The 4 Rules of Reading Fiction
As a child, I loved reading.
I would take a book, read it for hours, and get so attached to the story that I wouldn’t want to put it down even for a second.
But one day, like most young boys do, I started playing video games, and before I knew it, I was spending all day on my phone.
By the time I discovered self-improvement, and eventually quit video games, it was too late: I had forgotten the joy of reading books.
When I read, I read very slowly, and nothing but books on making money (shoutout to Robert Kiyosaki).
But I knew reading fiction had a lot of benefits, so I read even though I didn’t enjoy it that much.
What are those benefits?
Well, I will write a letter on the benefits of reading, but here’s a quick overview:
reading is a habit that can keep your brain sharp and help you fall asleep at night
it’s a form of art that teaches you life lessons too subtle to be mentioned in self-help books
it gives you terrific practice for your language skills
I read slowly, maybe 20 minutes a day since I didn’t enjoy reading that much, but guess what?
In a few years, I had the opposite problem: I was reading too much!
“The Martian” by Andy Weir for instance, reading that book messed up my entire schedule. Good thing I finished it in a day.
Here’s my conclusion: we must set strict rules for reading fiction.
Book lovers will not like this advice, but if you are on self-improvement, you need to read in a certain way to get the benefits of reading fiction without it messing up other aspects of your life.
In this week’s self-improvement letter, I will share the 4 rules I set out for myself.
Feel free to experiment with these rule, then make your owns, and I’d love it if you shared your rules in the comments!
Here are the rules:
1. Don’t spend more time reading than you planned.
Reading fiction should NEVER get in the way of your priorities. It has its benefits, but at the end of the day, it’s still largely entertainment.
You need to plan in advance, and more importantly, you need to stick to that plan.
It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t read for long hours. There’s no problem in reading all day if you plan your life around it.
But there’s a problem in reading instead of doing the work you need to do. SPOILER ALERT: you will feel like sh*t afterwards.
2. Read something you enjoy reading, or are at least curious about.
The first few books I read were all literary books.
Of course, there’s nothing wrong with reading such books, I absolutely loved reading “Crime and Punishment” by Dostoyevsky.
But there’s a reason why Dostoyevsky wrote a novel, and not a textbook titled “The Psychological Sequelae of Criminal Activity”.
Especially with moral lessons, we humans learn through stories, and if you want to get any value out of reading fiction, you should read stories that have some relevance to you, books that you enjoy reading or are at least curious about.
If you read books just because they are classics and won some literary award, then you won’t go too far in reading.
You can try them, but shamelessly drop the book if you don’t give a f*ck about what’s written.
3. Take your time.
You can do whatever you want with non-fiction books: skim through 10 of them in one day, skip chapters, read backwards if you like.
But with fiction, you need to take your time.
You need to read at a speed that allows you to follow the story.
As Epictetus said it so well:
Don't just say you have read books. Show that through them you have learned to think better.
4. Read with a notepad.
I didn’t know how important this was until I bought a Kindle.
Pass highlighting and bookmarking the good parts, I found myself needing to put down thoughts about the book whenever they came up.
I encourage you to do the same: Whenever you find something to think about, something you are curious to research about, NOTE IT DOWN.
To recap…
Don’t read more than you have time to read.
Read books you want to read, not books you think you have to read.
There’s no race, take your time.
Take notes while reading.
Thank you for reading this week’s self-improvement letter!
If you enjoyed reading this, don’t forget to hit the like button, and if you want more, subscribe to get all my future self-improvement letters delivered right to your inbox!
Also, if you have any questions or feedback, feel free to leave them at the comments — I reply to everyone!