I was a person who used to find reading, a boring hobby. And here I am. I read 15 books this year(tech+ non-tech), and few books are half read. I read many articles around various topics. You can check what I read here.

I am writing this post because my story of becoming a book lover might help others. It is a good habit to have. Research says there are many benefits of reading, I wrote about it at the end of this article. Many people want to read, but they couldn’t, I was one of them. I used to stay away from books and was more interested in audio and video. If my story can help or motivate one person also, it is worth writing for.

“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies … The man who never reads lives only one.” – George R.R. Martin

Before 2017 I used to be the person who used to think reading books is a rocket science which I can not do it and I had no idea why people used to read non-tech books. I didn’t know the significance of reading books. I used to think I will sleep if I read.

After this year, I interacted little deeply with many people who like reading. And what I observed is that these people have different ways of approaching certain things, the kind of thoughts they have. I could find out the difference in people who read and people who don’t.

At least at this point, I understood the significance of reading. I tried buying books and reading. But it didn’t happen. I could read many blog posts, but reading books was challenging.

It was early 2020, when I visited my close friend who are family as well. They are the people who read a lot, they have like separate area in their house which is filled with the books. In our general discussion, I brought this topic and was curious to know how these people read these many books or love reading in general. I discussed what I feel and pain points about my reading. Few points from our discussion:

Question: When I start reading it is not necessary that I will finish in the same day. So when next time I pick up the same book, I forget all the story behind?

Answer: This is happening because you are picking the book after a long time. Don’t do that, at-least try reading a page or a chapter daily or in a shorter span.

Question: Sometime I just sleep while reading, how come you get so engaged with the book?

Answer: That means you are not reading the right kind of books which interest you. If you don’t like a book leave the book, but not the interest; pick some other book. Over the time you will figure out what types of books you like reading.

Question: I do not find time to read?

Answer: Once you start reading and liking it. You will figure out the timings. You might start to avoid talking to people or watching web series and save your time for reading. This will happen over the time.

(She was so true😁).

Then she took me to a book shop. After looking at many books, She bought three books for me. Below are the books with reason why we picked them.😀

1. Me before you by Jojomoyes - This book was suggested by the shopkeeper. He said people start with the romantic novel and this is the one😄. I am generally interested in romantic stories so I said yes.

2. Milk and honey by Rupi kour - This book my friend suggested it was written in poetic form. I saw book cover is looking good, it had some pictures as well and I said yes.

3. Dearest George by Alicia Souza - This book shopkeeper actually suggested to my friend, but she said she has already follow the author in Instagram and knows few things about it. But she told me you can buy this book because my husband’s name is Amith George and book is Dearest George😆. I laughed and said yes because this was a small and romantic comic type book.

So while flying back from there to Bengaluru, in flight I started reading Dearest George, I really enjoyed reading this. Because I had finished the fist one I was very interested in picking up the next. Then read Milk and honey, it took me 2-3 days, ok types book not very engaging for me. Since I do not want to break my interest, I read it. Next I picked up Me before you, read a few pages, but the size of the book(big book) and the paper quality was not very attractive😄. And I realised it matters to me. I gave up on this book, I thought I will read it later, still I didn’t.

Then it was around march and April pandemic time. From somewhere I got to know about One Indian girl by Chetan Bhagat. I bought this on kindle and started reading, I was so hooked up with this book, that I binge read it. This book kept me engaged. After this I was even more interested and I had time as well after doing all household work😔in this lockdown time. Then I bought and read

• The Girl In Room 105 by Chetan Bhagat.
• I too had a love story by Ravindra Singh- I was crying while reading a few chapters.😞
• Can love happen twice? by Ravindra Singh.

I almost read all these 4 books in continuation in Kindle. After reading these I had a question in my mind which I asked to my husband as he is also a bookworm.

Question: What is the benefit of reading these kind of books? I mean this just a stories that to romantic😀.

Answer: You just keep reading irrespective of thinking what kind of book or author you are reading. You will figure out the difference.

I thought I will keep this habit. And here I, am he was not wrong.

After this I started buying books from various genres like romance novels, motivational, memoir, sexuality, business, self-help, fiction, spiritual, autobiographies. Now I am not hesitating to buy books, whether I will read it immediately or later I don’t know.

I tried Audible also. While I am going for a walk I read books in Audible.

So this is the story of mine, how I started and the how the interest built up. You need put some efforts in order to figure out what type of books keeps you engaging. Explore various mediums and figure out what suits you.

Medium to read

As you must have noticed I have tried different ways of reading and for me all three works.

1. Physical books
2. Kindle
3. Audible

Also, if money is a problem you can try buying second hand books or rent books or collaborate with someone and exchange. The idea is to read more. Figure out book store who sells second hand books in your city. In Bengaluru I prefer Blossom boom house.

Track your reading

Tracking what you are reading, read or wants to read is very helpful. I feel good when I put an entry and see, ohh I finished these many books let me finished few more. You don’t have to remember which once you read. Good read is an app I prefer to track my readings. Here you can follow people and see what they are reading. Rate and review the book also.

Benefits of reading

This article talks about it in detail, below is the brief from this article.

• improves brain connectivity
• increases your vocabulary and comprehension
• empowers you to empathise with other people
• aids in sleep readiness
• reduces stress
• lowers blood pressure and heart rate
• fights depression symptoms
• prevents cognitive decline as you age
• contributes to a longer life

And to conclude this, below is the action I took, and it is quoted by someone.

“So please, oh please, we beg, we pray, go throw your TV set away, and in its place you can install a lovely bookshelf on the wall.”– Roald Dahl

So make a change today, and only you can do it.

“Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.”– Barack Obama

Happy reading!!!!!!!!!!

Feel free to email me at hello@trapti.dev if you wanna ask anything.