Inspired by the book Show your Work!, I have started to post images of the books I am reading. Another advantage of having physical books is that they lend well to photographs too! 🙂

On one such post, a friend asked me how do I manage to read.

One aspect is about finding time in your life to read. But in this post I want to highlight another aspect which keeps me coming back to reading.

Reading can at times become difficult, especially if you are stuck with a not so interesting book! Life happens and you can lose touch of reading, and it can be difficult to get back.

One trick which helps in such scenarios is to be surrounded by books!

That doesn’t necessarily mean having a library overflowing with books, but always have a To read book pile.

I usually read one book at a time, but have 3-4 books in the queue. And always looking around for new ones. The never ending pile acts as a forcing function to get back to reading. After all you have spent money on buying those books, or have to return the books to the library unread. Making loss aversion work for you. 🙂

And if you get bored with the current book you are reading, you can always look around the next set to get a peek of what’s coming! It helps make reading exciting and hopefully long lasting.

So maybe use this tactic next time. Having a pile of unread books lying around. Not to signal shame of something incomplete, but the opportunity to venture into unexplored worlds hidden in those books!