9 Irrational Thoughts Stopping You From Reading
And why they don’t make sense.
I’ve wanted to read more for almost three years now. Only in the last year, however, have I actually done it.
It struck me as odd that it took so long to force myself to do something I really wanted to do. I wanted to know why.
So one afternoon I took an hour to explore the most common excuses I use to not read.
Turns out most of them are pretty shit.
Carrying books around is a hassle
Grab a backpack or messenger book (you likely already have one if you go to work or school on a daily basis) and throw the book in there. Unless it’s a hardcover cookbook, it’s not going to add substantial weight to your bag.
If you don’t want to have to dig through everything else in your bag to actually reach the book, put it somewhere easily accessible.
If some cases, if you often wear sweaters or jackets, you can even carry a book around in your pocket. For example, as Mark David Chapman as it sounds, I currently carry a small copy of Catcher and the Rye around in the inside breast pocket of my jacket.
iPads and e-readers are also convenient.
You have no time to read
If you’re too busy to find time to read, read in the small moments throughout the day where you would otherwise be idle.
Some idle situation that apply to most people:
- on the subway
- waiting for the bus
- on your work break
- at night laying in bed.
To open up more opportunities for reading, consider audiobooks. Whereas physical reading requires your full attention, audio books only require that you listen. This opens up your reading opportunities to include not just idle moments throughout your day, but also any tasks requiring little focus on your part.
Some tasks compatible with passive listening:
- driving to work (or anywhere)
- preparing food
- doing laundry
- doing the dishes
- cleaning the house
- routine work tasks requiring little focus
- working out
You feel like you could be doing something better with your time
If you don’t immediately have a concrete answer to the question “what should I be doing instead?”, let yourself read in peace.
Again, an easy way to fend off this feeling is to do the majority of your reading in moments throughout your day when you would otherwise be doing nothing else.
Some reliable justifications:
- increase vocabulary
- learn new things
- fend off cognitive decline
- detach from everyday problems
You don’t know what to read
Start with your interests, fall back on the classics when you don’t know what to read next, and keep a list on your phone of all the books you hear about that sound interesting.
Something that has personally worked for me is listening to podcasts — the Joe Rogan Experience, The Tim Ferriss Podcast, Sam Harris’s Waking Up Podcast, and Jocko Willink’s Podcast are all great places to learn about new books.
You get distracted easily
I recently lent my copy of Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers to a friend of mine not expecting it back for at least a couple weeks.
To my surprise, he it returned three days later. He had visited his family home over the weekend — a home in the middle of nowhere with pre-Y2K internet speed.
“There was nothing else to do. I read for 10 hours straight.” he explained after seeing the dumbfounded look on my face.
If distractions are stopping you from reading, make it impossible to get distracted. Find a secluded area, remove yourself from wifi, turn off your phone, put on headphones, and hone in on the pages in front of you.
I’ve found reading first thing in the morning to work best for me and pose the least amount of distractions. I wake up at 6AM, brew a K-cup, sit at my rickety Ikea desk and read for the first 30–45 minutes of my day.
Books are too expensive
New books are super expensive. Used copies of new books aren’t.
Find a second-book store nearby and see what they have. You’ll often find they have newer books for very discounted prices. Discounts for older books are often even more pronounced, dipping down into the 70 or 80% off range.
Some examples of books I’ve purchased from discount book stores:
Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell — $2
Island by Aldous Huxley — $2
Taipan by James Clavell — $5
War by Sebastian Junger — $6
Paper backs are also your friend. When given the option, paper back versions of books are usually way cheaper than their hardcover counterparts.
Books waste a lot of paper
Ebooks, used books and audio books.
You don’t enjoy reading
I thought I despised reading until I read a book not prescribed to me by a teacher.
If you’re currently in school and think that you don’t like reading, try reading something outside of mandatory course material. I’m not saying neglect your mandatory course material; I’m saying after you read everything that you’re required to read, try reading something for no reason other than it interests you.
And don’t get discouraged if you’re not immediately enthralled by the artistic nature of reading. I still wouldn’t say I love reading for the sake of reading. Very rarely am I taken aback by an author’s precise choice of words or elegant sentence structure (minus Murakami). I enjoy reading because I like learning about things I’m interested in.
Enjoyment from reading comes from framing it in a way that encourages you to keep doing it.
You think reading is nerdy
This can’t still be a thing.
Reading is way too simple of an act to have so many excuses not to do it.
If you want to read more but can’t seem to force yourself to commit, ask yourself why. Literally write down your reasoning.
You’ll likely find your own faulty reasoning getting in your way.
I write to help make sense of my life and it occasionally helps other people in the process.
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If you find me tolerable, here’s another article I wrote:
