Strategies to Encourage a Love for Reading Books in Students

Ever wondered why students know exactly what genre of movie or series they like to watch and always know what to watch next after they've completed their current series, but at the same time have no idea about what kind of books they might enjoy reading, or which book to start with?

It's not that they can't read. It's not even that they hate reading. They just have zero framework for how to approach it.

With movies and TV shows they got enough opportunity to explore what they like and what not, while with books, all they got was rules and norms around how to read them.

Tell me if you've heard this too, growing up. One should read page to page. You couldn't skip ahead. You absolutely could not abandon a book halfway through—that was practically a moral failure. One book at a time, always. And my personal favorite: sit there with a dictionary next to you, looking up every single word you don't understand.

With these rules, reading stopped being about discovery or entertainment or solving problems. It became this rigid, time-consuming activity that required perfect conditions and complete understanding.

So, how do you ignite the love for reading in students? Well, there are many ways, but here are three that have seemed to work best.

1. Make reading immediately useful

Help students find a reason to read; reading because "it's good for you" is not a strong rationale.

But finding something to read to solve an ongoing problem is a good starting point.. Ask students what they're dealing with. Friendship drama? Anxiety about the future or trying to build a new habit? There's a book for that. This way, they'll understand what books have to offer that often people around them cannot.

I remember when a teacher asked me this exact question. I was older than I'd like to admit, and I'd never read a book on my own—only school assignments. When he asked what was going on in my life, what I was struggling with, I told him. He said, "Go find a book about that exact problem."

So I did. And I actually finished it. Not because someone made me, but because every page felt relevant. I kept thinking, "Okay, what else can I do? What's the next strategy?"

When reading becomes immediately useful, students don't need to be convinced to do it.

2. Solve the discovery problem

A lot of people don't pick up books because they don't know where to start.

With movies and TV shows, people are constantly talking about what they're watching. At school, at home, online—everyone's discussing the latest series. You always know what to watch next because recommendations are everywhere.

With books? It's rare that people are walking around talking about what they're reading. So people have no idea where to begin.

One way to overcome this is simple: ask students to list down people they admire and look up to in their lives. Then have them find out on the internet what those people are reading. If they are following them, they would probably have some affinity for their ideas already.

3. Debunk the old rules

This is perhaps the most important one: give students permission to read differently.

Here's what they need to hear: you're not reading to complete anything. You're reading to satisfy your intellectual curiosity. That's it.

It's okay to quit books. Some books are boring. Some books repeat one idea across hundreds of pages. If you've gotten the main idea from a book, or if you realize fifty pages in that it's not clicking, you can put it down.

It's okay to skip pages. It's okay to jump to the chapter that's relevant to you.

Genuine love for reading is a consequence of extensive reading.

The goal isn't to finish books. The goal is to want to pick up the next one.

And once they stop seeing reading as this thing they're supposed to do and start seeing it as this thing that actually helps.

And that's when the whole thing becomes self-sustaining.