Ok, so a lot of people pinged me asking more specifics on how to get into the reading habit. Is it too late for me? Is it too costly, or time consuming? I cannot sit through long books, can we start with something smaller?
It’s never too late to start anything. Least of all reading – something that we have all done when we were younger. Costly? Like I said yesterday, don’t start with hardbound collector editions. Go to second-hand bookstores, pick a couple of books and just start. Average cost – 30 Dirhams per book. That’s less than what you pay for an appetizer at a mid-tier restaurant.
Go with recommendations to begin with, and then, in time, you will find your own way.
Time consuming? Well, time yourself scrolling through social media. You will realize that 20-30 minutes goes by without you even registering it. And that’s in the morning, the first thing you do when you wake up. Add the time in the loo (yes I know the phone goes there too), and it’s easily 45 minutes to an hour, before you even had breakfast.
Divert half of that time to reading – 30 minutes a day magically appears:) Try these exercises in case you need more guidance.
Long books – as I wrote yesterday, Don’t punish yourself reading books that are “meant to be read”. Those rich dads poor dads and seven effective habits have been done to death – spare yourself the trouble. Pick something that you would be interested in, and time will fly past as you go through the pages. The length of the book will then become irrelevant.
Don’t force yourself to read what others swear by – find your own sweet mix of prose (or poetry).
Steer clear of self help books and motivational books – they don’t motivate much and surely don’t help anyone except the author. You end up feeling even more the loser since you cannot match up to all the good stuff that’s written there, and most of it is impractical anyway.
And read ANYTHING. A book, fiction, non-fiction, blog, article – anything, Just get down to it:) And yes, read across disciplines – topics can vary, and can be anything under the sun.
If you got through this blogpost, and reached here, you can read a book as well:) Get in touch with me if you need any starter points. Happy Reading!