Why don’t we read anymore?...

It’s ironic how the title says ‘why don’t we read anymore?’ and still write an article that people will have to read to know about it (especially when the article is for non- readers, but you can spare me for this one… *grimacing face*).

We are all aware of the fact that reading has lost its significance through past many years immemorial, and there is no sole reason to blame or any excusable justification. Breaking the stigma, that has scattered throughout these years, reading is not as intricate or sterile as we so wrongly think.

Today, lets discuss about the various reasons that restrict us from reading or make us hesitate to touch those so called “insipid” bind of pages (and let’s see if further ahead after this discussion if we can solve these problems and begin our journey on the path of reading by taking baby steps).

1. An all-time reason – “IT’S BORING!”

The most common reason is, “Nah!! … its so boring!”. (trust me, this is a huge misconception). People find reading boring because all they see through their naked eyes is the ocean of words lacking luster, colors and pictures.

2. No TIME

People feel they don’t have enough time to read the book or just too tired (it genuinely may be the reason or may be not). But I suppose sparing 10-15 mins before sleeping, while commuting or better yet replacing the gadgets - we waste our time on, with books can still make a commendable difference.

3. Movies

Nope, I’m not saying movies are bad when I love movies a lot myself… but with such enhancement in technology, its rather fun to watch a lively movie than to turn pages of a featureless book. its also easy to sum up a book in just 2 hours by watching its movie rather than reading a book for weeks. No doubt its far less challenging to watch a movie that requires no brains than to imagine and comprehend what the author means through words.

4. Too big

Another common excuse is - “The books are too big.” (we do have small books too though). We usually witness people with big fat books and thus fall into the trap of thinking that all the books are as thick and tedious. But this problem is solved because we are provided with thin and thrilling books too by great authors to kindle our interest for reading.

5. Gadgets

Gadgets have practically made us so slouchy and trapped us into their viscous claws making us miss out on the real innumerable things out there worth cherishing, specially books. Rather than wasting our time on mobile phones, tabs etc we can read books of any genre we enjoy and make the best out of our time and strengthen our brain in every way possible.

6. How to start?

This the biggest and the toughest of question of all time – “How do I start reading?” or “which book should I begin with?”. We usually are not habituated to reading and it’s tough to shift our tangents that’s have been fixated through all these years. Due to lack of experience (or none of it at all) we have many questions regarding the genre of the book that we will enjoy or the book that will be easy for us to read while it ignites our passion and love towards reading. These doubts put us in a pickle and majorly contribute in our hesitation to pick up a book.

(I will soon be posting an article recommending the books that are easy to start our reading journey and also make you fall in love with it *wink wink*.

7. Its tough

Many of us find it mind-boggling and difficult to understand the book because of its unique plots, stories and lessons of various genres with the words used, making it exhausting and wearisome for us to find the meaning of an alien word every time we across it. All this makes it too hard for us to even begin reading with and kill all the enthusiasm and fun.

8. Impatience

Thanks to modern technology that has so greatly helped us in reducing our attention span and ability to stay focused for the time required that we have grown so impatient. With all the information that is accessible so easily and that’s offered on a platter to us, we have become impatient to even push a little and read through the books.

9. Dead reading culture

Sadly, reading isn’t well recognized or appreciated as it was before and that’s a bitter fact. Gone are the days when there were libraries full of people or every passer-by with a book in his hand. Also, the readers’ clubs have vanished today. With this dying culture of reading we are seeing less and less keen readers too.

10. ‘Bookworm’ is an insult

‘Bookworm’ is a person who enjoys reading. But today such a remark is another insult to one. The mindset so established among the peers stating that bookworms are geeks makes reading uncool and readers a victim of such remarks. This itself refrains people from reading.

11. First book turned out to be a disaster

Sometimes it so happens that the first book we pick up oh-so profoundly, unfortunately, turns out to be a let-down. But everyone deserves a chance and so do books, don’t they? It wouldn’t be that of a bad idea to give it another shot! (believe me you will love it :*)

12. Underestimate the power of reading

Yes, we all do that! This is the main reason behind us not reading books. Everyone of us at some point or the other has underestimated the true power of reading just to realize that reading can actually be such a life changer. Reading is the most soul satisfying thing anyone can do and offers tonnes of benefits (there’s another post for this one… links are given below) because once you start reading a good book, it will be difficult to distract you.

These are few of the many problems I have tried to bring together and remember you are not the only one in this conundrum.

Please feel free to mention any other issues that you face, in the comment section below and we will find out the solutions for those together.

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