To the right of this laptop, I have a stack of six books, each of which I have partially read. The stack is a striking reminder of my inability to finish books.
But this is a relatively recent problem. In 2018, I wrote my IGCSEs; the exam season was preceded by two years of intense studying. I had to digest incredible amounts of information on a daily basis, and I had to train myself to read, understand, digest and regurgitate knowledge. Reading a sentence once was enough to remember it, my memory was sharp and I was perhaps at an academic peak.
My undergraduate years were plagued by Covid-19, and the very concept of exams were redefined in favour of take-home tests and open-book assessments. My memory was no longer a tool I needed to sharpen, and a lot of the assessments tested my ability to apply theorems and concepts rather than memorise and regurgitate them in exam halls. When I entered the workforce, my only reading was limited to Medium articles, technical documentation and the occasional news article during my commute.
It represented a paradigm shift in the way I approached reading. I haven't held a physical textbook in at least 2 years, and when I do, I find myself losing interest halfway. I have to read a sentence multiple times to understand it. I am not talking about fiction here; this problem is exclusive to academic text.
Part of me wonders if this is a medical condition, but I think it's just a matter of practice.
I have to retrain my brain to read and digest information quickly. I have to retrain my brain to be a student again.
Choosing Books
Agatha Christie is my all-time favourite author, and I love a good murder mystery. These books are often easy to get through, because I can get away with skimming each page. The gist of the storyline was all that mattered, and as soon as a who-dunnit is solved, there is little meaning in every word that led up to it. After all, words are simply instruments that the author uses to narrate a storyline; as long as I understand storyline, I don't need to pay attention to every word.
But that's not enough to re-train my reading habit; I have to start reading textbooks and academic material again. I chose the data-intensive applications book by Martin Kleppmann as a good starting point to re-invigorate the habit.
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Choose two books at a time - one that you read for pleasure (in my case, Agatha Christie), and heavy reading (could be a technical book, some self-help thingamajig)
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Leave a lot more room for choice when it comes to the fiction book - it should be something you actually enjoy
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Decide within the first two chapters whether the book is worth reading - reading should be enjoyable, not a chore
Sharpening the Habit
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Read slowly and take breaks - A book about distributed systems is admittedly not enjoyable reading. Take breaks to digest the information, watch supplementary videos to understand concepts you don't understand.
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Don't overdo it - While long reading sessions are great, don't overdo it. It's an excuse to procrastinate the next time you sit down with it.
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Don't skim pages - This is a habit I developed while reading fiction. Practice focused reading, read and understand every word on the page. Instinctively, you should read every word in a sentence.
Start Writing
I guess reading and writing go hand in hand. If you don't write about what you read, the information is lost. I don't have an eidetic memory, and most people can't remember everything they read. Writing about that book you just read, or simply summarising it over a text message can help you digest that information better.
When it comes to academic text, teaching someone else what you just learnt is by far the most foolproof method to engrave that information in your brain. But of course, you can't teach someone something you don't understand.