J: “How do I start reading?”
“Alyaa, how do I start reading or like reading like you”
It’s a question I get very often. Tbh at that point when people ask, I have no idea what to answer because I haven’t actually really thought about it. But, a slump in my life made a barrier reef between me and reading – I had to re-fall in love again with what once I used to love. So,I think I can answer it now. Here goes :)
First off, the WHY you are reading is the core of this. Read because you want to know something. Is it to learn something new? Is it to know what other people’s life are like? Is it to relate to another person that is going through something similar to you? When you know that, your brain knows what it needs to get from this book and it will be more excited to dive in it :)
Second, authors have different writing styles, find the one that you like :) For me, I realized that I like authors that uses simple day to day english and author that write as though they are talking to me.
Third, find a book that has the layout and formatting that you like :) Do you like pictures? find magazines or pictures based books. You like book with the paragraph aligned in the centre? Find them.
Fourth, the material of the book is also very important. Do you prefer digital based books? Do you prefer cream coloured paper or white? For me, I like cream coloured paper and the cover to not the hard one. How about you?
Fifth, you don’t have to read everything single words in the book :) This I think is the main issue that most people have to be okay with. So, if its like a self help book – you don’t have to read everything, read the only topics that you want to know and its okay :) But if say its a novel, you can skip chapters if you want and go straight to the finale. Entirely up to you. So remove the notion that reading a book means looking at it from cover to cover.
Hope this helps! There is many different ways to learn, reading books need not be one. Find something that you actually enjoy learning from :)