Haven’t Read Books in a While? Here’s How You Can Start.
The journey to breaking a short attention span for reading.
In my childhood, I could devour books at a pace that was achieved through sheer focus, a longer attention span, and enjoyment for the process of reading by itself.
Flash forward to my adulthood, and I barely finished one book.
My appetite for reading was satiated by short articles, social media posts, HBR, Medium. You name it.
Some people blame it on the lack of time in their daily lives. Others blame it on the introduction of the internet where information can be consumed in such bite-sized pieces, it was easy to snack on articles for the whole day.
After five years of not picking up a book, I decided to pick up reading again.
My first book? Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari.
Science. Anthropology. Psychology. History. Philosophy. In-depth research and discussions. It contained all the genres that I would look out for.
The result? It took me one month to read one chapter, and I stopped reading the book altogether for another half a year.
It took a few methods to get me to where I am now — reading an average of 4 books in a month, a stark contrast to barely reading for five years.
Method 1: Read your childhood books
As a child, do you remember that absolute joy from immersing yourself in a world that only reading could offer?
When I started reading again, I was distraught to realise that the feeling never came. And without that feeling, it became a challenge to continue reading. And so, the stack of books that I barely read began to grow.
Until I picked up a book I read when I was twelve years old.
The feeling was indescribable. Waves of nostalgia crashed over and over again. The joy came back. Maybe it was an easy read. Maybe it made reading more immersive. Maybe it was just a fun book. Either way, the method did its job. I was completing books with great interest again.
Method 2: Read very, very short stories
After his eyesight began to fail him, my father’s love for reading dwindled as well. It was inconvenient with his dry eyes, spectacles and constant need to adjust his sight.
I tried all ways to get him to read again — partly to share a hobby, but mainly to get his mind stimulated once more. But it was a challenge. He lost interest in his favourite authors. The next page no longer lured him.
Until he picked up a book on short stories of ghostly encounters, an interest of his.
Each story was 800 words at most, and he completed the whole series of twelve stories within a couple of days. The book was a great combination of keeping his attention, contextualising his own knowledge, and giving that dopamine hit at the end of the first story. Now, he’s reading newspaper articles regularly, keeping his mind active with knowledge.
Method 3: Read what you need
We pick up books that intrigue us. That intrigue is a good starting point, but may not be enough if you’ve taken a long break from reading.
I bought a juicer for my mother, and she wanted to try out different recipes that would help with different ailments. She couldn’t find what she needed online, being too distracted by the wide array of information.
So she went to the library, and picked up the book, ‘The Joy of Juicing.’ Since then, she’s been flipping through different recipes, reading their benefits and learning more about nutrition than she ever did before.
Books are an amazing source of condensed knowledge, so it helps to find a book that addresses a specific need you have at that point in time.
Preparing for that marathon? Pick up a book on a runner’s reflections and learnings.
Learning about minimalism? Pick up books that discuss the benefits and methods minimalists all over the world have tried.
Searching for ways to improve your mental health journey? The library has an array of books dedicated to people’s relationships with mental health.
Think of what you need, head to that section of the library, and pick that one book.
Throughout this journey, I realised how important it is to treat reading like exercising. If you haven’t set foot on a treadmill for five years, you don’t rev up the speed to its maximum. It’s not sustainable. You’ll stop exercising just as fast as you began.
Reading is the same. You have to begin with small steps. Begin with steps that would bring you joy, that would make you enjoy the journey more than the end product.
From there, it’ll make the road to reading books easier.
