this post was submitted on 08 Feb 2026
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How do I read? [Serious] (hexbear.net)
submitted 2 days ago by lobaa@hexbear.net to c/askchapo@hexbear.net
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OK the title is a joke but the question is serious. A bit of backstory:

My parents failed to make me love books, because they also introduced me to a PlayStation 2, and I decided that I like playing vidya games a lot more than reading stuff. School didn't make me love books either because the literature they force you to read in my curriculum, is, in my opinion, better suited for adult reading.

Fast forward to now, I am a freshman in a prestigious university, but it turns out that it requires me to read a lot of stuff, but I don't really have enough willpower to sit through academic literature for more than an hour a day. And the fact I'm noticeably behind my peers in amount of books read makes me feel like I don't belong.

So my question is how to learn to love reading books, get immersed or enter flow state or whatever, and also retain information? Is it some kind of talent or superpower? I know a few of my peers who don't stop reading books and seem to not distract themselves with tiktoks and video games, and attend optional lectures in their free time which is kind of insane to me, but I respect it a lot and want to become like them.

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[–] YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Try different genres. I had to force myself to read my first fiction book. Then a friend gave me freakonomics and I destroyed it in two days. I've also discovered that it was the author of the fiction book (Anthony Pierce, and it was not the xanth book made famous by the stand-up comic) cause I can read the fuck out of dune.

But seriously, don't force yourself. Try and get a couple books that you think u might like from the library. If you don't like it within the first 20 ish pages, don't feel obligated to finish it. Just return it and try another book.