Put down your smartphone and pick up a book

Flash back to 12 months ago and you will find me on a train heading to work, playing with my iPhone.

Find me today or tomorrow and I will be on the same train, but with my head in a book.

I have never been a big reader. I have always observed people reading and wondered 'how do they do it?'; how can someone stay focused and retain enough information from a storyline in order to gain value from it?

Over time it dawned on me that I was spending a lot of time on my iPhone reading tweets, blog posts and Reddit threads but all that ‘reading’ wasn't adding up to anything.

I would very happily read bits and pieces of everything, but when it came to focusing on a single book it all became too hard.

However, it only took one personally recommended novel (Breath by Tim Winton) for me to get hooked. I finally looked forward to reading every day to discover what would happen next. I realize now that it's not that I didn't like reading - it was that I didn't like the books I had been trying to read.

Once I finished reading Breath I was worried I wouldnt find another one that would like as much again. But the list of books I love has since grown. Every book I get hooked on becomes my favorite - I almost believe that the best book is the one you are currently reading.

Reading online

I am admittedly addicted to reading online, though. Despite how much I enjoy reading books it’s so much easier and natural to reach for my phone and scan through several articles on Hacker News, Medium, Reddit & Twitter.

I have fixed this problem by dedicating my train commutes to reading, preferably fiction. Reading on your phone is easy, instant, and mindless. I find myself pulling out my iPhone without even consciously thinking of doing so.

When I pick up a book it is a conscious decision. It's not a habit - but initiating the idea of maybe reading a book instead of random stuff online is.

Moving forward

I’m happy to say almost one year has past since I started intentionally reading books, and in that time I have read over 30 books.

Finding a book to get hooked on isn't easy and reading through a book that doesn't have me hooked is even harder but I find the more I look and ask around the more I realize that there are so many books out there.

I read the first few chapters and if it doesn't have me hooked, unless it was highly recommended for me personally, then I move on because there is no point trying to force yourself to read a book you aren't hooked on when there are others that will draw you in almost instantly, you just have to find them.