How I Started Reading Again

(and 5 Tips to Help You Start Reading Again too!)

Once a voracious reader, I lost the habit for many years, but thanks to a recent detox experience, I have rediscovered books, and in turn, begun healing myself.

Anyone who walks into my home is usually taken aback by the stacks of books in the book racks. “Have you read all of them?”, is usually the first question.

The husband and I were voracious readers, a habit we tried our best to inculcate in our children as well. Since we haven’t owned a television since 2007, books were our only entertainment, escape and time-pass.

Unfortunately, we all gave up reading as lives got busier, and quicker and newer entertainment became available on our mobile devices.

Recently, I spent 16 days in an Ayurvedic hospital in Kerala for Panchkarma (a treatment I desperately needed after my mother suffered a brain haemorrhage that has left her wheelchair bound and father passed away as a result of this trauma) and as digital detox was expected, I saw it as an opportunity to go back to reading.

I’ve read 4 books since then and here are my learnings for those who would like to go back to reading —

1. Pick a book that aligns with your interest area. Don’t succumb to the “Bestseller” lists because those may not be what you’d want to read

2. Figure out a time of day, in the midst of your hectic routine, that would be most suitable to sit and read. For me, its in the mornings, before work begins, after lunch (I like to take a 20 min break before I restart work) and sometimes, at bed time

3. Don’t push yourself to read too much or finish the book as fast as you used to before you gave up reading altogether. Baby steps is the way to go. 5–10 pages a day is also progress from 0 pages

4. You may feel sleepy and/or bored every time you pick the book to read, but that will pass. Persist. If you can’t keep reading despite several attempts over several days, may be you just need to change the book

5. For the longest time I ordered books online and piled them up on my bedside table. The books I read recently were all purchased at a bookstore and I don’t know why, but those are the books I’ve read, cover to cover. There is something very intimate about buying a book from a store that makes me want to read it. May not work for you, but it could be worth a shot if you’ve been buying books online, like me, and never getting round to reading them

Books and music have been the respite from the debilitating grief of losing my father and my mother’s current state, and in the characters and the stories, I’ve found my feelings validated, resonated and even assuaged, making it easier to breathe and go through each day.

Photo: The book I’m reading currently is a translation of a Korean bestseller