How to read, even if, you don’t like it.

Shadab Alam
3 min readJul 14, 2020
A quote by George R.R. Martin

Any great personalties you know, they all have one thing in common, they read a lot. But reading is hard, surely it’s not an easy task, and when you are starting, it will feel very difficult, one will be bored very soon, and it’s not easy to sit, and finish a book.

Recently, I suggested a few books, to a few of my friends, not much interested in reading, and the first response from them was it’s too long, and it was a common response, though the sample size for this experience is not big enough, to justify it, still, let’s just take it as the basis, for the time being, and I will propose, some suggestions around this foundation.

So when I suggested them the books, their response was: it’s too long then I proposed, you guys don’t bother with this thought that: you have to finish the book, just take a target: that you have to read 5 or 10 pages daily, and if you can bear with 5 or 10 pages daily, fool your feeling brain (the concepts of feeling, and thinking brain, I read in the book Everything Is Fucked by Mark Manson) by this thought, that you are not going to finish this long book of 200 pages or whatever, but you will read only 5 or 10 pages only, and nothing more.

But still, if you try to do a small calculation, 10 pages a day, and on average, for short books, it will have 250 or so pages, so still one can read 14 books a year. And my friends that is a great number. So you just have to read 10 pages a day. Even if this is a burden stick with 5 pages a day, and you will be able to finish 7+ books a year. That’s the power of consistency.

Reading Habits

If you are very new to reading, it’s important to make it a habit first, and then think about the quality of the content, you are reading. So when you are getting started, pick something interesting, which keeps you engaged, and you don’t get bored. Maybe for someone, it could be books, with love stories, for someone, it can be a thriller, science fiction, or books in your native language, or anything, which will help you, in getting this habit of reading.

And one more suggestion I have, especially for someone, who already has a decent reading habit, and interest, that take a dense book, and a light one. By dense I mean a book, which needs more focus, and it’s more informative, like biography, self-help books, etc, and by light, I mean something with stories like fiction, etc, and read both if bored with one, pic another, and this can help. Give these ideas a try, and if it really helps, do let me know. I have given these ideas a try, for a while, and I feel my progress is quite good.

--

--

Shadab Alam

I’m a self-taught web developer who loves turning ideas into products.