How to Build an Effective Reading Culture for Yourself

The reading culture in this day and age seems to be deteriorating. Different things have taken over, and they all have their root in technology. Technology is not bad in itself and it has a lot of advantages, but it has caused its own fair share of harm.

Many people now would rather do everything with a device or better still immerse themselves in activities such as playing games, watching movies and so on. As a result, reading has gradually reduced. A few people still try to read online or download a book reading app, but the numbers can still not be compared to years back.

Join me as I take you through some ways in which you can build an effective reading culture for yourself, and perhaps also for the people around you.

1. Get a reading partner

If you are someone who likes reading or you want to cultivate the habit of reading, you can get a reading partner.

You can give each other deadlines to finish specific books, or you can decide to read a chapter a day and then talk about it. With a reading partner, reading becomes less burdensome and can even end up in a friendly competition on who would finish the book first.

When getting a reading partner, make sure to pick someone who will keep you accountable, won’t bail on you during the course of the reading and also who will make reading enjoyable for you

2. Go on a book-reading challenge

Another way to cultivate a reading habit for yourself is to go on a book-reading challenge. You can do a self-challenge or get friends around and challenge each other to read a book.

You can give yourselves, for instance, a target of reading two books in a month and even set out to see who would complete the selected book first. That way, the spark of reading a book is present and the joy of completing – or better put: being the first to complete – a book remains with you.

3. Join a book club

Another way is to look for a book club close to you and join it. This way, you are not the one calling the shots or setting the rules, and it means you will have to adhere to the rules of the club. This will keep you disciplined and even give you a host of people to gain encouragement from, if you happen to get discouraged during the period of reading a book.

4. Create your own book club

You can as well create your own book club. This way, you get to call the shots and set the rules. But mind you, you would need to set rules that are similar to the standards. You must also know that this is a huge responsibility as people are looking up to you to get the best out of the reading club.

5. Include a reading time when you are planning your day

This will work well for you, and also perhaps for your children. Let it be set in stone that at a particular time of the day, you would be reading a book. That way, it gets ingrained into your system. Mind you, it takes a lot of discipline and deliberateness to stay through with this. But in the end it will be worth it.

Conclusion

Cultivating a reading habit is a good thing to do and it will really be worth your time. You will get to learn a lot, depending on the genre of books you are reading, and you will also improve your own vocabulary. Please bear in mind that creating a reading culture does not have to affect your other technological activities. You can do them all on the same day.

Olamide Omolawal is an avid research enthusiast with interest in creative and content writing.