Hey! Welcome back to Bookgest. This post is going to be short but content-heavy so put on your reading glasses and let’s get into it.
A very common habit of all readers is that we must complete every single book that we start. Why? Simply because not finishing it makes us feels guilty. Let’s call it “reader’s ego” but not being able to read is kind of like a detriment to our reading journeys. It may seem weird to people who read a couple books a month. Believe me, we aren’t nerds. Ok we are, BUT THAT’S NOT THE POINT! It’s like soccer fans watching the FIFA finals and then stop watching just before the goal, or a magician going –
You see? It just feels weird and incomplete. Why am I telling you this? Because I want you to finish reading those books? Wrong. Because I want you to stop reading. Let me explain. If you go through this once and choose to finish the book, then next time you don’t like a book, you will still want to continue. To most of us, reading is an escape from reality, it’s a world where we can do whatever we want, whether it is go on adventures with another character or learn new ideas to improve ourselves. When you pay attention to every single word you are reading and imagine every single world inside that word, that is what reading is. If you aren’t actively reading the book, just passively reading some words and thinking of something else meanwhile, you are going to take away nothing from the book. If that’s what you want to do just go listen to Justin Bieber or something.
What we read is our choice. If you get bored by a book, read another one that you actually like. Its okay to leave some incomplete, this is the time to relax and enjoy, not to give in to your perfectionist self. Sometimes you can even come back to that book you left unread later. I am going to say something which is probably going to shock many of you and also make some of you hate me. So back in 4th grade after I completed Percy Jackson and the Heroes of Olympus, I picked up Harry Potter, I read 3 books and then I found it boring so I left it. That’s right, I found Harry Potter boring and I stopped reading. Now look, it was just too slow paced for me to read and that’s completely fine. I came back to it in 6th grade and finished the series. But the most important part here isn’t that I read it again, its that I made sure that I was completely neutral when I read it again. No preconceived notions, no bias, just open and read (get it? like open and shut, oof my humor). Being neutral before reading any book is very important if you actually want to have fun while reading it. Its a very important lesson, took me 7 years to realize. You guys are getting it in under 7 minutes so be sure to utilize this knowledge.
So that was it for today guys, a small post about my thoughts against perfectionism in the reading realm. Just remember that its fine leaving a book midway. Some of you may not have understood why I got so serious with this post and also may think of this topic as a small thing but believe me – it isn’t.
Hope you liked today’s post, tell me what you thought about it in the comments below. Give me a few ideas for more posts 😀 New series coming up from next week (I promise) and I think all students are going to appreciate the next one. Stay tuned. See you later. Peace ✌
