When I was was a little girl, I was completely obsessed with books and reading. I would take multiple books with me everywhere I would go and had to have a book with me at all times. One of my favorite movies when I was younger was Matilda, which is about a smart girl with special abilities who loves to read books to escape from her abusive family. I honestly felt like I was Matilda and Matilda was me. I couldn’t get read enough books. I would get completely lost in the story and what the characters are going through. It was wonderful to use my imagination and picture what the author was writing in my head. I could spend hours reading every single day and it would go by in what felt like minutes. But as I grew older, I slowly but surely stopped reading. My love for reading decreased with the more textbooks and required reading for schoolwork. I had less time to read anything for fun and what I wanted to read. After I graduated college, I found myself hardly reading any books at all and if I did start reading them I wouldn’t finish them.
I think this is something that has grown to be a problem in society as well. There is a statistic that says “One-third of high school graduates never read another book for the rest of their lives.” That’s an alarming statistic. That’s almost half of high school graduates that never read another book. Also, the other statistic that states that “42 percent of college graduates never read another book after college.” Adults don’t have time or don’t have the desire to read anymore. Between balancing work, family, friends and other adult things it can be challenging to find the time to sit down with a good book and just read. Also with the rise of social media and technology, I think that plays a huge role in adults not having the time, energy or motivation to read more books. But, there is actually science backed and proven benefits to reading books. According to this article, reading has many science backed benefits that includes helping to relieve stress, fighting Alzheimer’s disease and improving intelligence. I decided to challenge myself and to start to read again.
I made a commitment myself to read everyday for 30 minutes at least. It doesn’t matter how many chapters I read or what book I read, but just that I read for at least 30 minutes every day. I have been doing this for 5 days now and I got to say, it has been amazing and I have definitely starting to fall in love with reading again. It’s so nice to just take a break from technology and the world, and just sip some coffee and enjoy a good book. The book I am reading right now is called “The Success Principles” by Jack Canfield. My brother gave me this book once I graduated from college and I skimmed it once but now I’m actually taking the time to read it thoroughly. It’s a great book that’s full of wisdom and great advice on how to be successful in life. Every time, I finish with my 30 minutes of reading I feel like my mood is lifted and that I expanded my mind for bit instead of just scrolling through Instagram. I want to eventually work my way up and read for an hour a day but I will stick with my 30 minute a day reading routine until it becomes a habit. Also, I started using this cool app on my phone called Bookly, it’s like a reading assistant app where you can track your books, see your reading statistics, set reading goals and much more. It’s really nice having something visual to look at whenever you are striving to complete a goal. I challenge everyone who’s reading this to do this reading challenge with me as well! Drop a comment on what you are reading right now and if you have any book recommendations as well.
Happy Reading! (:
