Are you the type of person to say you don’t like reading because it’s boring? If that’s you, then I suggest you read this. A multitude of people say they hate reading and never do it unless they have to; and maybe you feel this way, too, but I might be able to change your opinion. There are a few steps on how to get into reading. These steps include: finding the right genre, exploring different authors, and listening to recommendations.
The first step to getting into reading is finding the right genre. If you only read in school and think it’s boring, I don’t blame you, because most of the topics or genres might not interest you, and that’s understandable because everyone likes different things. My advice is to find a genre that intrigues you. For example, I really like the dystopian genre, which is essentially a world gone awry with some sort of power imbalance. Some examples of the dystopian genre are The Hunger Games, Shatter Me, Divergent, The Maze Runner, The 100, and The Giver. To further elaborate on one of these books, Shatter Me is about a teenage girl whose touch kills. She was locked away, but is now discovered. She works to overtake the discriminatory government in her world while befriending people just like her. These are some of my favorite books, and maybe you like them too, or maybe you like fantasy about faeries, dragons and magic such as The Cruel Prince, Lightlark, and Caraval. The Cruel Prince revolves around a mortal girl living in a faerie world. She wishes to be more than an insignificant human, so she forms plans to become a knight; however, the secrets she uncovers in the kingdom can lead to her being so much more.
Maybe you enjoy romance, a story of love and desperation. Some of my recommendations for romance novels are the Binding 13 series and Until Friday Night. Binding 13 is a series of books about different characters, but the first book is about a girl named Shannon Lynch. Shannon is a teenage girl who is abused by her father and is bullied at school. After moving to a new school, she meets the famous rugby star named Johnny Kavangh. Johnny starts off as being someone who merely protects her, to someone who’s in love with her. Johnny ultimately saves Shannon and her siblings from their father. You might like a murder mystery with puzzles and dark details like The Inheritance Games and A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder. A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder is about Pippa, a high school girl intrigued by the case of Andie Bell who was supposedly murdered by her boyfriend. Someone in Pippa’s town doesn’t like her digging because they know she is getting close to the real murderer, and she risks it all for this case. This story is told from Pippa’s point of view, so you discover everything with her. A thriller is another good option, a fun exhilarating story that has you making predictions on what will happen like Stephen King books. Horror stories are a good pick. You can read about a gory tale with plot twists that will surprise you, like some of Edgar Allan Poe’s work. Maybe you like realistic fiction, such as The Book Thief or Words on Fire. The book Words On Fire is a personal favorite of mine about a young girl named Audra living in the time of Cossack soldiers. Her parents were thrown in jail after being caught smuggling Lithuanian books, which were books of their language that were banned in their region. After Audra’s parents are taken, Audra discovers they left her one last book to smuggle. She travels by foot for miles to deliver this book and meets friends along the way and discovers that she wants to pick up where her parents left off and continue to spread her language. You watch movies and shows on TV, and reading books is essentially the same thing, but with more detail. You get to read characters’ inner thoughts and really immerse yourself in whatever story you choose. There are so many different types of books that you probably haven’t explored yet, and that’s why you think you don’t like reading- – – because you haven’t experienced reading a book you love yet. It took me some time to figure out I liked reading, but once I found the right genre, I discovered my favorite hobby.
The next step is to explore authors. After you’ve found the right genre for you, it’s time to try out different authors. You might not care who the author is, as long as the story seems interesting, which is how I feel about books, or you might be someone who likes a specific author. My suggestion to finding authors you like is to pick a few books from the genre you enjoy, then see if you like any of their books, and purchase more books from those specific authors. Another common occurrence that happens with non-book readers is when you read a book you don’t like and claim you don’t like reading, but it was actually the author’s writing you disliked. It’s like saying you don’t like a type of food when you’ve only tried one dish and there’s still so much more to try. This is why it’s important to read books written by different people. You may stumble upon an author you love.
The final step to getting into reading is listening to recommendations. This is another major part of reading, because hearing different opinions can lead you to try new things. You could look up recommended books from the New York Times and consider some of those. You can ask family or friends for their recommendations, or, you could consider the books in this essay. The books I listed are books I enjoy and I think others will, too. Getting recommendations doesn’t mean you have to listen to them. You may not like any of the books I listed, and that’s okay. Different people give different recommendations. Maybe you find a social media account that you like because of the books they talk about and you follow them to see what books they will read in the future so you can too. This was really helpful for me to discover new genres I didn’t know I liked and finding new books that are now some of my favorites.
Conclusively, The three steps to getting into reading is finding your genre, author, and recommendations. Reading is all about preference and there are no rules. You can read any book you want, and that’s the beauty of literature. I hope I have been at least slightly successful in swaying your opinion towards reading. I ask that you keep an open mind and consider the points I have made in this essay. Who knows? Maybe you will pick up a book mentioned and start the hobby of a lifetime.
