There's a big difference between an occasional inexperienced and a professional reader. That difference consists in what the person reads, how the reading is done, and how much time is invested in it. It's not about the number of books you read. A person can read several books a year and still not be an experimented reader. So, in this post, I'm going to describe five qualities of a good reader that you can follow as a guide for yourself.

1. Makes time for reading

Of course, this is the first thing to do. If you pretend to be a good reader it's not enough to take a book once in a while, only when you have time for it. A good reader plans his reading because is important for him. Also, a good reader tries to enjoy that time the most he can, and there are several ways to do it, so I wrote an article entirely for this that you can check here.
However, I'm pretty aware that not always we have so much time to spare, and that is difficult to make time for things that we like, such as reading. But, first of all, we need to see the activity of reading as an inversion of our time, because we can benefit in many ways from it. Second of all, there are still different ways of making time for reading, as I explain in this other post.

2. Reads what is relevant to himself

Reading as an obligation is horrible, I can tell. It's true that sometimes we don't have too many options, but as long as we can choose we need to pick books that we really care about. There are so many ways in which a book can be relevant for you, but I divided it into two main purposes of reading.

no. 1 Entertainment

For many years, critics and others have roasted entertainment books. But, there is nothing wrong with books that we read for fun as we can do other activities such as watching TV, playing video games, etc. I would say that among all these entertainment ways, reading is the best and most useful.

no. 2 Learning

Nowadays, you can find a book for anything you want to learn. Also, you can learn with fiction books as well. For example, reading historical novels is a fun and great way of learning about other times and cultures.

3. Talks with the books while reading

I dialogue with my books, and sometimes people think I'm crazy, but I'm not (so far). Let me explain, there are two kinds of readers. First, those who accept passively everything they read. Second, those who participate actively in the reading as in a normal conversation. If you are a human being with critical thinking, you usually have questions and look forward to more elaborate explanations or reasons for making a point.
A great reader, asks all the time why when reading, analyzes every word, and makes points of contrast. To sum up, a great reader treats a book as a friend in a conversation.

Taking notes and underlining

A wonderful way of talking with the book is through notes and underlining. I'm never afraid to mark a book because that only means that the book has been used and enjoyed.

4. Choses a variety of genres and opinions

You can't be an experimented reader if always read the same things. Challenge yourself to go out of your comfort zone. Try new texts, authors, and genres. Most importantly, expose yourself to a different opinion, and be tolerant enough for reading a book which you don't agree with.

5. Takes time to reflect on what is read

A good reader is not hurried, and for that reason, I hate reading goals, because damage the quality of the reading. When reading, take your time, not only for taking notes but for reflecting and learning from what you're reading. That is an excellent way to remember better when time has passed.

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