There are two types of everything. In reading, there are the committed readers and the uncommitted ones. This post is about the latter. Apart from being careless, uncommitted readers also possess the bad reading habits mentioned here. They can also make reading seem like a chore. Here are some of the annoying things they do:
1. Judging a Book by its Cover
If you do this, you could miss out on a really great book. No doubt, some book cover designs are disappointing. However, before you give up, flip through the pages first because you never know what you might find. Check online for reviews before deciding if a book is worth reading or not.
2. Skipping or Mispronouncing Words
Did you come across a big word that you cannot pronounce? Well, don’t jump over it like you would a wide gutter. You shouldn’t pronounce ‘catastrophic’ as ‘carrot’ because it’s easier. A sentence may give you an inkling of a word’s meaning, but you wouldn’t be helping yourself if you depended on that.
Grab a dictionary, learn the pronunciation and meaning of that big word. Not everything is taught in an English class, sometimes we learn from books.
3. Pushing Back on Finishing a Book
The only reason for this is laziness. Instead of settling down to finish a book, some people would read a chapter and return days or weeks later to read the next chapter. At this rate, a book like Americanah would take 5 years to finish. If you have a busy schedule, reading one chapter daily is the best way to go about it.
4. Being Selective of Books
Sticking to only one genre of literature is restricting yourself. It also means you’re a ‘book genrist’ (a book genre-racist and yes, I just made that up). A good reader should have fun reading anything and everything, including spam texts from MTN, promotional emails (especially from OkadaBooks), the list of ingredients on Gala wrap, etc…
Be a flexible reader; enjoy poetry, eat drama, cuddle fiction, and marry the words on every page of any book.
5. Unfairly Criticizing a Book
Every lover of art has the natural right to be a judge. Literature is the most sensitive form of art and every writer put in effort towards writing a book. If you find a book uninteresting, do not discourage others from trying it out.
Some book reviews are mean and selfishly written. When asked by a potential reader about your thoughts on a book you didn’t really like, don’t say: “It sucked! Don’t even waste your time”. Instead, tell them your fairest opinion and encourage them to read it first because they may like it.
So there you have it! If you know anyone who falls under any of these categories, please auction them off to the lowest bidder.
Interesting!
This really got me,
“Did you come across a big word that you cannot pronounce? Well, don’t jump over it like you would a wide gutter.”
I enjoyed every bit of it.
Thanks!
I love this! Good post 🙂
Nice write up!
I’m guilty sometimes of pushing back on finishing a book, but now I know what to do.
Thanks Martha Kingsmike for putting this up and thank you so much Okada Books for making reading so much fun!
These are all good write-ups and observations. But the better one is this truthful and beautiful creation on dating a writer.
I relate strongly to the third point,but I will adopt the cure you gave to conquer that habit