Start on weekends

As readers, we often think we’ll just start a book when we feel like it: we believe we’ll just start it when we feel like it and that’s normal! We want to think of reading as a positive and fulfilling activity, we want to feel like the book is calling for us. But there’s sometimes a gap between idea and execution, right?

As I talked with my Literature teacher as well as with friends about this gap, one of the main recurring ideas was that the time you start a book is crucial to making sure you actually continue reading it. After some time, we all realised the best time to do so was on weekends.

Accept that it will take time

Paradoxically, one of the main reasons why we can’t seem to be able to optimise our reading experience is our inherent will to read faster. We want to read as many books as possible and, sometimes without realising it, we fall into speed-reading and we fail to understand the essence of the book we’re reading.

On the other hand, some may be so ambitious about their reading plans that they just don’t know where to start. I remember at the beginning of this year, I had such a long list of books I had to read I just didn't know where to start: it is kind of scary because it requires acknowledging the fact that reading takes time, and also that you can’t read everything.

Keep track of your reads

One of any reader’s worst fears is spending so much time reading a book just to completely forget about its thesis or plot a week later. Sometimes, this makes us feel the need to overcompensate with excessive note-taking or highlighting.

However, many studies have shown that not only is highlighting ineffective but it can also damage your ability to retain information for long periods of time. In fact, it makes you skip a very important part of reading: recollection. You are not actually processing the information but merely making sure you can identify the main concepts in a paragraph.