Books have gone out of style amongst the masses. Yes, this is unfortunate for a plethora of reasons. However, I'm less concerned with the decisions of others.

The way I see it, this trend is the exact signal that motivates me to take my reading regiment seriously.

Most people I know either are perpetually stuck in the middle of a book or admit giving up reading as a whole. Those of us who do actively read aren’t ‘better people’, but it does say something about your character. How many exceptionally wise people have you met that don’t read?

We all aspire and tell others we'd like read more, but fail to act in accordance. Finding the time and patience to read is hard, especially if you haven't already built the muscle.

Social media has rewired our brains and changed the underlying behaviors behind how we consume information. So in order to start reading again, you need to know how to effectively work with the confines of this reality to create a reading system that feels rewarding and lasts.

In This Post

• The Joy of Reading: Feel like a kid again

• The Zoomer Shuffle: Dealing with social media brain

• Make Reading Sexy Again

The Joy of Reading

As kids, we all loved reading. I often think back to how I felt reading The Hardy Boys or Percy Jackson or Harry Potter for the first time. These books offered very formative experiences in my childhood.

Scholastic book fairs, silent reading time, and reading competitions were all highly-coveted. I would read after school, waiting at the Doctor's office, on family road trips, all of the time— simply because I enjoyed it.

But life gets busier as you get older. There's less free time to indulge in leisure, or so we tell ourselves. Our livelihoods are tied to our productivity and hustle; reading for fun can easily become an afterthought when our goals become concrete and imperative.

The best way to rekindle the joy of reading is to start by reading what you loved as a kid. Whatever book(s) that may be, go get it. No matter the reading comprehension, you'll find that starting with a book you know is a lot easier and will bring back all sorts of happy memories from your youth.

At it's best, reading is an activity done for it's own sake. Read a book that you don't want to put down and build some inertia. Read the junk if that's what it takes to get started.

The Zoomer Shuffle

Ideally we want to become smarter as a byproduct of our reading habit. It's important to read books that challenge you, especially nonfiction.

But prolonged focus feels near impossible in this realm because of the phones. How could I not mention the phones.

Our phones are pretty awesome at giving us information. Reading online is a not a substitute for reading books however. Reading a book is not the easy choice and has some friction, which makes it more rewarding.

Beyond just our shortened attention spans, there is also a cognitive dissonance in how we consume information. Our brains are hooked on novelty and dopamine, seeking short snippets of text/information with immediate payoffs, consumed over a prolonged, discrete series with lots of context switching.

Our sporadic and context-light tendencies don’t translate over and make it extremely hard to sit with a dense book. But what's stopping you from sitting with multiple books?

Replicating the mechanics of a social feed to read books is a crazy prospect, but I guess this is where we're at these days. My personal strategy is to vary anywhere from 2-4 books at a time, usually one will appeal strongly to me on any given day. Another thing to try out are books comprised of short maxims/aphorisms.

The notion of having to finish whatever book you started is also counterproductive. If you're struggling to get through a book, you're more likely to stop reading all together than actually finish. The amount of books you read in a given year is a vanity metric, the breadth and quality of your reading is more important.

Make Reading Sexy Again

Reading is more enjoyable if you associate the habit with another activity or physical space. Whether that's going to a cool cafe or library in your neighborhood, joining a book club, or even just having a nice chair with good lighting tucked away in a corner of your home.

These are all ways to help reinforce the positive habit of reading by making it sexy. Having 1) a time and 2) a place where you set aside your phone and clear all else from your mind is the best way I've found.

It's 2025, performative reading in public is in. Put on a bomber jacket and a 5-panel corduroy hat and go get an afternoon espresso in Williamsburg.

@finnharryy

how is this becoming a thing

I even have a friend who buys candy and prods himself along by eating a handful after every couple of pages. Pavlov's dog yourself, do whatever it takes to reinforce the positive behavior.

The bar is incredibly low these days. Even 30 minutes of reading a day puts you in the 1%. The mind wants to grow, and it's surprising how much you are able to retain and recall after a year of reading.

The social element of conversing with fellow readers is also nice. People who enjoy to read are generally more interesting people with more to say.

You can't afford to be be uninteresting these days. Read books in sexy places. Find ways to apply newfound knowledge. And always remember kids— stay away from the self help slop and instead opt for ancient wisdom.