I get emails from many of my Podcast listeners and YouTube viewers. This one is on reading and I wanted to share it because this is a question I get a lot from people and my answer is always the same.

The email….

“I’ve been following your YouTube channel and podcast with great interest, and I truly appreciate the way you bring books to life through your insightful reviews and discussions.

I’m currently working on building a consistent reading habit, and I was wondering if you could kindly recommend a few books for someone just starting out. I’d love suggestions that are engaging, accessible, and cover a variety of genres to help me explore different styles.

Thank you for inspiring so many of us to read more and think more deeply. I look forward to your suggestions.“

I am sure some of you might think why I could not just send a book name and get done with it. It is easier for me but not what I would really want to explain.

Here was my reply..

“Recommendation in my opinion is not the way to go as I don’t know what you would like to read. Any reader will tell you that the taste for books is an aquired one and not really transferable to others in the same way.

I post about all the books I read and you can pick up any of that or read anything else. You could check on goodreads and other lists available freely online.

The goal should be to find your interests and yes join your public library and spend time there. Love being with books before you pick them. Smell old books. Turn the pahes of many books when you are in the library and you will find one that catches your interest.

To build a reading habit, the book you start reading does not matter. It is the consistency you create of daily reading a set of pages and keeping with it and improving over time. Your reading speed will increase over time.

That said for anyone who does not have a reading habit currently and wants to build it, don’t worry about the book to start as any book will help you start.

You can do non fiction or fiction and in that classics or based on specific Genre or new books or older ones. Your interest. A library helps.

My only recommendation is to start reading something that is more than 250 pages. Helps us focus on a thread for a longer period. Focus and attention are both becoming more alien to us now.

Start with one page a day and move to one chapter a day and then maybe 20+ pages a day. Fix a time of the day to read so you have that timebox. Maybe start with 10 mts and increase it.

I aim for 20 pages on weekdays and 50 pages on weekends. Also if the 20th page is the mid of a chapter, I will try to finish the chapter.

I also don’t beat myself up if I don’t get to 20 pages. I am not in a race or competition with anyone. I know there will always be books I would want to read but will not be able to read in my life. That is o. . I don’t need to finish anthing before I finish 😊