I hated reading in school. The only books I enjoyed were Animal Farm, The Old Man and the Sea, A Christmas Carol, and Lord of the Flies. I, unfortunately, hated all the others. This made reading tough for me. I figured I was the kind of person who just hated reading. The beauty of high school is that if I hated the book, I simply wouldn’t read it and still passed with an A anyway. So no worries…right?
College was a different story. I’m not talking about my English classes; I didn’t read those books either. I am talking about textbooks. In college, the textbook was a necessity for passing all my classes. I can think of two distinct courses where I had to read the entire textbook cover to cover: Introduction to Computer Systems and Networks, and Introduction to Compilers and Interpreters. I would have failed the class without those textbooks!
During my college years, I also discovered something else…reading for pleasure! This was a foreign concept to me. Remember, at this time I thought I hated reading. However, I soon learned that reading can be fun and adventurous. I began this journey by reading some Stephen King books, where I got to learn what a good author is like!
Throughout college, this is all I read:
Textbooks and Stephen King
Let’s move on to after graduation. I am now living a simple life where I go to work, come home, and do whatever I want. I don’t have any homework or any responsibilities other than work and survival. Life after graduation can be both amazing and confusing. I find myself with a tremendous amount of free time, which I use to freak out about my direction and where I am going in life.
I also learned something tragic about post-grad life: I am not learning anymore.
My entire life leading up to this point I was always learning. From ages 0–5 I was learning how to be a human. After this, I began school where I continued to learn for the next 17 years. Today I find myself graduated, working a job, living in my own place, and not learning. Sure, I learn a lot at work, but that is different. How you might ask? I’m not reading anymore!
I decided I wanted to change this. I wanted to learn more and cast a wide net on the topics I learn. However, whenever I started reading a dense book, whether it is philosophy, computer science, cooking, or business, I had a hard time getting through it.
School, if anything, is a great motivator! I had plenty of classes with worthless professors where to pass you had to read the textbook. And it was with that motivation that I was able to finish many challenging books. Today is different. The only motivation I have today is self-motivation, something that our school system fails to teach. Post-graduation, I still wanted to read more, learn more, and grow more, so I found myself in quite the conundrum.
After many months of trial and error, I came up with a simple system. I am still growing and expanding my ability to read and learn, but here are the few things I do:
Read two books at once on two different mediums
I read all my physical books on my kindle. If I love a book, I buy the physical copy and store it on my bookshelf for decoration and conversation starters. If you don’t have a kindle, consider getting one. It has sped up my reading, makes note-taking a breeze, and is super duper portable. Enough about kindle though.
I also listen to audiobooks. I picked up a subscription to Audible, but there are also free ways to do this as well. A lot of local libraries have audiobooks you can rent through OverDrive. I started listening to audiobooks when I workout at the gym. I figured out that my brain doesn’t strain whenever I pick up a barbell, so it gives me a great opportunity to learn something new or enjoy a fun story.
Read multiple books at once
That’s right, multiple books at once! Why do people always think this is such a crazy idea? How do you watch TV? Do you just watch one show until it is over? Perhaps. But oftentimes I find myself working through a drama and a sitcom at the same time. Which one I watch depends on my mood.
Reading can be the same way! Sometimes you might be in a mood to pay attention, take notes, and grow. Other times you are tired and just want to relax. There is nothing wrong with this strategy, which is why I wrote it down. Personal disclaimer, though, I don’t use this strategy. The reason I don’t use it is that I struggle with self-motivation. Which leads me to my next strategy.
Alternate fun books and tough books
I have a hard time getting through the dense stuff like philosophy or tricky business books. To help with this, I like to alternate fun fiction and non-fiction. If the non-fiction turns out to be denser than I thought, but I am still learning a lot, I can look forward to that fiction book coming next!
I also have a long list of books I want to read. This helps me stay excited about all I am going to learn and enjoy. Right now I just finished It by Stephen King, and now I’m reading his book, On Writing. I already know once I finish that I am jumping straight into ‘Salem’s Lot. I am currently listening to Stephen King’s The Stand at the gym, and when I’m done with that I am going to checkout In His Image by Jen Wilkins.
That’s it. Super simple. To sum up my strategies:
Always be reading either by using multiple mediums to read or reading multiple books at once.
If you are having trouble getting through a dense book then try alternating fun books and tough books to give you that extra push.
I have learned a lot from utilizing these strategies and look forward to learning and growing more each day. I hope you do too!
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A version of this post was previously published on Medium and is republished here with permission from the author.
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