On developing reading habits

I enjoy reading, and I read a fair number of books for pleasure. For research, I am strong advocate for developing good reading habits.

But today, I don’t want to discuss the importance of reading in academia – I’ve made my point before. Today, I want to muse about how my reading has developed, and how reading more has helped me develop the skill to process more complex prose.

There are two books where this applies to:
– Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry. I started reading this book in Summer 2017 and couldn’t get through it. Put it aside, and picked it up again in 2019, when I devoured it and enjoyed it.
– Georg Feuerstein’s essays about yoga. Started reading this in Fall 2019. Put it aside. Picked it up now after reading War and Peace, and it suddenly seemed “easier” to get through.

While this short musing is not a proof of any sort, I do think it gets easier to get to more complex prose as you read more, more frequently, and from a wider range of genres.