How to Inculcate a Reading Habit

A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one. – George R.R. Martin

2018 was the year of challenges, we saw people taking all sort of challenges starting from the weird Kiki challenge to Neymar and the Black Panther challenge. While most of these were pretty dumb, dangerous and useless, there were 2 interesting challenges which caught my attention:

1. 52 Book Challenge
2. Gift a book to a stranger

I was always intrigued by the habit of reading books. Book reading is one of those good habits if inculcated can boost your growth immensely. But frankly, even after knowing all the benefits you get from this habit I have always been in a procrastination mode. I got my first kindle way back in 2012 but my lifetime count of books was just close to 20, out of which almost half was attributed to Harry Potter series as I was a die-hard Harry Potter fan in my teens. Our usual for blame for procrastinating anything is "lack of time" but in this case, I would say the availability of more attractive and spontaneous means of entertainment (TV, Netflix, Internet, Cinema) is the biggest deterrent in picking up a book.

Towards the end of 2018, there was a major life event which took place, I decided to switch my job. My new office was quite far from my house and my daily commute time increased from about an hour to 2.5 hours. The distance and the chaotic Bangalore traffic nudged me to chuck my own vehicle and I started taking office provided cab service for my daily commute. And now suddenly I had 2.5 hours extra "Me Time" which I started devoting for the more attractive means of entertainment - Yes you guessed it right "Watching Series". In no time I completed Westworld, Peaky Blinders, Narcos and few more. After a few weeks, I slowly started to realize that watching series is not the best use of the time. It was October and one day my wife brought home a book "The subtle art of not giving a f*ck". The title of the book was quite interesting and I had seen many celebrities Instagramming about it, so I decided to give it a shot during my commute time. Slowly and steadily I started enjoying it and now 4 months later, I have read about a dozen books. This is no way close to the 52 Book Challenge, where you have to read a book a week on average, but this a good number for a starter. Let me walk you through the most practical tips to inculcate a reading habit.

1. Start with fun and compelling books - Start with books/topics that really interest you and can keep you going. Even if they aren’t literary masterpieces, they make you want to read — and that’s the goal here. After you have cultivated the reading habit, you can move on to more difficult stuff, but in the beginning, go for the fun and gripping stuff.
2. Fix a schedule - Reading on a weekend, holidays and while traveling is good but that is not enough to make a lasting habit. Choose a suitable time of slots of 30/40 minutes (that is a normal average human attention span) and stick to it every day. You can use your travel time, or the time before you sleep. Another good option is, you can have a few set times during every day when you’ll read for at least 5-10 minutes. These are times that you will read no matter what — triggers that happen each day. For example, make it a habit to read during breakfast and lunch (and even dinner if you eat alone), and when you go to bed, you now have four times a day when you read for 10 minutes each — or 40 minutes a day. That’s a great start, and by itself would be an excellent daily reading habit.
3. Read 2 books in Parallel -  There will be many a time when you will feel like not going over a certain subject and thus keeping a backup book will help immensely. Always read 2 books of different genre, so when at a certain time you get bored with a book, you have an option to switch to the next book.
4. Keep the Flow - If you’re looking to create a consistent reading habit, then setting out a particular number of pages per day would work perfectly. Consider setting aside at least 10-20 pages per day to read, especially if you have a busy schedule. This process will help you stay focused as you look forward to accomplishing your daily goal of a specific number of pages. Focus leads to efficiency and soon enough, reading will become a lifestyle for you. Be very proactive when you read. Don’t rush through, but instead take out time to understand and engage in the reading process. This way, you’ll be open to learn and be able to transfer that knowledge to others when an opportunity comes.
5. Make a Reading List - Keep a list of all the great books you want to read. Keep this list handy so, make the list on your phone, Google Keep, document, whatever. Be sure to add to it whenever you hear about a good book, online or in person. Keep a running list, and cross out the ones you read. You should also explore this website of Goodreads. Goodreads is a social cataloging website that allows individuals to freely search its database of books, annotations, and reviews. You can sign up and register books to generate library catalogs and reading lists.
6. Fake it Till you Make it - It just happened that while I started reading books I stumbled upon this awesome Ted talk Your body language may shape who you are. The crux of this talk is - We all know that our thoughts shape what actions we take, but it is true vice versa too. So start your actions in a way that it supplements your habit. Speak with your friends and colleagues about the books which you have read, and they will share their experiences. This is a very good way to get recommended about new books, sharing, exchanging books and being perceived as a book reader which in turn will really and slowly make you a real Book Worm. PS: Writing this blog is my action to substantiate this point :)
7. Choose Book over Movie - Nowadays we see numerous books getting adapted into a movie. And this often leaves us with a choice between them. When an author writes a plot we read and at our own pace and visualize the plot, characters, and situations in our mind. While writing a book, the author does half of the job by expressing his imaginations in words and we complete the other half by re-creating his imagination out of those words. On the contrary, when you watch a movie it is the director's imagination which you are watching and there are many subplots and storylines which gets lost into translation.
8. Renting vs Buying - This is mostly a personal choice based on multiple factors with each option having its own pros and cons. If we go by an average cost of a book around 500 Rs and a pace of 3 books a month, it will cost you 18K Rs per year. But you own the book and if you have ample space you can create your own library. Otherwise, you can always choose to rent a book, there are many library memberships available at around 4K a year. Explore services on Justbooks, Nool if you live in a Tier - 1 city.