I have bought multiple books, but most of the time I don't find myself motivated to read them. Instead, I prefer to watch hour long documentaries/TED talks/programming tutorials on Youtube.
I feel that it's important to build the habit of reading books to improve my cognitive skills. Are there any tips for me please?
My tips? Make a goal of reading a single book for 30 minutes somewhere quiet. If you have a smartphone and/or smartwatch, put them in a different room. Now resolve to read an interesting book for 30 minutes.
If you are looking for engaging recommendations, check out Replay by Ken Grimwood[1]. Try not to read too much about the plot before reading it. If you're a younger person, the book will serve as a warning. If you're an older person, it will hit hard.
1. https://www.amazon.com/Replay-Ken-Grimwood/dp/068816112X
I disagree that you 'need to build the habit of reading to improve your cognitive skills'. There is nothing inherently healthy about reading, I know plenty of people who've been reading fiction for their entire lives and they aren't more informed than people not reading books.
The reason you should read books is because if you look hard enough for good books, the content you can find in them is more interesting, more relevant, more engaging than almost any other form of media. I read books all the time because every other form of media is trash, because they teach me esoteric things about the world around me, that you can't get from Ted Talks or other superficial forms of media. But the interest has to be there, if you aren't interested in engaging, intellectual content then just stick to Youtube and be happy.
Not trying to be controversial, but do you also think forums such as this one are trash?
Finding the right forum is exactly how you find good books.
I used to read a lot in high school and then lost the habit as I went through undergrad. The way I got back into it was by ignoring best sellers and hype titles and the feelings of "I should read this because all my hacker friends keep referring to it".
I started reading a lot more fiction, especially stories from my country and culture. I stopped forcing myself to finish books that bored me. And because this is expensive to do, I bought physical books from a used books store instead of 1-click-buys on my Kindle.
Eventually, this built enough reading muscle for me that I moved to reading more ambitious things and I was able to persevere longer and battle through some really boring stuff (on topics that I cared about).
This is the solution. If a book is boring you, skip a few pages, skip a chapter, put it away and get another book, or delete it / throw it away.
But sometimes I will go through a slump, then see a book that really looks interesting and get into it.
Don't feel bad about starting a book and then not finishing it. Life's too short to read books you're not into.
As others have said, the amount of time spent reading depends on the book in your hand. I recently picked up two books by David Baldacci for this week and just finished the second one tonight - His style is stellar, keeps me hooked and I can read for 5 hours solid some nights.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Innocent_(Baldacci_novel)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Target_(novel)