If you love reading, but for some reason read a little, you should know: everything is fine. This happens. There are so many things in life that distract us - how can we not put the books away. Around there are TV shows, movies, YouTube, Tik-tok, endless surfing in online stores ... It's hard to resist. But you can.
In this article, I will talk about what I did to read more and better. These are free notes that I wrote for our Book Club. Perhaps they will bring more books and your life.
Why read more
In order to read more, you need to understand why you need it. The goals can be different:
- working. If you, like me, read a lot on duty, then you definitely need to speed up the process. The logic here is simple: read faster → work faster → more time for books for yourself.
- educational. Sometimes you just want to read to know more. And although there are now many alternative ways to gain knowledge (podcasts, courses, videos), the book still does an excellent job of this task.
- developing. All exercises to increase speed, one way or another, improve thinking and memory.
- entertaining. Good books = fun.
Well, there is a separate goal - for book lovers. If you love literature, then you will understand what I mean: you want to be in time for everything - and follow modern literature, and not forget about the classics, look into non-fiction and children's publications. And how many things you want to reread! The plans are ambitious, but real if you read a lot.
How to read more: my experience
I'll tell you about the methods that I used myself. Perhaps some will suit you too.
15 minutes a day
You've probably heard this rule: if you want to start a good habit, devote 15 minutes a day to it. I used to read irregularly. In jumps. Raids. Sometimes for a week I could not open the novel I had begun. Therefore, one day I decided to make a rule: devote at least 15 minutes a day to reading. Sometimes before bed, sometimes at lunchtime, sometimes in the morning for coffee.
You will see the progress immediately. It was like this for me: almost always 15 minutes grew into half an hour. But the most remarkable thing is that after three weeks, hands themselves were looking for a paper or e-book. There is, however, one drawback: the habit of reading has replaced watching TV series for me. Of course, I have time to watch something, but the video content has become much less in my life.
50 First Pages
This is Igor Mann's method. He advises: “If the book hasn't hooked you from the first 50 pages, put it aside! Life is too short to read uninteresting books. " I have always been skeptical about this method. My experience of studying at the Faculty of Journalism showed (we had a gigantic list of references there): if on page 50 you get sleepy from the author's description of eclairs, then you will probably like it on page 250.
This is how I lived until Fowles' novel "The Magus" (who does not know, there are 800 pages). Here I just want to warn you: fans of Fowles, I do not diminish the merits of this writer in the least. He is cool. But the "Magus" did not "come" to me. Not on page fifty. Not at the two hundred and fiftieth. Not hooked when I read half of it. I didn’t touch it when there were two hundred pages left to the end. And completely discouraged at the end. For a whole month I tried to love this book. But she couldn't.
Fowles made it clear that the approach to books needs to be changed. At first it was hard for me to stop and put off the affair. Before, I even hid such books: it seemed to me that they were looking at me reproachfully. Like, she didn't finish reading us, weakling. But in the end I came to one simple thought: if it doesn’t cling, you shouldn’t force yourself.
Fifty pages is not a bad test. Not the most objective, but definitely effective. It helps to understand whether it is yours or not, and not to waste time on something that does not excite.