i see your first point is selecting genre? so i am guessing the tips aren't about how to pick up and read an academic book, but simply books that entertain us and enlighten us...
I will be honest from my point of view,
Sorry to say but i don't think those tips are useful....
I have always loved books, not the academic ones though. i love the books that has stories and makes you think and works on your emotions not the chemistry book that teaches me a reaction between two elements.
i used to take a book and forget about eating or sleeping until i finish. Sometimes i stayed up all night under the blanket with the torch until i finish reading the book.
Why did i do this? Because i enjoyed it. I enjoyed reading of worlds and characters outside of my known knowledge and i loved it.
Planning doesn't work, how could you possibly stop reading when your planned time runs out and you are at a crucial point of the story?, it doesn't matter what cover the book comes in because its not about those things. you can't exactly give tips to people and expect them to start reading....
This kind of books are about enjoying them. You can enjoy a book in the lowest light while hurting your eyes or in a bus hurting your neck. if a person is simply not into books you can't make them enjoy it with a million dollar decorated room....
Thats what my thought is....
Thanks for your reply. Maybe you already had interest in reading from the onset but some people do like my friends. Under genres we have fiction and non-fiction so it's not only about reading books for fun. Because some people find it difficult reading a serious book for long period, reading another genre of book that is different from the one you reading that is less serious and more fun helps keep your interest up and also helps you retain information on the informative book you are reading.
It's just like studying in school. Though I like studying, but some days I don't really get into it so what I do is maybe look at a picture book to get myself to study and it works for me. It's just like feeling tired sometimes to also work out but when you do some warm-up, you get into working out. Different people have different things that work for them.
The concept on planning is to get yourself into reading. Yes reading fun books may keep you engrossed for long periods. But what about really informative book you need. You just need to kind of condition yourself to it till you begin to enjoy the information you get out of such book. Reading for like 2 or 3 hours is good to start with or even an hour till you begin to increase the length of time. And one way or another we always get to a point where we distribute time to do what we want, like, or need to do. If one is a career person, you have to make certain plans to ensure you do what you like to do and sometimes people begin to lose interest in what they haven't done in a long time. So surely including reading a book for an hour or 30 minutes help to keep your interest going.
You are lucky to have time to read for long hours and I envy you. But not everyone has that luxury and most of the points are what kept my interest going till now while juggling different stuff together.
Thanks for your response and I would like to see more of your comments under my posts to ensure more people understand my view and also understand your view.