Tips to kick-start your reading habit

“Reading is the sole means by which we slip, involuntarily, often helplessly, into another’s skin, another’s voice, another’s soul.” — Joyce Carol Oates

Nowadays, with the development of technology, many people tend to spend less time reading books as it’s considered a boring activity. Most of them are often busy checking on a dozen of Facebook profiles during their leisure time, because they believe that they can gain all the knowledge they need from the social media sites. However, reading a book gives a person the opportunity to observe things more deeply, beyond his/her common vision and become a better conversationalist than those who do not read.

If you choose your books right, your whole life will change. You’re building thoughts, opinions and images in your head described in each page, and it will help to develop one’s intellect. There is no doubt you will gain knowledge, something that can never be taken away from you.  Let’s look at few tips that will help you to improve your reading habits and turn you a true bookworm!  

Visit the local library

If you truly want to become an enthusiastic reader, first of all have a positive perspective on reading. Being a beginner, you might feel somewhat confused about choosing the right book to start off with, but it doesn't need to be a popular classic, romance, or horror; it can be anything that you are comfortable with. Why not try books like Divergent by Veronica Roth, Harry Potter J. K. Rowling, Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins or any other exciting popular novel.  

Create a daily schedule

After you find a suitable novel for you, set a separate time in your daily routine for at least 15-20 minutes. Make sure that during this time you are not distracted by any other daily activity. Try reading during breakfast or dinner while sipping on a warm cup of tea, you will be living in that moment! Making this a habit can greatly help you to improve your reading skills. The more you engaged yourself in the task, the more you will get used to it, however don't force yourself to complete a book within a particular time period. If you do so, you will lose interest, and as a result, you may see it as a burden. Once you familiarize yourself with this practice you can gradually increase the amount of time you allocate for reading daily.  

Find the ideal reading spot

Find a quiet place in your home where you can give your entire focus to the book without having any distractions, and resist the temptation of checking your Facebook and Twitter pages every five minutes! This is might be hard for non-readers but we guarantee you this would one day make you realize that it’s worth trying! If you don’t like the idea of being stuck at home, grab your book and head to the beach or the park, you will find that the fresh air and the beautiful view make your reading experience even more pleasant.

Set your imagination free

People are continuously bombarded with visual images from television and internet. When reading, your brain visualizes the scenes as you read them, you become the character and feel his/hers emotions, you become a part of the story. Consequently, it creates a more personal experience and you begin to feel the tastes, smells, sights, feelings, sounds, surroundings and anything else the character experiences throughout the story. You will realize that it is just as good or even better than watching a movie.

Limit screen time

Are you obsessed with watching TV or playing video games?  If so, you should try going one day each week with no TV or video games. It is a known fact that most people watch too much TV, and only a few are able to restrict this habit and maintain a healthy daily schedule. If you too find it difficult to get away from this habit, try to replace it by reading your favourite book.

Maintain a log

How can we perceive reading as a positive thing in our mind? This is possibly a common question everyone asks themselves. In order to make reading valuable, you could create a log including the author and title of books you've read so far, you can also put an extra note to each commenting about the book. By doing this on a daily basis you may find it interesting to read more novels, journals, logs and diaries and it would definitely provide you a greater happiness to see all the books you've read after a couple of months.  

Make a wish list

Once you get into a reading habit, you can move on to reading classics like ‘The Colour Purple by Alice Walker, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Lord of the Flies by William Golding and many more. It would be ideal if you could write down a list of books that you would like to read in the future and collect them one by one as you go. A good daily reading ritual makes you want to read constantly and you will find that time flies by. Therefore before you start reading a book always remember reading is not only fun, but also healthy and you will enjoy it to the fullest! Once you make reading a habit, you will see that it will have a profound effect on your life!