Why do some people dislike reading?

Do you know what is that one common thing between the successful and influential people like Abdul Kalam and Barack Obama, Bill gates and Warren Buffet, Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg.

They are all voracious readers. They read a lot.

In an interview, Warren Buffet was once asked about his key to success. He pointed to the stack of books and said, “Read 500 pages a day. That’s how knowledge works. It builds up, like compound interest”.

When Elon musk was asked how he learned to build rockets, he simply replied, “I read books.”

Probably if you are still reading this line, then I believe that either you love reading or at least have a habit of reading something.

You might have seen most of them in your circle who loves reading or have a habit of reading books. That percent is just a small dot in the bigger circle. Most of the people hate books, and hate reading in general. Most of them rarely open a book as soon as their education is completed or gets a decent job.

So, why most people have a dislike towards reading books? Below are some of the reasons why people hate reading.

1) Parents don’t promote reading

As a parent one should always inculcate the reading habits in their children at an early stage. Most of the parents do not promote reading either due to their illiteracy levels or they don’t believe of any importance in reading books other than academic text books.

If children do not generate a habit of reading books at an early age, it is harder to get them motivated to read in their grown-up years.

2) Wrong Schooling/Education

Most people who hate reading feel that way because of the books they were forced to read or mug up the subjects taught in school. With lot of pressure to excel in schools in the way of home works, assignments, etc., children start developing their mindset towards the disliking of the books in general. This dislike will grow up along with them and forms a belief of aversion towards reading.

To that fact, I have seen most of my friends (who were also toppers in our school and college) skip reading any whatsapp forward message that covers more than half of their smart phone screen.

3) Fixed Mindset

Most of the people will have a fixed vertical mindset. They only focus on vertical career growth like attaining next promotion, good hike, etc. and gradually work hard for that. They will never focus on horizontal growth where they can expand their knowledge to other areas where they can excel at.

I have few friends who are extremely talented and successful in their company but never tried to expand their circles. I always think they could have made it big if they expand their circles. Most of them don’t realize their real potential since they don’t have that curiosity to step in to the world of reading.

4) Disruption by Technology

With easy access to smart phones and internet speed life never before, people are choosing modern forms of entertainment such as OTT platforms like Netflix, hotstar, etc. While one cannot deny that the content is too good, but people are unconsciously getting addicted and hooked to these platforms due to their content intensity. For instance, when I started watching Money Heist, I was so hooked until I finished all the 4 seasons in 5 days. That’s 6-7 hours of watching time per day.

So, How do one survive in this 21st century?


Our world is changing faster than we ever anticipated. One should accept that learning should not end with formal schooling or once you settle with job. Learning must be a lifelong pursuit, one should constantly re-skilled in order to cope with an ever-changing world. Even learning alone won’t be sufficient if you want to survive in this AI dominating world. You need to LEARN, UNLEARN and RELEARN and should be ready to compete with machines in order to survive.


Alvin Toffler