You Don’t Have to Understand All the Books You Read, Just Enjoy It!
People sometimes get stuck thinking, “Does it really need to be studied or just read the book?”
To understand a book, it takes a lot of work.
Studying books or even highlighting words that are interesting sometimes takes our focus, even if it’s just a little bit. It made us lazy enough to read in the first place. It sometimes ruins the enjoyment of reading.
Taking notes will end up making us too lazy to read books. It ends up feeling like work rather than a pleasurable activity.
That’s why studying books is not an effective way to read most of the time.
For example, non-fiction.
You don’t have to understand what the full book is. I mean, you need to understand the story, but you don’t have to implement or even become a vampire to read a book about vampires.
We might say: “I just want to enjoy the book rather than bothering to highlight something while reading.”
You don’t have to understand all the books you read.
The key to reading is actually just reading it, but understanding or studying the book we read is actually different.
I sometimes study my books rather than reading them, and I end up understanding most of the book and implementing it right away. I use notes, highlights, and sometimes YouTube videos to help me understand more.
Why do I do that?
A small tip is that if you implement a book while reading it, it makes you understand more than without implementing it.
Decide to read it or study it.
Because I love the book, I decided to understand it.
If I didn’t decide to understand the book, well, that’s okay.
That’s why I made a section in my template about why you decided to read this book to really step back and ask,
“Why did I decide to read or even understand this book?”
If I don’t want to understand this book, I have the right not to do so.
That’s why you need to choose the book you want to understand. For example, I read a biography book. I don’t have to understand it if I don’t want it. I just want to read the story, or even imagine becoming the person in that book. It’s an enjoyable activity, though.
This way, I would actually enjoy reading more rather than focusing too much on “taking notes.”
What would happen if I tried to study the book?
I end up in a different scenario.
I might use it as something to study rather than an enjoyable activity. If you choose not to do so, don’t understand it. If you choose to do so, understand and implement it.
I sometimes see people who are really focused on whether to take notes or highlight the words or ideas from the book, which in this case means overthinking it.
STOP IT.
It could ruin your focus.
It takes more energy than you ought to.
Taking notes and reading are different activities. It’s a multi-tasking activity. You read and you write. So, it’s a bad thing to do?
Nope.
You just don’t have to do that if you just want to read the book.
Because reading should be an enjoyable activity, not a chore.
Reading is a pleasureable activity.
Don’t put yourself in a place where you use reading as something that is work.
You will end up procrastinating more than you used to. You might start to dislike reading the book. This is why sometimes people read less than they want to. They force themselves to take notes or study the book when they don’t have to.
Just enjoy the moment of reading.
You can spend your leisure time by enjoying the moment of reading. You can try to read with someone else. You can read in a crowded place. You can read in a library without really taking notes on what you read.
If you like the way you read with a coffee or hot chocolate beside you without bothering to take notes, enjoy it. Don’t bother to highlight or even take notes if you don’t want to.
If you are afraid that you will forget what you read, who cares?
I am sometimes afraid to pick up my book on my desk because I have to take notes or study the books. I end up not reading the book and just procrastinating on doing something else, like scrolling or even playing games.
This is not what we want to be as a reading activity.
Sometimes we might feel the same way about using reading as something enjoyable. We might sometimes say,
“I just want to spend my time reading without taking notes or anything else. I just want to read.”
You can spend your time doing what you want. You can read with the rules you have. You can start reading from the pages you want to the chapter you find interesting.
Make yourself comfortable with reading.
Lovely time of reading
Don’t think of it as something that has to be worked on.
This is your lovely time to spend rather than spending your time on your phone, right? Rather than scrolling too much, which ruins your dopamine or your focus, you can just spend your time on a beautiful activity, which is reading.
Reading should be an enjoyable activity because if you start enjoying reading, you will start to read more.
Once you start to read more, you will end up loving reading.
This is a positive loop that you have built.
So, start reading now.
Remember, you don’t have to take notes if you don’t want to.
Just read.
It would be a pleasurable activity.
“If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all.”
― Oscar Wilde
Disclaimer: This is for cases where people overthink whether to read the book or study the book and end up not doing both of them. This is why I made this article in order to help people don’t end up with the wrong understanding of reading. I hope it helps you to read more!
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