Take Time Out to Read

A typical day in your life as a student basically involves some or all of the following: school, homework, getting together with friends, watching television and of course, browsing on the Internet. All through day and night, your prime concern is getting to school on time, attending all your classes, finishing your homework and catching up with your friends.

So where then, you ask, do you find time to fit books in?

Yes, books. And here, the reference is not to your textbooks, but to an assortment of classics, novels, contemporary fiction and the like. Of course, you have heard loads and loads of lectures already on how important it is, at this stage of life (or indeed any stage of life) to read good books, so you’ll be spared here. But nevertheless, one can simply not emphasise enough on what reading does for you — from expanding your ideas and outlook on life to improving your language, expression and vocabulary.

But unfortunately, in the fast paced life that you as students are currently living in, books have taken a back seat. You can try this out yourself. Ask anyone what books they are reading and the most common excuse you will get to explain one’s lack of reading is “We don’t have time to read books.”

And really, if you think about it, you will realise that they (or you, if you fall in the same category) do truly have no time for books — which by the way is the excuse of a lot of adults as well. Go back to your routine: you wake up and rush to school. You attend classes, enjoy a recess, attend more classes and then rush back home. Then you either take a nap or go for your tuitions. Then when you return you finish your homework, watch television, check your email or talk on the phone with your friends. Soon, it is time for dinner and following that, time to turn in. So really, when people say they don’t have time to read books, they have a point, right?

Wrong! If you start thinking about your schedule as a whole, you will definitely come to the conclusion that each day is full and you have no time to read. And if you try to fit an hour of reading each day, chances are that after a few days, you will revert back to your schedule and the books will lie on your shelf, neglected and forgotten.

But where there is a will, there is definitely a way. If you are serious about reading, and really want to read a few books, there are many small ways in which you can do that. In this case, don’t try to change your schedule or routine as a whole. Just make a few modifications to your activities within the schedule and you will realise that you indeed have quite a lot of time to read.

Confused? Let’s look at a few examples.

Suppose you are one of those students whom the van driver picks up really early in the morning. The time it takes you to reach school will depend on how far your school is from your house and how many students go in your van. But if you are one of the first people to step in your van, it can easily be assumed that it will take at least half an hour to one hour for you to reach school. Well, then why waste this time? Keep a book in your bag and utilise this hour to read something interesting.

A book in your bag at all times can easily ensure that whenever you have any free time at school, you can take it out and start reading. For instance, on the occasion that your group of friends haven’t turned up and you are bored during your recess, a book can easily be your companion.

Take another example. You are online. You are supposed to be checking your email and browsing a few websites. But your Internet is impossibly and agonising slow. All the web pages are taking eons to load properly, and you are left gritting your teeth in front of the computer and trying not to hurl insults at your cable guy or dialup service. In such an instance, why not keep your cool and pick up a book? You can easily read at least a few pages while your web pages load. And trust me, if you are reading a book, you won’t even notice how long your connection is taking to load a simple gmail login window. Whenever your window finishes to load, you can put the book down and go back to your work. Yeah, so you are sure to get a lot of questioning looks and weird stares at this, but there is a good term for this kind of work. It is called “multi tasking”. You are just giving it a whole new meaning.

Another very constructive thing that can be done pertains to television. All of you must be having at least one thing or the other which you watch on a daily basis, whether it is a soap opera or drama serial or sitcom. Watching television these days can become quite a trial owing to the numerous advertisements that one is bombarded with. Of course, with the remote and the cable channels, it has become easier to avoid these advertisements by channel surfing whenever the commercial break begins in the programme that one is watching. What you can do, however, is that instead of channel surfing, mute your television when the advertisements begin, and pick your book. Muting will ensure that you will know when your programme resumes after the break, so you can go back to it. An ad break goes on for at least five minutes, and there are quite a few of these breaks throughout the whole programme, so you can easily fit in a few pages of your book during this time.

So there you have it — you don’t really need to make any drastic changes in your lifestyle to ensure that you have healthy reading habits.

You don’t have to compromise on any of your work or activity to make time for books. All you need are some minor amendments to your routine activities so that you have the best of both the worlds. After all, considering the numerous advantages that reading offers, making these amendments will only benefit you in the long term.

Finding Good Books

For those of you who are just starting out trying to make reading a daily habit, finding out which books are worth your time can be a harrowing task. At such times, many students decide to opt for books which have the least number of pages and go for books like The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho and Animal Farm by George Orwell, without bothering to go into their depth, context and history. So how do you start?

a) Browse through your library at school to see what type of fiction novels are available and which authors appeal to you. You can borrow the books from the library only, and then search for more books by your favourite authors at bookstores.

b) Browse online to see which books — fiction and non fiction — you are interested in.

c) If classics put you off by their sheer length and language, read their abridged versions first. If you like the story, then definitely go for the original unabridged versions. Try this for all the books of Charles Dickens, Jane Austen and other classical authors.

d) Find out which movies are based on books, and watch them. They can motivate you to read books like Gone with the Wind, Rebecca and Anne of Green Gables as well.