Flashback to 1st grade: you learn to read and then start reading ~chapter books~. For a lot of people, this might be the last time reading was a fun and exciting activity. I believe this is because, in our school systems, we’re forced to read for a grade from a very young age. You might remember recording reading logs in grade school, reading assigned books for summer homework in middle school and then in high school having to read, annotate, analyze and write essays.
Personally, I was one of those kids that LOVED to read. In grade school and middle school, reading was always one of my favorite ways to spend my free time. I loved being able to escape to another world, live through my favorite characters and learn about places and situations I may not have been able to otherwise.
Then high school rolled around. I started having to read books like Twelfth Night by Shakespeare and Moby Dick by Herman Melville, intensely analyzing as I read. Reading became a chore and a task that had tons of time and work associated with it. Combine this with less free time due to an increased workload and a busier social life, and reading fell to the bottom of my priority list. I don’t think I read more than 3 books for fun throughout all 4 years of high school.
Sadly, I believe this is a familiar story for many people my age. After I graduated high school, I decided that this had to change. Here are the changes I made that helped me fall in love with reading all over again:
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I got a Kindle. While I do love holding a nice paperback book, I learned that the Kindle was a lot easier to travel with and way less expensive when purchasing books. Physical books cost a lot more than eBooks.
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I had lots of time over the summer to relax and read by the beach or pool. Take advantage of this precious time – it really is the best opportunity! You can read while getting a tan.
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I had to start making the decision to pick up my Kindle instead of my phone at night in bed. This is not as easy as it sounds. Even though we spend all day on our phones, most people still spend lots of time on their phones in bed. For me, once I began making this switch, reading became a really nice change from my normal YouTube videos. It helped me fall asleep faster, rather than keep me up late at night. It felt like a healthy and relaxing habit to end my day.
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With a little trial and error, I found the genres and authors that I love the most and that keep my attention. For me, self-help books don’t hold my interest or get me excited to read. I found out that I needed an engaging drama or realistic fiction novel to keep me coming back.
If you find yourself in the same rut as I was in, try out some of these tips! I promise reading is just as fun and exciting as your 1st grade-self thought it was.