Why Now Is The Best Time To Read Books

This pandemic has brought forth all kinds of changes to our everyday lives, but one thing that I found interesting is the drastic shift in habits. It makes sense that during a pandemic, we're going to have to do things a lot differently, but it was refreshing to see that people gravitate towards something that we don't often do outside of a pandemic.

Reading.

Before this pandemic, it's not in most people's nature to be reading books or articles. I myself kept to reading articles here and there whenever I find an interesting topic.

However due to this pandemic, I feel the urge to be reading more and more. I linger on my Facebook and Twitter feed and I find myself reading a handful of articles on various sites every day compared to before.

It's interesting to me because, as a writer, I'm used to being alone and behaving not so differently to what we are encouraged to do now during lockdown.

For many others though, this shift has been more dramatic.

In the Western world, there is a routine to how we live our lives.

You go to work, get back home and gravitate towards watching TV, gaming or having other plans with family or friends.

It's not that often where people think about picking up a book. In fact, almost a quarter of the American population didn't read a book last year.

And while that is troubling that people are reading less, I believe now is a good of a time as ever to get into reading at any capacity. Not only articles such as this one, but extend that same passion to novellas and books.

You Have The Perfect Environment For Reading

My mom is an avid reader and every time I see her reading, there is a specific spot that she sits in and reads. It only varies depends on the weather and the temperature. Other than that, these spots have never changed ever since I was making note of where she was reading.

To me, this tells me that environment is everything whenever you are reading. You need to have a specific spot for which you enjoy reading from. This space doesn't need to be massive. It could be as simple as a specific chair you sit in like my mom does.

Creating this environment isn't complex and it's easy to get into during these times. Most of the world is on lockdown so it is easy for you to have a specific spot where you read at home.

And once this pandemic is over, there are several other locations to consider reading a book. Cafe's, public libraries, and parks are the most common spots to consider.

Reading A Book Engages Us

I know more and more people are putting more value into reading than before, however some are only going half-way. There is a large surge in readers though a portion of them prefer to listen rather than read.

Indeed, audio books are growing in popularity as people get turned off by reading. The reasons can vary but speaking from my own experiences, I turned to audio books for a while because of my reading speed. I found it easier to listen to a book rather than read. Especially since it takes me months to finish a book because I stop reading halfway through.

But I found several disadvantages to listening rather than reading.

First, it's harder to absorb the information. Whenever I read, I turn to self-improvement books and the few audio books I've listened to it was hard to follow. Maybe it was me, but listening is less engaging as people use it naturally as a reactive tool.

Second, audiobooks make it harder to re-listen. This is by no fault of audiobook app developers. It's more to do with us as humans.

Normally for something to stick - whether it's part of the plot, a word you're trying to understand, or information you are trying to absorb - you need to re-read the last paragraph or a few of the past lines.

With audio books, you need to move the time marker back. But moving a sliver means rewinding a few minutes and having to re-listen to lines you didn't need to hear while waiting to get to the part you're trying to understand.

It's frustrating and it breaks the pace up. Especially if you're like me where you're trying to get to the specific point that you don't understand or trying to process.

For paper books, you don't run into that problem since the words are readily available. You're getting more convenience and engagement by reading a physical copy over listening.

The Information Is Valuable No Matter How Long It Takes You

As mentioned, many people avoid books because of reading speed. People find it a huge hassle to spend several days or weeks reading a book while others can clear through a book in a matter of hours or a day.

What I have to say to that is:

So what?

In the case of this lockdown, this is our reality for probably several months or even the rest of this year. What this means is there is only a handful of things that we can be doing. For sure we can be creative with our ideas, but why not turn to some books?

One aspect of books is that these are large portions of ever-green content. It's content that is going to be relevant to people for a very long time.

At least that is the case with most self-improvement books.

Going to any other genre though it's still going to be relevant and entertaining all the same. You won't learn as much, but there is improvement in other skills by reading fiction and other novels.

Even if it takes you a good week or two of reading, it's still developing that habit and you can start to see some differences. Speaking from my own experiences I've learned how to better articulate words - since I learned French all those years ago, my English vocabulary was limited and my skills shaky at best despite it being my native language - and better structure them. One can see that in my development and improvement as a writer over the years.

I wouldn't be able to hone those skills if it wasn't for reading books and articles on occasion. I could hone those skills further by spending a little time every day to reading.

And if you are reading a book that applies directly to your life, it goes to show how relevant it can be to your life. I've seen people talk about how Dale Carnegie's "How To Win Friends & Influence People" has impacted their lives. That book has been reprinted several times over due to how relevant it is to general human behaviour.

No matter how long it takes you to get through a book, you're bound to have an experience. Best of all, you're taking it at your own pace.

It Helps You To Build Speed Later

Much like everything else in life, people weren't always born with inherent skills. Yes we do have talents and areas we excel in but we reach those places due to our dedication.

If you're not happy with how slow you read, not reading isn't going to help. Instead, you need to turn to reading on a regular basis and developing skills in that area.

How I've managed to pick up my speed is that I stopped counting or keeping track of where I'm at in the article or book I'm reading. From that I learned that everything can become daunting the larger it is in your head.

It explains why when you're in first year university writing a 2,000-3,000 word essay sounds excruciating when in reality it's not. Many of the articles I write hover around the 1,000-1,500 word mark.

This same logic can apply to books. 200-300 page books seem daunting, but if you're hopping from chapter to chapter and paying attention to what's being said, you can find the chapters going by in time and find you spent an hour and finished a quarter of a book that size.

I feel that speed matters to people as it allows people to quickly be involved in the story. The sooner people can do that, the more invested they are in it. To help with that, it's better to have less idle thoughts and to focus solely on the words and what's being said. The less idle thoughts the less distractions there are and the more you'll read faster and become amerced in the story.

Read Up

It pays to be curious about the world these days as many people fall into a routine and tend to be coasting through life. This pandemic is a huge eye opener as I feel it puts into question the very routines that our lives are founded on and challenges us to change them.

Yes, the pandemic is horrible and is cause loss, pain, and frustration, but I see it as an opportunity to improve ourselves by doing something different and developing new habits.

Reading is one of those habits that can make a world of difference whether it's reading articles or reading a book. These open up our worlds to new opinions and ideas no matter what genre of book you pick up. Even if you can't get to a public library, there are thousands of books published for you to choose from. So read up, it's worth the investment.