I graduated university in 2010, and ever since then, I don’t remember I’ve ever read a hard book (non-fiction, dry, 500+ pages). So, my reading muscle had completely atrophied. Society’s obsession with short format content doesn’t help – everyone wants content quickly, and the biggest companies in the world are serving it. Why read a book when you can read a blog post? Why read a blog post when you can read a tweet?

When you stop reading hard books, you’re missing out on the essence of the idea as the author wanted to communicate it. Sometimes, the effort pays off, sometimes, it doesn’t. Either way, it should be up to you to decide, it should be your choice – not something that seems impossible to you.

I’ve realized that the only way to train this reading muscle is to the follow the same process as any muscle – work on it, slowly and add more resistance over time. Start with a 100 page hard book (or even one of those hard blog posts you have bookmarked or that tab you’ve got open forever). Once you finish this, you will have an easier time with the next read. Continue consistently to avoid atrophy.

I just started a few months ago, and finished a monster of a book that was on my bookshelf for years (the pages had turned yellow). In a world full of people reading tweets, be the one that reads the book.