5 Quick Tips for Those Who HATE reading

I hate to read. GOD I HATE READING. If you are like that too, maybe I can offer an alternative view on it.

I remember in school when those teachers practically mentally abused me by forcing me to read all those books. What I realized(later than I wanted to) is that the KIND of books school shove down our throats aren’t the most interesting books there are, at least, not for me.

There was a time where I haven’t had read a GOOD book in my entire life, until I got two books from a cousin of mine. The two books where: The Collapsing Universe, and Sherlock Holmes’ Study in Red.

Something ticked inside my head. I loved how both of those books seemed to expand my mind somehow. Before them, I never even looked at books as some sort of learning containers. I looked at them as “unexciting stories” I had to memorize to pass tests at school. But those books changed everything.

The Collapsing Universe

The first one was from a guy called Isaac Asimov, I never even heard about him before. But as I opened the book, and read 1 page, I was hooked. At that point I hadn’t been introduced to proper physics, it was just memorization in my school. This book just opened my eyes to a universe bigger than I imagined. Asimov managed to turn a “boring” subject into something I think about every single day. He managed to write following amazing deductions from simple facts, telling the story of how humanity’s idea of physics evolved.

He told the story of how we, as the human race, developed better tools to describe and change our environment. I get chills just writing about it. How we, mere primates managed to develop something so extraordinary that took us to the Moon!!!! I mean, how amazing is that? As each page went by, so was my mind being opened. I learned about how the greeks thought about gravitation, and the elements. Then I learned how Isaac Newton developed the formula from gravitation. And not to take any of those things for granted. Asimov actually put some expertiments that you can make to see for yourself that everything is according to nature, not because some old fella said so.

That book is brilliant and made me a fan of his writings. I developed a sense of awe for physics from this day.

A Study in Scarlet – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

The only guy I call “Sir”. He deserves it. This was another book my cousin gave to me. I wasn’t particularly interested in it, but I was waiting for her and this book was on the table. I decided to take a look. This was before I had a shiny cellphone in my pocket that could extinguish any type of boredom that arises in situations like these.

The book doesn’t start like any other book. It’s weird, we come to see things in the eye of a doctor that just returned from the war. He is looking for a roommate to share an apartment. We gathers with a friend that points out some strange fella that can be of use. We meet Sherlock Holmes. And what a meeting that was! He looks at the doctor, says what he sees in him, and leaves the room. You are left wondering how can he see so much, if he has some sort of psychic powers. I read through, since I wanted to get to a point where it’s revealed he is a spy, or maybe a distant relative, or even he has magical powers.

“You look, but you do not observe”. The next chapters you just can’t put down, well, I couldn’t. Sherlock manages to get you into his little world where he can pick simple things and turn them into something with profound meaning. He can look at how far two footprints are located and tell the height of someone. He can tell that someone is left-handed by nail marks. The first deduction he does on a case seals the book. Right after that, and after he explains how he does it, the books turns into some sort of magician apprenticeship. The magician makes something amazing, then explains how he does it.

This was an amazing read. I never believed I would like to read books, but after this one, I just wanted more. I wanted to learn from better people than me, and books were going to allow me to do just that.

Giving me such nerdgasm now

Books became my new found friends. I read more books from Asimov and Doyle. However, I turned my interest to self help and psychology. I wanted to become better at being me.

I read The Game by Neil Strauss(No judgment here, but it was a weird kind of eye opening experience), then Emotions Revealed(This was a game changer, how emotions are read by humans without we even realizing) by Paul Ekman, then I started reading about Con men. After a while one of my friends talked to me about “Lucas is going to be the next Bill Gates”, and then I really started reading motivational and entrepreneurial books. Then it was biographies, business books, economy books, more psychology books, then nutritional books, tech books, and so on.

I come here today to tell you that I now LOVE reading books.

This coming from someone who couldn’t read more than 15 pages of Harry Potter the Prisoner of Azkaban.

Now I’ve read both fictional and non-fictional books.

How to start “loving” books

1# Know your style

Do you like reading about great battles? About romance? About great people? There is only one way to know that. Just pick up a book, any book, that gathers your interest and read. This is the time to judge a book by it’s cover.

2# Find someone that really likes to read

If you are still lost, go after someone that really likes to read. To me it was my cousin, may she be blessed. Talk to them, ask them about what last books they read, try to understand why they liked it. Listen, you might be surprised to actually be interested in what they say.

3# Find time to do it

Put down the cellphone. Use some app to block your phone for a couple of minutes, even 10 minutes will do it. I use Time Detox.

4# Read a book? Great, talk to someone about it, show your enthusiasm.

Talk it through, the feeling of reading a book that really hits your souls is so powerful that you need to share, you need to express it. Either write it on a blog, talk to someone. It’s much like seeing that awesome new Netflix show. But from what I’ve experienced, books tend to hit your soul way harder.

5# One last thing

When at a library, pick a book, open in a chapter that captures your attention(not the last one), and just read it. I bet you it is way better than just reading the cover.

That is it people 😀