How to fall in love with reading

One of my all time favourite quotes by Maya Angelou is “Have enough courage to always trust love one more time and one more time”. It is certainly true for love, because if you do follow that simple rule, inevitably one day, you will stumble across a lover who will fail to disappoint. He will call back the morning after and most certainly he will not go back to his ex. But the area in which I find this quote most applicable is in the realm of books.

I often hear friends complaining to me that they wish they liked reading but they just don’t, or that they have all the good will but either not enough time on their hands, enough money or enough of an attention span. To me the real issue, however,  is that they just haven’t followed the advice of Maya Angelou. I remember my 9th grade english teacher telling me that everyone who doesn’t like reading, just hasn’t found the right book yet. A rule that I can swear by. It is this and the fact that upon finding the wrong one, they have given up. How sad, really, for the right one has dutifully been praying for their discovery!

But I agree, in our age when our fingertips are so used scrolling, our ears to the reassuring ping and our minds to thinking in memes, reading can be hard. Sometimes I do find myself daydreaming of the Age of the Enlightment when upon waking up Marie Antoinette, did not have notifications to check, emails to answer or keep her phone on aeroplane mode if she was to be of some value to the world. It is true, and somewhat bizarre that we do these things to ourselves (no one forcing me to be on instagram as far as I know?) and yet I do find myself longing, reminiscing, craving older times when the only time one could send a letter would have been through a dove. And how ineffably wonderful that one would have had to wait 3-4 months for a reply instead of .34 seconds! Ah, the joys! And yet, I have always believed that when confronted with a problem we have two options: to complain till the dawn of time or take matters into our own hands and make the best out of what is widely accepted as a tricky situation.

So here I crafted a few rules of mine that I believe will help one get back to reading in our instagram-imposed-facebook-driven-ADHD-ridden age. Here it goes:

1. Firstly, get clear about whether you actually want to read or not. I want to read because of the way it helps me experience the world more thoroughly, yet effortlessly. The knowledge it imbues me with and the words it entrances me by. But for many people that feeling is found in other activities. If reading is not your thing, instead of battling with your self-image, just accept it and invest your time in your element.
2. Do you ever wonder why when you were in school, despite how unachievable and abstract your workload seemed at the beginning of term, you eventually always made your way through it? Well, that happened for two reasons: 1. You had a clear plan and a direction. 2. You had someone to impose the rules. So in that in mind— make a list of books you want to read, tell yourself by when you want to do it and get to it.
3. If you really want to get some reading done, leave your phone on aeroplane mode, in another room. No, just turning it with the screen down DOES NOT WORK.
4. For the life of me, don’t choose books based on their length. I am only saying this because I have done that for way too long. If a book was longer than 300 pages I felt like Sisyphus rolling his boulder. Alas, now I know that long books are t h e b e s t. Why? Because they are like your childhood friend, the longer you know each other the deeper your relationship gets.
5. You can’t say if you like a book or not until you have read at least the first 56 pages of it (ok, 50 works too). It puzzles me how most people expect to be on page two and already be captivated upon by a spell-bound enchantment. It does not work this way. Give the author some mercy. That said, if by page 56 you’re still wondering why bother, then you are right, it’s probably not worth the bother.
6. If you’re stuck and can’t find what book to read- follow me on Instagram (@torealitywithlove) for some promised gems.
7. Remember, all it takes is one good book to fall in love with reading forever.

Godspeed to you Pal!

To Reality,

With Love,
N.