On Reading
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Reading is an important skill to have. It is a silent form of entertainment. Reading is declining as different forms of entertainment emerge and it is not limited to video streaming alone. What once used to be an important skill is now looked upon as a boring activity. The purpose of this blog post is not to persuade people to take up reading but to shed some light on this declining skill.
Reading as a habit
Most of the learning happens through reading. Believe it or not we read majority of the time, consciously or subconsciously, through different medium like sign boards, social media posts, books etc. It is hard to inculcate reading into our daily life and it takes a lot of effort to make it a habit.How to read
Reading can be intimidating sometimes and the only way to engage in reading is to dive into reading some stuff. It doesn't matter what you are reading until you get a hang of it. The best way to improve your reading habit is to read some novel. Novels provide you with great engagement with the characters in it. The initial pages can be boring but after reading two or three pages you will progress through it no matter what.For beginners check out my blog post about The Alchemist book by Paulo Coehlo.
Why reading is not popular
Reading used to be popular during the olden times. Enter the fast paced digital medium where video and audio content is easily available, reading can be boring as hell for some. Reading may not be as interactive as other entertainment medium like movies or TV Shows but it helps us to imagine our own perception of characters. You will perceive the story using your own mental models and trust me it is one to the great experiences that makes book reading a worthy experience.Physical book vs E-Book
The debate whether physical book is good or an ebook is good can continue for ages. Different people have different opinions over it. I prefer ebooks as I own Amazon Kindle Ebook Reader but as a popular medium physical books are in great demand. Your choice can simply boil down to this point:- If you value portability - choose ebook reader like Amazon Kindle
- If you value originality - choose a physical book
Alternate forms of reading
Audiobooks are some other popular forms of reading (i.e., listening), where user can listen to the book instead of listening to it. This medium is gaining momentum as the world is fast paced and busy. Amazon Audible is the best example for audiobooks space.
Getting the gist of a book
People get impatient sometimes and instead of reading or listening to the whole book, they will look for main points or the whole summary of a book. Many applications are available online to give users a brief summary of a book. Some examples include Blinkist.
Community of book lovers
In the olden days there used to be a community of people who would come together and discuss about their recent reads and book recommendations. We rarely find such gatherings now, but we can find a lot of communities online for that same purpose and the prime advantage is more readers can interact with others irrespective of geographical locations. Amazon Goodreads is one such community where readers can maintain lists like "want to read" and "read" and interact with other readers. It is like Facebook for readers.
Keep track of what you read
Keeping track of what you read can encourage you to read more. I preferred application to do that is Amazon Goodreads where I catalog books I've read and books that I want to read.
Conclusion
This is my opinion about reading and I am saying it again that I am not persuading people to read but this is only an attempt to make people aware of this piece of entertainment where people get transported to the magical realms of the story.
If you have got any book recommendation, feel free to comment it in the comments section below.
