My relationship with reading

I have never been very committed to reading, and I have always found it somewhat difficult to enjoy with a few books being the exception. Let me explain how I came about building a sort of reading habit, and why reading really has changed my life.

I had just finished A-levels and was sitting on a step in Pisa, Italy with a group of friends. It was 2am, and we had entered the realms of deep philosophical debates on anything and everything. The more subjects came up, the more I felt I lacked not only knowledge but also opinions towards what was being said. This wasn’t because I didn't want to have opinions, it was because I had never had a chance to truly formulate them. I would like to clarify, this isn't one of those moments where I became upset, went off to read a load of books, became more knowledgeable than anyone I know, and went around spreading my point of view. Sorry to disappoint, but I was actually very content at the time and was just trying to enjoy my freedom following the most stressful set of exams I had ever sat at the time. This was just a moment I recognised I didn't have much breadth or depth to my knowledge.

I started university and this is where things began to change. I was doing a degree that fascinated me (Biochemistry), and that came with a lot of research papers. I loved reading research papers, but before you make any judgements; reading a research paper doesn't require you starting from the top and making your way to the very end. In fact, I don't think anything has to be read like that. Sometimes, it would just be the intro, other times just the graphs and on the odd occasion, yes, I would read the whole thing. This enjoyment grew as years went by because the material became more interesting and more tailored to my interest. If asked to read a psychology paper, I simply wouldn’t. Microbiology though? Absolutely.

At some point in between all of this a friend of mine recommended "How to Make Friends, and Influence People”. This was during one of those deep conversations about our futures and at a ridiculous hour in Mykonos (I don't recommend going there, to say it fell short of my expectations would be an understatement, but I'm open to someone trying to change my mind.) I bought the book in 2016, read the first chapter. Boring. In 2019, faced by the start of my masters degree and many interviews, finding myself in a position where interacting with people became of paramount importance, I gave the book another go, and this time I was obsessed. I didn't necessarily agree with everything that was said, but the book was more relevant to me, and it therefore became something I enjoyed. I finished a book, and it only took me 3 years.

I had a come a long way, I was reading a lot, journals, newspapers, magazines and books, whatever felt right I read it. I even went as far as buying a kindle, but I am not going to preach the kindle life. If you prefer reading from a hard copy I can totally understand that and do whatever suits you best. But here is where reading once again became a struggle. I would hear my friends say they have put targets of 45 books a year or another ridiculous number, while I was getting maybe 4 or 5. I tried to keep up, it became a challenge and the enjoyment was once again gone.

So I guess this all seems a little disjointed. But here it is. Building a reading habit has worked for me by picking the things that resonated with me at the time and topics I found genuinely interesting. There’s no competition. Read for enjoyment, if thats a line a day or a book a day whatever you feel works for you. I can guarantee if you love what you read you'll only end up reading more. Before you know it, you'll become more inquisitive and develop your own opinion on matters, maybe even give your brain a rest from reality by reading fantasy. If it works for you it’s good, actually it’s the best. Soon you'll be sharing what you're reading with others and being a story teller is a great trait to have.

Finally, I'll share some of the things I am reading at the moment. I recently read “The Splendid and The Vile” by Erik Larson, good book but a bit of a slog for me (took me 3 months to finish), and just started “Range” by David Epstein and I'll probably jump in and out of Breath from Salt by Bijal P. Trivedi (super excited about this one!)

A final note, if reading really is a struggle but you love the idea of gaining the information from books, then don’t be scared of an audiobook, it’s what helped me get through “The Splendid and The Vile”. These little steps will get you into reading I am sure of it.