Stop reading books you don’t love

Why? Because I want you to fall in love with reading again. I don’t want it to be a chore. You’ve been trained your whole life to read because the book is required. Sometimes, that’s true. If you’re in school, you have to read the course you signed up for. Not liking a book is an opinion too.

But I’m talking about books you choose to read. For leisure. Leisure? What’s that? Books that you let into your life. The books we think we want to read, and the books that find us when we need to read them. Sometimes we like them, sometimes we don’t. Nevertheless, it’s still your choice. Which means you don’t have to finish it.

Stop forcing yourself to finish a book.

If you’re not enjoying the book you’re reading, stop reading it. I’m serious. Most people say they hate reading because they force themselves to read books that they just simply do not enjoy. If you can’t bring it to yourself to not finish a book, take a break from it and read something else for a while.

It’s okay. I’m giving you permission. In fact, now that you have permission, go pick a book you want to read. If that book doesn’t get you hooked right away, pick up another one. If that one doesn’t get you hooked, try another genre. Something you would have never picked up. Challenge yourself to read outside your comfort zone.

Reading is not a race.

There is no finish line. You should practice reading for enjoyment. You don’t have to finish books you don’t like. Give it a chance, sure but maybe you’re a mood reader like me and it’s just not the right time for this one. You don’t have to finish it. Read something else. Something you’ve always wanted to read but someone told you it wasn’t a “real book.”

I challenge you to find a book that makes you ashamed to read in public. A comic book or graphic novel? That’s still reading. Romance novel? Still reading. For goodness sake, if you want to read Fifty Shades of Grey, read Fifty Shades of Grey. Just read something.

Reading should be fun.

If you absolutely have to finish a book, my advice is to grab a highlighter and find sentences or paragraphs that make you think of something. Spark a conversation with what you are ingesting in your mind. Talk about it with someone. In my experience, the books that were hard to get through that I had to read for a book club or class I would always highlight and make notes. Annotation helps you make sense of things, it’s okay to write in a book. Study it. Maybe studying it is your way of enjoying it. It’s okay to want to learn.

Reading should be something that you enjoy. Stop forcing yourself to read something that isn’t bringing you joy. Don’t fall out of love with reading just because you keep picking the wrong books to read. Fall in love with reading because you choose not to read that book anymore and grab another. Have fun with it. Might I dare say, even read multiple books at once? Gasp! That’s for another time then.