Last September was a special anniversary: it's been 10 years since I last had nothing to read. Since my first day of college, I've always brought a book with me, wherever I went. It became somewhat of a trademark for me. It's also an oddly powerful vector of discussion with people I don't know all that well.
''You always carry a book.''
''I wish I could read as much as you do.''
''Where do you find the time?''
Today, I will reveal my great reading secret. You can read about a hundred books a year too, if you really want it. All you need to know is a really simple thing. So simple, you might find it deceptive. You have to find answer the following question though: do you really want to become a reader?
Yes? Fine, here is my great secret: reading is the easiest thing I can do, next to breathing, sleeping, blinking and yawning. I'm not wired a special way to enhance focus or to break down information better than average. I am the definition of normal and I'm telling you reading is easy and probably more enjoyable than whatever else you've been doing. The reasons why you've been put off reading are probably also invalid.
The most common way someone has been turned into a non-reader is to have been told by an overworked, uninterested high school teacher that you were a soulless and cultureless imp if you didn't get the magnificence of The Scarlet Letter. Saying that to a 15 year old is as destructive as it gets.
Let me ask you a question: Do Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Frederico Fellini ever prevented you from watching movies? Did you stop watching television altogether because DOWNTOWN ABBEY was on? Of course you didn't. There are a world of books out there that have been written by other people than Nathaniel Hawthorne or Jane Austen. If you don't like them, it doesn't mean you don't like reading.
Several great books of our era have found a way to your screen. What do FIGHT CLUB, JUSTIFIED MYSTIC RIVER and brand new super CBS series INTELLIGENCE all have in common? That's right, they're all based on a book. A book where the exact same thing happen except maybe that you spend twice as much time with the characters you love, find twice as many reasons to relate to them and had twice as many ''OH MY FUCKING GOD, NO WAY'' moments of elation. So why wouldn't you want that?
Don't marvel at readers next time. It's no secret club, just pick up a book and start reading whenever you're bored. Your life will change.