Why Don’t I Like to Read

Some people love to pick up a book and read. It’s calming and can allow for some meditation as well. Others simply have no interest in touching a book at all. They’d rather do anything else than to read a book. If you fall into the second group of people, figuring out why you are not interested in reading can help you to move into the first group of people.

Learning to enjoy reading is possible for all people regardless of where they are at right now. If you’re not interested in reading, the first step is to figure out why that is the case. Is there something in your past that stops you from reading? Are you too busy (or feel you’re too busy)? Are you more interested in a simple stress reliever rather than trying to focus? Whatever the case may be, the actual reason for not wanting to read is often filtered down to just a few different reasons. Below are a few areas to explore.

Forced to read

One of the most common reasons that people are not interested in reading is because they were forced to read when they were in school. For English classes, or any other class, you would be given a book that you had to read and you were not given any other choice. Depending on your parents and teachers, you had to read the book and simply had no other choice. Of course, there’s a good chance you didn’t read the book but rather just looked up what the book was about.

Being forced to read a book is the perfect way to not enjoy reading. Add on to the fact that many of the books that you were given in school to read were classics, and it starts to become clear why you’re not interested in reading. Some people really love classic books, but most do not. You’re being forced to read books that are not enjoyable to you. When you look at a book, all you have is a negative feeling and you start to think all books are equally boring and hard to read.

Step back for a moment and think about this from a perspective as a parent as well. If your children need to read for school, try to find books that they like and enjoy. Don’t force them to read when they have no interest in a book (sometimes there are no choices as they get older, but when there are then give them the choices). Help children early to find what they want to read rather than just forcing them to read books you think they should or that their teacher thinks they should.

Not sure what you like

Having been forced to read earlier in life, there’s a good chance you don’t know what you like to read. Since you’ve mostly just read items that you had to, and you haven’t done any reading outside of that since, you just assume that books are bad. There’s no real interest in reading. You need to work to overcome this feeling.

You really have to stop and think about this to determine if it’s actually the case. Your brain may tell you that reading is good, but when you go to pick a book up you may have a natural reaction that you don’t want to read. If that’s the case, then it’s very likely that you don’t know what you enjoy reading. There are so many different genres of books out there - there is definitely something that you can enjoy. You just haven’t found it yet.

Get over any negative feelings you may have about a specific genre. Just because you’re an adult doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy young adult fiction. You may find romance novels keep your interest (if you’re embarrassed by these things, get a Kindle as no one knows what you’re reading there). Try multiple different genres, and try shorter books to start. If you’re 50+ pages in and you’re still not interested, move on to the next book. Don’t spend hours toiling through a book that hasn’t hooked you early on, especially if you’re just getting into reading again. Find what you like to read.

Have too many things you’re trying to do

Are you oversubscribed? It’s not surprising for a parent to have so much going on in their lives that they don’t have much time for anything else. Between kids, cleaning, work, and children’s extracurricular activities, you may be simply running from activity to activity. Figuring out how to make time for some reading is often difficult.

First off, take a deep breath if you’re in this situation. It’s tough and it can often feel like there’s no end. Next, figure out where you can potentially relax. Does the house have to be spotless? Will it hurt if those clothes lay on the floor a little bit longer? Do you have to sit and play with your kids for multiple hours per day? Does your child really need to be doing a sport and music? Determine what things can be removed and what are necessary - you shouldn’t be going so hard that you literally have no free time.

If you’re already maximizing your time in other ways, then figure out if you can add audiobooks into your schedule. Audiobooks are great because they can be listened to while doing other things. In the car with your kids, turn on the book. Cleaning and listening work well. Many activities will allow for listening to a book at the same time. It’s a great way to “read” while being overly busy.

Conclusion

Figuring out why you don’t like to read is the first step. The next step is to actually start reading. Determining the root cause will go a long way in getting you there.