It has been said that the African man does not read. They have argued that the best way to keep a thing hidden from the African is to hide it inside the pages of a book. But arguably, this is a character deficiency of many more people than just Africans. People do not normally like to read, with a handful of exceptions anyway. Needless to say, reading is one of the few major sources of information in our world today but many people have chosen to auto-shut their eyes from seeing anything prints.
I have come to give you five justifiable reasons why you may be part of the huge population of people that hate reading. That is to say that I am validating your decision to hate reading. It’s not as if I personally love reading the most but people in extreme anti-reading syndrome would practically turn their eyes way from letters or prints.
When you don’t read, it translates that you actually hate reading. And just in case you are beginning to point special fingers on yourself already, just remember that everybody hates reading to some extent. I have only seen a few people who actually love reading and enjoy it.
I also noticed that children consider reading a boring exercise, especially when there are no beautiful illustrations or when they are doing it alone. But what makes reading interesting to those who actually enjoy it?
Reasons Why You Hate Reading
There may be more than five reasons why you hate reading and they are practically justifiable. One thing you must understand is that your decision to hate reading is somewhat subconscious. You didn’t just wake up and started ignoring words and prints.
It has been found out that people move away from things they are not doing well at. Even the economic law of comparative advantage supports that people and countries focus more on areas they are more successful at.
That is to say that if you find ways to obtain some value from reading, you will be more inclined to reading and you will get better at it. Let’s now see the reasons.
1. You Probably Don’t Understand What You Read.
Reading is one thing, understanding is another. In childhood, most children read without understanding what they read. They are only encouraged to identify letters and words. So when they feel that they are successful at that task, they are encouraged to read more.
But when it appears to them that they are not, it follows a spiralling downturn even up till adulthood. One way you can encourage children to read is to give them a sense of good performance even when they are not doing too well, while you find ways to make them get better.
When adults read without understanding what they read, the same thing happens until they finally begin to hate whatever resembles letters or words in prints media.
2. Reading Is Just Naturally Boring, Isn’t It?
Reading is naturally boring except if you derive some value from it. These values will be explained fully in the next point.
3. You Don’t Get Value From Reading
Values derived from reading can be in different ways. The first and primary reward for reading in our educational world today is the reward of grades.
When your grades do not show for your studies, you gradually become discouraged in the books. Another important thing is the fact that every person reading a book or some text desire to understand what they are reading. It gives satisfaction when you understand what you read. And on the other hand, your head becomes unnecessarily overheated when you do not understand.
People that understand what they read find reading more interesting by the day.
I have come across a close friend who disclosed to me that she prefers reading books to watching movies. Sounds weird to most other people but that is how she feels anyways.
4. No Motivation
People that you refer to as “bookworm” do so because there is something they derive from reading. Motivation is usually in deriving some personal pleasure from it receiving some academic or monetary rewards.
5. You Have Other Things To Invest Your Time On
There are probably some other things to invest time your time on. Reading to you is considered a waste of time. You do not derive any pleasure or satisfaction from reading. This could be a valid reason for someone who is not interested in reading. But it does not rule out the fact that reading remains one of the most important sources of information.
Reading can be in different forms. No one expects you to love all forms of reading at the same time but it is important that you find ways to fall in love with the form that gives you the most information for what you do.
For a student, loving to read your books and texts will be to your big advantage. But when some or more of these factors stand as impediments to your love for reading, it becomes needful that we find new ways to overcome them.
To another person, magazines and posters will constitute a better source of information than just “class notes”.
To the general public, banners and billboards are great sources of information, but ironically, a majority of people do not even read those in demonstration of how much they hate to read.
How to Stir Up Your Interests In Reading
You may already tell yourself that you do not need to stir up your interests in reading any form. But that will be a huge loss to you, frankly speaking. Hating anything called letters is absolutely a costly thing. You’d argue that such people do not exist but that only means you may not have gone far enough to meet some. There are countless numbers of people who actually hate to read. They would prefer to watch illustrations, which are also good sources of information too. But the implication is that they would miss out on the most other rich information written in words out there.
How To Read More Effectively
I will give you some ways to make your reading more effective and interesting. But just before you commence reading intensely, warming up your brain should be the first step. Let’s go on through these together;
1. Warm-up your brain before reading: This entails that you take some time to relax your mind and think about what you are about to read before you begin. Try to examine how relevant the information you are trying to acquire will be to your life, examinations and/or career. This step entails the following:
- a. Ask questions that you hope to find answers to.
- b. Brush through the chapters(skimming, or scanning).
2. Begin reading: Here, you have started reading with your goals in mind. This step is very critical because it is the main activity we are concerned with. Very often, people complain that they do no grasp any tangible thing. This are the things you must do as you read;
- a. Keep asking questions as you read.
- b. Take breaks to understand what looks puzzling. There is nothing worse than rushing through without understanding.
- c. You may write as you read. This does not work for everyone though. Writing stores knowledge for longterm use but it has the disadvantage of slowing down your reading pace.
- d. Look up as many difficult words as you can.
- e. Keep questioning what you understand to build more depth.
- f. Take longer breaks to fully understand more complicated information.
- g. Make mental pictures of what you read. Pictures are actually the best form of coded information; easy to recreate.
- h. Make connections with known information.
There are absolute precautions you must take when reading. I heard a younger friend complain to me that he does not even remember what he read the last time, talkless of the precise information. You must avoid this by ensuring that you do not leave gaps of “non-understood areas”. Skipping things you have not understood creates a gap that distorts the flow of understanding. This adds up to make you really lost from your own path of understanding.
3. Recall after reading: At this step, try to make out the central idea and the supporting points from what you just read.
Thereafter, take some rest and observe some leisure. There is nothing more refreshing to the brain than rest and some sleep.
The more you work on these, the more you get better and you may have to add some modifications to the list above as it suits your own special needs. Your level of interests builds up because you are experiencing good results and understanding.
When interests start building up, your phobia for prints will gradually decline and you will become a more voracious reader. Remember, readers are leaders.
