“Never put off till tomorrow the book you can read today.”
For many, reading is one of the best pastimes for unwinding from the everyday grind and broadening their horizons. However, from picking up the wrong books to losing your concentration over the course of each page, there are a number of bad reading habits that can really make the experience feel like much more of a chore or even downright frustrating at times. Fret not though! Join us here at What We Reading as we run you through the most common bad reading habits and how you can overcome them!
Unrealistic Goals
For people who haven’t read as much as they might have liked, reading goals can be a good motivator for picking up and sticking with a book. It satisfies goal orientation, encourages a good routine and can make the prospect of reading an entire novel much less daunting. However, there’s a fine art to reading goals and setting challenges that are either unrealistic or too easy can actually end up having an adverse effect on your productivity.
Having a reading goal that is too challenging will likely only make you resent your book of choice, whilst an overly easy challenge such as reading the same material isn’t going to give the sorts of vibrancy that make reading so rewarding!
Reading goals can encourage so much in terms of accountability, motivation and consistency, but it’s important to stick to targets that are achievable and rewarding.
Daydreaming
Daydreaming, mind-wandering, away with the fairies – call it what you want, having your mind distracted whilst reading is a surefire way of ensuring you don’t digest what’s on the pages.
In order to get the best out of a reading session, you need to have a mind that is able to fully focus on the book it is reading. Have you ever had it where your eyes register a page full of text, only to realise that you haven’t actually registered anything you’ve been reading? It’s one of the most infuriating things you can experience whilst reading.
How do you combat daydreaming whilst reading? One tip would be to limit your reading time to a set amount. For example, the Pomodoro Technique famously talks about the importance of working for 25 minutes and then rewarding yourself with 5 minutes of rest. Alternatively, another technique would be to keep a diary or a notepad to jot down the thoughts that come into your head, mentally shelving them to come back to later.
Check Out The Best Bookish Habits Every Reader Will Recognise
Wrong Books
DNFs are an awkward part of the reading world. Some people are all too happy to toss aside a book that they’re not getting on with however, for others, the idea of DNFing a book is practically sacrilege. But, what if we told you that stubbornly sticking with a book is one of the most common bad reading habits?
Reading the wrong books can cause us to read slower, stunt our enjoyment and even put us off the experience of reading altogether. So many people begin saying reading ‘isn’t for them’ based on their experiences reading the wrong type of books.
It’s also possible people find themselves reading the wrong books because they don’t know what they want to read next. This can lead to a hasty purchase made for the wrong reasons. Take the time to think about what stories you like, and what genres you’re into and do your research beforehand to ensure your chances of picking up the wrong book are as slim as possible!
Check Out Our Guide To Reading Slumps
Vocalising
When it comes to passages of a book they find draining one of the most common strategies people turn to is quietly whispering the words out as they read. However, this actually slows you down. This is because you begin to read at the speed at which you talk, rather than the speed at which you think.
There’s also a link between vocalising a book and missing out on some of the more subtle, deeper meanings an author might try to convey.
One way of countering this is to listen to music whilst reading. People find different types of music more effective than others, but we find lo-fi and chill ambience tunes around 125 bpm to be the best for us!
Check Out Our Tips On How To Read A Boring Book
Environment
Following on from our comments about listening to music whilst reading, the wider environment in which you are doing your reading can be hugely influential on how much enjoyment you get. Everything from having too many distractions and too much noise around you to having insufficient lighting or even the kind of environment that does damage to your posture can seriously jeopardise your reading experience.
You don’t need your own personal library, but having a space that you can designate as your reading space that is comfortable and quiet can work wonders.
Wrong Attitudes
When it comes to kickstarting a new challenge or attempting to do something new, having the right attitude is one of the biggest keys to success. Any professional competitor will tell you that ‘mindset’ is a huge driving factor behind their performances, and the same sort of logic can be applied to those who find themselves struggling with their reading goals.
In order to maximise your productivity and enjoyment of reading, you need to make sure you are doing away with negative, defeatist mindsets such as:
- I’m no good at reading.
- I’ve never enjoyed books.
- That book is too much for me.
One of the best ways of countering these negative attitudes is to regularly give yourself mini pep talks. These bursts of positivity might feel strange, maybe even a little bit cringy to some, at first, however, it’s been proven that the effects of positive self-talk can be enormous.
Not Reading
Finally, the most obvious but crucial bad reading habit you need to overcome is not reading at all! It goes without saying, but not reading books is the number one worst habit you can pick up if you want to read more and pick up all the benefits that come with it.
Experiment, persevere, tweak your routines, mindset, and environments, and start reading!
Part-time reader, part-time rambler, and full-time Horror enthusiast, James has been writing for What We Reading since 2022. His earliest reading memories involved Historical Fiction, Fantasy and Horror tales, which he has continued to take with him to this day. James’ favourite books include The Last (Hanna Jameson), The Troop (Nick Cutter) and Chasing The Boogeyman (Richard Chizmar).
