Fewer and fewer people are still reading. Whether this is due to easy access to movies from Netflix, YouTube, and other sites, shorter attention spans, or teachers are unable to inspire their students because they still make them read boring old literature that no one really liked instead of fun interesting stories. I’m sure there’s some study that can tell us why less people read but I haven’t seen it. I focus on still reading and enjoying what I read.
The key to reading, I’ve found, is reading stuff you actually enjoy. You can’t force yourself to love Shakespeare. You can appreciate his work, but if you don’t love it from the start, you’re not going to suddenly become passionate about reading MacBeth.
I’ve had so many friends who tell me they haven’t read a single book since they were last forced to in high school and stopped reading because they found reading boring. This just goes to show the horrible disservice English classes in schools have done people because they turn people off to reading who go through the rest of their lives thinking every book will be as boring as the Scarlet Letter. There are so many books in so many different genres, everyone can find a book they like.
I don’t have a specific genre I stick to as I read a little of everything. I’ll read any Dan Brown book, loved To Kill A Mockingbird, like John Green, read Stephen King, and am currently reading Nicholas Sparks. I’ll also read some educational books about subjects that interest me but novels are what keep the blood flowing.
Read what excites you. If you start a book and think it sucks, then read something else. no one is going to fault you because you didn’t like a book. They may not understand how you didn’t like it, but we’ve all started books we ended up not liking and it can turn us off to reading for a while. I’ve started a few and never finished them because they didn’t keep my interest and I’d never pick them back up. It happens. But I’d go find another book I did like and read it from cover to cover.
Do you like to read for pleasure or do you like to read for educational purposes? Do you like series or standalone novels primarily? I’ll read a good series and I’ll read a good novel, doesn’t matter to me. How do you keep reading? Is it the book you’re reading or do you use through it? Comment below!
Drew Schroeder 