Everyone wants to read books but no one tells us how to begin reading books. Some of us go through the wrong approach to reading books. And some of us may end the habit of reading itself.

I was also once a beginner at reading books, now I read a book for the month. I am still a slow reader, but enjoy reading without any pressure of completing a book.

Last year, I read almost 13 books. I don’t like to mention the numbers, because they are just vanity metrics. But I had to say it, as I don’t want you to run behind completing the books.

Most people, do this mistake as a beginner – they just read the book for the sake of reading it. They do it to get that sense of achievement and to show off in society -” they read books”.

Now coming to the part about the most common mistakes, I will tell you the mistakes that I did as a beginner. And so that, It might help you in being aware and not do that mistake.

1. Worrying about slow reading speed

When I started to read books for the first time, I was slow at reading speed. As I have only practiced memorizing books for academic purposes, I didn’t know what other ways are there to read a book.

But over the period, I got good with my reading speed. And then I was able to realize that it increases only with practice.

I am not talking about speed reading methods here, and I also don’t encourage applying those tips and tricks for reading books.

I believe that, if you try random tips and tricks just to complete the book – then you will lose the essence of reading itself.

Reading speed depends on an individual level. If you are good at reading already, then you might be able to read multiple pages of books within a few minutes.

But if you are a beginner at reading itself, then it might take a long time for completing a single page.

Just imagine it like you are a beginner at the gym. You will not be able to lift the deadly weights within the first day – you must have to train your body for it.

In the same way, you must have to train your brain to be able to recognize text and read faster.

And it is okay to read slowly. There should be no guilt in the way you choose to read a book.

I can read fast, but I will give it a pause between a paragraph’s to think about what the author has said – and this makes me slow in completing a book. And I am happy with the way I read.

2. Worrying about the inability to understand a book

Every author has their own way of communicating their thoughts through words.

Like, right now I am writing this blog in my own way of explaining in simple English.

But not everything in the world can be explained in a very simple way. There are so many things to learn that are much more complicated. And it will take time to understand those things.

So, when you are a beginner don’t pick up hard-to-absorb books. Pick up an easy-to-read book, and then move up through that ladder.

Once you think you are capable enough to understand the complicated stuff, then go grab them.

Or else if you want to understand a book – try reading it slow or reading a sentence or paragraph again and again.

Breaking down the parts of what the author is trying to say might help you to understand a book better – but it will take time. If the time is worth enough to understand those complicated topics for you, then carry on.

3. Fearing about not being able to remember what you read

Most of you might come from the old school mentality, just the way I was before.

Before I used to think that there is no use in reading anything or consuming anything if I can’t remember.

But it took a while to learn that we should read or consume about certain things to understand them from different perspectives and not for remembering them.

If you understand something clearly, you will have no need to remember them – you will act in the right direction subconsciously.

You don’t have to remember everything you read – as long as it is not for academic purpose.

4. Reading Cover to Cover

The foolish thing that I did and I laugh at myself now is that I used to read a book from cover to cover.

You can read every word from start to the end, but it’s not necessary. I thought that’s the way how a book was supposed to be read. But it’s not true.

You can read books in your own style. Now sometimes I read books from the middle to get the sense of the book and then read from first or just read any chapter that interests me.

It’s not necessary to read the preface and footnotes if you understand the book’s main content – that’s more than enough.

5. Guilty of leaving the book in the middle

Treating the books in a very sacred way is not a bad thing. But the real effect of doing it starts when you have to quit reading a book.

Most people hesitate to quit reading a book, even when they are not interested in it. They think that it’s not a good act to do that.

That’s how I was also treating books in the beginning but later I changed my perspective – due to naval ravikant.

He said that we can treat books as a compilation of blog posts. And not seeing them in a very sacred way, helps us to move on quickly.

Although don’t move on to another book, simply because you understand it.

Try to understand a book as much as you can, but if the content of the book is making you uninterested – then you can quit in the middle as well.

6. Assuming a book by its first few pages

The fact that we should not judge a book by its cover is true. But similarly, we should not judge a book by its first few pages – it takes time for the author to make you understand the basics.

In most of the book, the author takes time to come to the interesting things, just because they have to clear the basics and background behind the important content.

And hence, we cannot derive a fact that a book is good or bad based on the first few pages of it.

The only way to know, whether we might like that book or not – is to see the review from a like-minded person, who has already read that book.

7. Not Re-Reading a Book

I thought that once we read a book, our job is done. But that’s not the case, we don’t grasp most of what the author says at the first stance.

For some books, it might take a while to understand the concepts of what the author has to say. While there are also opposites, where you can understand the book on first read itself.

In short, it is not about how many times you read a book – it’s about whether you understand the new perspective or not.

8. Not taking short notes

Taking a few notes of what we understood, helps us in remembering the way we understood the concepts.

There is more than a single way to understand a concept proposed by the author. You may have understood by creating your own analogy of what you thought about it.

And to create a good mental pathway towards the understanding you have – it is better to have notes on what you understand.

9. Not skipping through the book

Going through the conventional approach is not always good. In this case of skipping through the book – I would prefer to be unconventional.

Most people see books in a so sacred way, that they are scared to flip through the dragging pages. They imagine this as some sort of sin that will close their door to heaven.

It is better to skip through the pages – if you understood the concepts. You don’t have to go through every analogy presented by the author.

Conclusion

There is no right or wrong way to read a book.

The way by which you can get the most out of the books can be the right way for you.