I spend a lot of time reading. My goal was to read 25 books in 12 months, it been less that 7 months and I’m up to 20 and counting.  Currently I’m reading 3 books at the same time. I find it amazing. Not because that seems to be a lot of books, but because I used to hate reading.

As a kid I almost never read. I too, had to suffer those reading assignments and endure those boring stories. Those, so called classics, books from dead philosophers from a thousand years ago. Who reads those anyway? Plays and tragedies. Do people actually like that? Seriously? We don’t even speak like that anymore. That is my younger self criticizing books. I have learned better with time.

But here’s a thing you are rarely told in school. Not all books are like those you were force-fed. Most of them are totally different. You have to experiment to find what you like. Pick out a few books that could be interesting and start reading. There is never an obligation to read the book from cover to cover. If it’s crap, you simply don’t read it. So, you pick a book and start reading…

Then, one day, you find a book that hooks you. It engages your curiosity, captivates your attention and you can’t put it down. You check out more books of the same genre. And all of a sudden you’re reading like crazy.

J.K. Rowling once said:

If you don’t like to read, you haven’t found the right book.

I totally agree with this. It wasn’t until I found books I enjoyed that reading took off for me. Diving into the world of fiction, fantasy and magic was eye-opening. Arkandias, Eragon, and Harry Potter, now there was stuff I enjoyed reading!

After discovering the world of fiction, I added practical books and non fiction as I discovered personal development. As you evolve so does your reading. I got into philosophy and found it had nothing to do with what you thought it was about in school.

Being able to peer into the minds of men and women from different spaces and times is an incredible thing. You can learn from their experiences, avoid similar mistakes. You can live a hundred stories. You can get new perspectives. Feel what it’s like to be alive. It’s a rich and vastly underestimated resource. Understanding things you could not even grasp and elevating your own understanding of the world, with the help of the author is an amazing feeling. A book that challenges you, elevates you, and evolves over time is something only a couple books can do. Finding such books is like finding treasure. Then, of course, a good book can help you relax; it is a source of entertainment. Nobody reads the same way. But the fun part is finding what you like.

Lately, the best fiction I’ve read has been:

Alamut by Vladimir Bartol and A Dance with Dragons by George R. R. Martin.

And the best non fiction has been:

The War of Art by Steven Pressfield and The Crossroads of Should and Must by Elle Luna.

Right now I’m reading The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell, and I find it utterly fascinating, and highly recommend it.

To end this post, as a Star Wars fan, there is only one more thing to add for today’s post:

May the fourth be with you