YouTube. For a Booktuber, there are unlimited option on which he / she can make book related videos. Booktubing is a digital career started by Spanish YouTuber ” Javier Ruescas” in 2010. Anyone wishing to become Booktuber can make videos on Business Books, Educational Books, Fiction Books, Novels, Top 10 books of a particular year, book summaries, book reviews along with animation or face to face.

Some YouTube channels to learn about this career includes:-

I) Better Than Food                                         II) Helly                                                  III) Saheli Chatterjee                                       IV) Indian Booktuber                                V) abookutopia and many more.

3) Content Writing:- It includes writing and editing a content on web for the purpose of digital marketing. It includes writing blog posts, podcasts as well as content for a company and social media platforms. This job is similar to freelance writing to some extent and could be pursued who is good reader and writer. ” Fiverr ” , ” Upwork ” , ” Textbroker ” are some of the websites for those looking forward towards a career in content writing.

4) Book Editor:- Book Editor is a profession that involves editing books before they are published. You can offer your service to any kind of genre whether fiction or non-fiction. Concentration and good writing skills are the two most important parameters to excel in this profession, which could be developed in the process of reading.

5) Professor:- Teaching is considered one of the Noble professions. If someone is interested in learning new concepts and helping others to learn and grow as well then they can go for College / University professor as a career. This career involves extensive reading of the subject that you want to develop your expertise in.

As ” Ernest Hemingway ” beautifully put it, ” There is no friend as loyal as a book. ” Aforementioned statement truly reflects the importance of reading books to become a balanced individual. Reading could be a difficult task for some of us. But to accomplish anything challenging, we must get accustomed to the feeling of pain to realize our ability. Next time when you are faced between the choice of reading and non- reading, choose the former one, as it will put you out of your comfort zone and maybe in this way you will be able to fulfill your dreams . On that note, Happy Reading !