I read often. Less than a lot of you, but more than the general population. I read a book-book once a month, and a few manga/graphic novels a month.
Though I’ve read a lot, I only have a handful of books that I love enough to recommend, The Road, Story of Your Life, American Psycho and some Isaac Asimov shorts.
I’m really picky and usually don’t walk away from books thinking, “wow that was a great book.”
I was asking myself recently, why do you read so much? You don’t like most of what you consume. I realized I like the completion aspect of reading.
Whatever that “thing” is, makes up for my often disappointed feelings regarding what I read.
I just wanted to share this realization and see if anyone else feels this way.
Completing something gives us a dopamine hit, which can cause pleasure and motivation. We often seek out ways to get that dopamine hit, and I think reading is an amazing way to achieve the feeling of accomplishment.
I’m a retired Life Coach and when my clients would get stuck I would help them find what I’d call “little wins” these were simple short tasks that they could finish and get that dopamine hit and it would often motivate them to start working on a more challenging task. This is also why it is very effective to break a large project into smaller tasks so you can get multiple “wins” or “finishes” during a project to motivate you to continue.
I’m retired and I’m struggling with finding things to get that feeling from, housework never feels completed. Although I read a lot, completing books doesn’t often give me that feeling of completion. I’m currently using puzzles to fill that role.