“I hate reading”
Why you hate reading and what to do about it
If I was given money every time someone told me that they hated reading, I would have been an immensely wealthy woman ages ago. Unfortunately, no one has ever given me money for the general lack of an enthusiastic reading culture in Nigeria and all I am left with is a deep pity for those lost souls who don’t enjoy reading. In my childhood and teenage years, I was filled with self-righteous indignation and judgment when people weren’t keen on reading. I felt that they were weird and even worse — boring.
Since then, however, I have found that there are worse crimes than being boring and I began to ask an important question: Why? Why do so many people really hate reading? Most textbooks, manuals, and school-related literature are simply not interesting because they are aimed at technicalities and not entertainment. But what about books of creative non-fiction, novels, short stories, comics, plays, biographies and poetry?
Although a myriad of reasons exists for different individuals, my personal engagement with people has found two major causes. The first reason is that many people are forced to read. Being forced to do any task can instantaneously make you abhor that thing simply because it is against your will. If you are forced enough times to do that which you do not want, your brain immediately associates that task with negative emotions. It also doesn’t help when those books are bad in terms of the quality of the work, authenticity and general presentation.
Students at every level are the biggest example of people that are forced to read as they are constantly engaging with materials in various disciplines that they may not necessarily be interested in. This leads me to the next reason most people don’t like reading: they are reading the wrong books! If you are reading something you are not interested in, you can’t enjoy it. In the simple words of one of my friends, “you cannot like what you hate”.
Many times, when people tell me that they don’t enjoy reading, my next question is “well, what kind of books do you read?”. I find it to be a very important question because it is not rare to see that a large number of people think that reading is limited to certain kinds of books.
This, I believe is linked to the first reason I had earlier given. The following is an instance that has occurred between several people and I: a friend of mine that didn’t like reading said that she mostly read self-help books, biographies and memoirs. Digging deeper, I found that those were the books her parents had always made her read as a teen.
Of course, even though those kinds of books were what she read the most, she didn’t read often and she certainly didn’t enjoy the time she spent doing it. I then recommended a couple of books to her based on the movies she liked to watch and when she gave it a try, she discovered a whole new world of reading! The reading experience can only be pleasurable when it is tailored to your personal tastes.
Literature is an art just like music, dance and visual art. That is why it is so surprising to me that many people believe reading in its whole is boring. Just like music and dance styles, there’s a cornucopia of genres and topics to satisfy everyone on the planet. For every single ordinary and extraordinary thing that has happened in the world, there is a book about it. Can you imagine just how much you’re gaining if you’re constantly consuming various books?
I also find it most peculiar that readers are still accused of being the stereotypical boring and antisocial individual. While there may be quite a number who are that way, most well-read people are the most enlightened and interesting in any group. You see, avid readers are often exposed to things that the majority of people are clueless about.
Asides from being highly intriguing, readers — whether they are aware of it or not — get certain benefits. Science has proven that there is a link between reading and better vocabulary, writing, memory retention, higher grades, breadth of knowledge, and culture.
While it is never too late to learn anything, most lifelong readers develop the habit in their formative years. It is also common to see that many children who enjoy reading have parents who are readers themselves and have shown their kids the value of reading good books.
For those who don’t relish the art of reading, there are two things to consider to cultivate the habit. First, determine why your aversion to reading started and review the kinds of material you were exposed to. After that, take note of your interests, whatever they may be, and find books, journals, and articles on that subject. A simple Google search usually does the trick. Alternatively, you can ask for recommendations from another reader. I have personally found that most readers are genuinely eager to share what they have read and hold a vast collection of titles in their memory. In addition to that, they are usually willing to have discussions about the different materials they have consumed; further deepening and spreading their knowledge!
If you’re like me, you’ll find it hard to resist entering a bookshop once in a while and buying paperback books. Though at times expensive, hard copies are almost always better; if you know, you know. However, with the advent of ebooks, free sites like pdfdrive.com and apps such as Anybooks, all kinds of literature are vastly available online. I encourage everyone to take advantage of local book stores and the internet to explore the world of knowledge that patiently awaits you!
