Library Lover

Hey, Cadre family doctor Carrie here. Did you know that February 14 is library lover's day? I did not know that, and I think I'm gonna start celebrating that holiday from now on because I am a serious bookworm. I love to read. I love consuming knowledge. I can get lost in a book. I literally can. When I was a kid in, like, elementary school, we had this other kid in my class. He was always in my class, and he would have these emotional outbursts. I'm not sure, like, what was wrong with him or what was going on with him.

I think he had, like, maybe developmental delay or something, but really sweet kid. But he would just have these outbursts where he would scream at the top of his lungs. And I literally never looked up from my book, so they always sat me next to him because I can get so engrossed in a book that, like, the world could be on fire around me, and I wouldn't even know it. That's how much I love reading, and I just wanted to shed some light on this topic, because if you're not a reader, that's okay. Some of us are wired to be readers, and I am one of those people.

But I just wanted to give you some insights in, like, how do I become a reader? How do I start to love books? And there's nothing wrong with not liking books, but I do believe there is value in consuming knowledge. And we always say that in, like, self help, you know, professional development programs. Oh, go read this book. Go do this. You know, go consume this information. If you're not a reader, or especially if you. If you read slow, that can be really a daunting thing for people. So I want to give you some practical tips on this.

Number one, pick subjects you want to actually read about. Don't go read something that you're not interested in. People have sent me books all the time. Cause they know how much I like to read. And if I'm not interested, I don't even want to read it. I got a stack of, like, 30 books in my house right now that I'm going to read in the next month, and if it's not going to make that pile, that's okay. It's Okay. I kind of have the topics that I like to read about and be open to other ideas, but if it's not something you're going to enjoy reading, don't bother.

Right. Number two, there are other ways to read. If you are an auditory learner, get audiobooks. I've tried audiobooks. They don't work for me, I just zone out. I don't pay attention. It's just not the way I consume information. I have to see it. I have to tangibly hold it. And so I know that, for me, audiobooks is not a good solution, but there's so many audiobooks out there now that you can get and do on your drive to and from work. Maybe there's a book that you really want to read. See if there's an audiobook out there and do it on your commute ten minutes at a time.

You don't have to go to this 300 page book and be like, oh, my gosh, when am I gonna have time to do that? You can break it up into bite sized pieces, especially if it's that kind of book where you can consume the knowledge in short amounts of time. And number three, dedicate time to read. And I know that sounds silly if you're not a reader, but if you block off 15 minutes to read something, you'd be amazed at how you can actually kind of, like, develop a habit for liking it. And, like, maybe I said, maybe that's your commute to and from work, that you consume an audiobook, and you say, you know what?

I really, really want to read this book. I'm just not a reader. Well, then set that goal for yourself, that in the next two weeks, over the course of my drives, I'm going to have this audiobook completed. And lastly, my last tip is, if you start a book and within the first 20 pages, you don't like it, stop reading it. I know I'm one of those people who likes to finish things that I start. It's just kind of like my own OCD, and I will feel just, like, in pain finishing a book that I don't like. And I finally, like, three years ago, had to give myself permission to say, I have so many books on my stack to read, it's okay if I don't finish this.

Like, there's nothing wrong with me if I do that. So if you struggle with that, like I do, just know it's okay to stop. Give it a good, fair chance to consume the information and see if you can get into it. But if it's not resonating with you, just be done with it and move on and find another one that does. So those are my tips for you. Happy library lover's day, and you guys have a great day. Bye.