How to get interested in a book?

Question

First off, I love reading, and can find myself reading more than I expect when I find the right book. But that's just the thing, I want to be able to read at the same capacity for books that I'm not too fond of as well. Any tips?

Answer 1

How do you mean "books that you're not too fond of"? Do you mean just getting into a story?

1. You have no responsibility to read books whose subject matter doesn't interest you. Reading is supposed to be fun, not a chore. So pick books whose summaries are intriguing or if they've been recommended to you. Give every book 100 pages before giving up on it.

2. If you're talking about classics, they're classics for a reason. That doesn't mean that you have to like all classic books, but usually I like a book better if I take the time to really analyze and think critically about the novel. For example, I've had to read Frankenstein about a billion times for school (and never really liked it) but it wasn't until I got to my Romantic lit class that I absolutely fell in love with it because of how deep and complex and brilliant it is.

3. Classics continued. If you like reading about certain subjects, like romance or sci-fi or the supernatural, read the classics of the genre. Read Pride & Prejudice if you like romance. Read Isaac Asimov's 'I Robot' tales if you like sci-fi. Read 'Dracula' if you're a fan of vampire stories. Because ultimately, you'll enjoy modern tales more if you understand who influenced the author and see how those ideas are woven into modern tales.

Hope this helps. If I answered the wrong question, let me know and I'll edit my answer.

Answer 2

I think it helps if you fully understand what's going on in the book. I know with books like Harry Potter, it's alot easier to understand what's going on because the author for the most part comes right out and tells you what's going on. But with other books authors tend to use alot of metaphor and similie and alot of other figures of speech and it makes it difficult to understand the plot which in turn makes the book boring.

So if I'm reading a book that's hard to decipher then I usually read a very thorough book summary first so that i know what the story is about and so that i understand the characters better before i even start reading. That usually helps me flow right through.