Re: Reading is Boring

This week I couldn’t really think of anything for the top ten, because I was tired and lazy. There is a YouTuber I follow named the Booksupplier and the booksupplier is a teacher who wanted videos to inspire students who think reading is boring. I realize I’m not a vlogger, but I really liked the questions in the video, so I made a blog response instead. I will write the questions from the video and my responses. So, here we go.

Who are you?

I’m a librarian, technically. I took library and information science at college. I work as a document manager for Statoil. I’m not going to explain it, it’s not important, I’m using the library edumacation for something. I used to have a lot of hobbies, but I’ve moved a lot lately, so basically exercise and like hiking, and well, reading. I’m from Trondheim, which is a city in the middle of Norway. It’s a city only by Norwegian standards, but I like it. 

I’d also like to add here that I’ve been reading for as long as I can remember, my mom always gave me books and read to me. I don’t know what I’d do if I didn’t read.

A couple of adjectives that describe how you see reading

Fun, exciting, inspiring, uplifting, important.

How does reading benefit you in your every day life?

Reading gives me a place to escape, it gives me a place to be me, which is a sort of odd way of saying it, but when you read you’re not judged by the characters, which is obviously true for a lot of things, but you know, it’s this place where you can read crappy, stupid books. You can read books that give you nothing on an intellectual level, but it gives you something, and no one needs to know what you’re reading.

Books improve my vocabulary, it improves my English, because since I’m from Norway, my mother tongue is not English. I started reading English books in English, rather than the translations, when I was about like 16 maybe, and I kept it up.

Books challenge my opinions and views, they make me think about things, they make me rethink things (improve my vocabulary? I’ve used ‘things’ twice because I couldn’t think of the right word). They make me rethink the way I see the world, and the things I’ve been taught. They also make me see where my limits are, and whether I can/want to stretch my limits. They make me think differently, they make me rethink, and they make me change and grow.

Books also shows me that there are people who think the same way as me. It shows me that there are people who are sad, who are angry, and that it’s okay. It shows me how people can fight through pain or anger, or fear, and it’s good to know you’re not alone. Even though they’re fictional the characters come from a real place, and that makes it important. It shows you that people fight for what they believe in and for what's right. 

Not necessarily about reading, but books also give me a community. I talk about reading, and books with my friends and my sister, and with my mother. I learn about different books from them and I read different books. Books have led me to Goodreads and Booktube and I have learned to read different and interesting books, and challenged me again and again.

What advice do you have for reluctant readers?

I think one big thing is that they shouldn’t feel pressured, or worry that what they’re reading is wrong. I took a literature class in library and information science and we talked about boy readers. There was a kid who was about 8 who only read game manuals, or something similar. They were about the games, storylines in the game, character biographies, tactics, stuff like that. He read them again and again, and he loved them. So if you find something you like; read it and don’t listen to people who tell you you’re wrong. If you love Twilight, read Twilight.

Another piece of advice is to find something that interests you, something you might like, and find books that relate to that. Do you like history? Maybe historical fiction is good. Do you like space, and robots? Maybe read sci-fi.

I’m totally stealing this last bit from a vlogger named MusicalTati, because it’s friggin’ brilliant advice. If you like TV and film you can try to find books that the show or movie you like is based on. A lot of film and TV these days is based on books and if you liked the film maybe you’ll like the book. So books like Harry Potter, the Narnia books, Twilight, the Hobbit, Alice in Wonderland, the Hunger Games, Percy Jackson, the Mortal Instruments will come along soon. So maybe that’s a good place to start.

Other than that, I have always loved reading, it takes you to all these fantastic different places and it's really cool. You learn so much, and you always have something to do if you have a book.