How to Enjoy What You Read
Read. Note. Reflect.
Not everybody indeed likes to read or doesn’t even think about reading. Sometimes books are poorly written because the story doesn’t interest you. That’s okay. Maybe the book is not for you.
Reading a book is like digesting food. Firstly, by employing the genres, you look for things that might interest you. Perhaps it was from your favorite movies, topics, content related to your daily life, or an autobiography from your role model.
So, what is your book genre? Romance, mystery, self-help — you named it.
As I take more time to read fiction and non-fiction, I often realize that one writer is better than others. Neither do I think, It’s the writing style or my personal preferences in choosing the right book that matches my needs. Also, our brain can tell what is and isn’t your jam. Your brain acknowledges the information from the book, connects with the existing knowledge and responds to what you feel during your reading. It is called the role of emotion in memory. This is why you are less likely to remember the information from an uninteresting book.
Are you reading for pleasure or a purpose?
In this case, you are searching for the preferred writing style and tasting the authors’ ideas by tempering your curiosity and developing your most enormous interest in how people tell their stories. Once you get deeper into one, slowly, you enjoy the learning process of reading. When you are in a learning phase, you bring to mind all the things you know that are related to the information, use the practical information for the future and make the knowledge stick. I use these tips to get the most out of my reading, whether for entertainment or to help advance myself.
How It Works
Our essential goals are to read on purpose and take action. Before that, there are a few other add-on tricks you can try.
☑ Lie down to a book that matches your personal preferences
Have you ever finished a book that you didn’t want to complete? You were likely falling prey to the sunk cost fallacy. It states that it’s better to abandon the decision rather than waste more time and energy trying to finish reading for the sole purpose of completing it. Making reading relevant to your life experiences creates you to engage and understand the lesson better.
☑ Make highlights
The easiest way to remember is to mark a book with highlights. Sometimes you have to go back and forth to search for different passages. A few words are easier to memorize and handle, but if it requires multiple books at a time, you’ll get burned out and stop reading what you like.
☑ Write down your notes and discuss them with your community (book club, maybe!)
There is no one best point in the book rather than an author narrating a story, and you, as the reader, pull into it. Expressing your feeling into words what you have learned and a fond interest in the same genre of books means that your point of view is similar to the writer. When you’ve finished writing, save the document somewhere accessible, like Notion. Personally, I use this to continue applying the knowledge in everyday life as my second brain.
Also, you find yourself stuck in writing and remembering what you read. Start a conversation to clear up any confusion with people with the same intention as yours. Sometimes, your mess might vanish while you have a simple conversation.
Reflect and Action
Reflections may include what you liked and would change then the questions raised. Here is some questions to help you get started:
- What did I learn from the book?
- What challenge did I successfully tackle by applying my reading?
- What aspects would I improve in my life?
- When do I want to complete my goal?
After take a moment to write an answer on something you’ve just learned and discovered while reading, begin with small steps because it can add up to big changes. Finally, this will help you to track your progress and to reinvent yourself.
The Bottom Line
Research shows that reading strengthens the human brain and improves memory. Those benefits can last for a lifetime. For the best result, you may adapt to new reading behavior by simply choosing the genre, taking notes and speaking up about the problem you may face. Books can sometimes lessen nervousness and remove those barriers for you.
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Thanks for reading :)