How to develop your Reading habit

There are some people who like reading as a habit, and there are some people who only read because they’re told to. There is another kind of person who wants to make reading a habit,     but just can't do it. Well, here’s a way to start developing your reading habit and make you a true book lover!

Pick up a book. If you are nowhere near a book, how are you supposed to read? Try finding something to read. That can be anything, including newspapers, magazines, novels etc. The important thing is that the book you choose should be at your level. Don’t choose a book too high for your level because it will just waste your time.

Practice your reading habit. Now that you have found what you like to read, you can set a goal of 15 minutes a day of reading. During this time, you’re not supposed to care about anything except your reading. After 15 minutes, you can close your reading material and do something else. Practice this every day. Make it a habit. After you have gotten used to this habit, you can increase the time you need to read in a day to 20 or 30 minutes.

Don’t give up. If you find that you cannot complete the task in the first place, don't be ashamed and hold your chin up! Remember, winners never quit! You just have to try again and again until you achieve it.

Don’t put too much pressure on yourself. No kidding. If you find yourself being stressed while reading a book, don’t continue reading under pressure like that. Reading is for pleasure, not pressure, so don’t push yourself too hard until you might quit reading forever, or even if you can read, the outcome won’t be so good either.

Before you start reading a book, browse the table of contents to form an idea of what the book is about. In storybooks or fictional books, there will usually be a short description at the back. You can look at the description to get a better idea of the book's contents.

Decide what you want to read about. You'll be much more motivated to read if you choose a book or magazine that you actually have some interest in. Check out the staff picks at some local bookstores, read book reviews in a magazine that interests you, ask some friends and family what they recommend and why, or pick your favourite TV genre and ask a librarian to recommend a book in a similar style. Make sure the subject is interesting to you.

Don't allow public or peer pressure to choose your reading material. It doesn't matter if "everyone's reading it." If you have no interest in a vampire love story, don't choose to read one. If you have no interest in football, don't choose a football player's biography. Choose what you are actually, personally interested in. If you try, but find that you don't care that much for fiction (novels, such as "Twilight" or the Harry Potter books), try biographies or informational books. You can read about political personalities, Hollywood celebrities, royalty; you can read about World War II, or Genghis Khan, or the Civil War. You can read about how to prune trees, how to cook, different dog breeds. Or you can choose to read classics such as "A Christmas Carol" or "Moby Dick." There are all sorts of books to choose from. Choose one you want to read, not one all your friends are reading (unless you really are interested).

Give yourself a time and a place to read. It should be quiet, comfortable, and designed to make you feel relaxed.

Make yourself comfortable. Some people like to lie on a couch. Some people like to sit in a chair. Some like to use an ottoman to prop their feet up, some like to sit at a table and lay the book down when they read. Whatever makes your reading effortless and comfortable is what you should do. There are little laptop tables with swiveling tops that you can angle for a reading surface. Sitting in a chair with your book on a table at a comfortable angle and distance can help you focus on the book rather on your arms getting tired from holding the book at the proper angle, or your hands going to sleep.

Take care of other priorities before you sit down to read. If you've never been able to settle into reading easily, you will make it that much more difficult if your mind is blazing over errands you still need to run today, work you need to do, or calls you need to make. Accomplish these things first, then read. A quiet mind will have more resources to dedicate to imagination.

Give it a really good try. If you have trouble imagining what you're reading, practice closing your eyes and describing a daydream to yourself while you picture it in vivid detail. If you only have trouble with this one book, ditch it. There's no point torturing yourself. Every book is not for every reader.

Sprint, rather than marathon. Read in bursts if this is more your style. Rather than try to read a book from cover to cover over a weekend, take a break every now and then to stretch, snack, listen to a song, sleep, and think or talk about what you're reading.

Join a book club. When others are reading the same book you are, the group always needs to slow down to accommodate all schedules and all reading speeds. This way, your group may read a chapter or two per week - or maybe you will agree to meet in a month, after you have all finished the book you've agreed to read. Then you can discuss things you liked, disliked, were confused about, and also talk about the meanings and significance of the things you've read.