Cultivating yourself in the art of good reading is rather similar to playing a video game; you’ll have to proceed through different levels of increasing difficulty in order to reach the treasure at the top.

So here’s me again, sharing with you my personal journey to becoming an avid reader and how I eventually got carried away by good fiction; the story which is otherwise known less romantically as my epic defeat in 1) the battle against myopia, 2) leading a fun life filled with actual human interaction.

LEVEL 1 : Magazines
Mission: Go easy: start with the magazines

Instead of starting out at the children’s section (seriously?), try checking out some non-mainstream publications and magazines. There are a variety of international magazines that have very insightful, short articles that are easy to comprehend and won’t lose your attention that easily. Some passages in Frankie Magazine are even structured like short stories and equipped with every aspect of good fiction that you can look forward to.

Mushrooms to collect:
Frankie Magazine, Monocle Magazine, Dazed and Confused.

LEVEL 2: Big Screen Adaptations
Mission: Get visual: Watch a movie then read the book, or vice versa

Reading a book with a big screen equivalent and seeing your favourite actors bringing the story to life can sometimes enhance the whole reading experience while helping you understand the content more easily. A really good example is Sofia Ford Coppola’s the Virgin Suicides (an adaptation of Jeffrey Eugenides’s novel of the same name). A really bad example would be Stuart Little (based on E.B. White’s 1945 classic)

Other mushrooms to collect in this level:
Ian McEwan’s Atonement, Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited. - Next page

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