Most of us don’t realise how liberating the practice of reading could be. I wasn’t a reader growing up. I obviously used to indulge in the occasional reading of magazines and comic books, a few fiction novels here and there. But I never did it daily. Even as an adult, I never really felt like reading. I was always on YouTube. Streaming videos online was my thing.
Even after I bought an Amazon Kindle I didn’t do a lot of reading. But from the last year or so, I really picked up the habit of flipping pages after pages without end. I read in the train during the weekends, I read at work, I read at home after work, I read whenever and wherever possible. I can safely say that I’m addicted to it, without regrets.
After I started reading, my way of thinking has changed. I’ve read everything from fiction to biographies to politics. There’s something new to learn from each and every book. Sometime back, I stumbled upon medium.com; which, at least to me, is a treasure of knowledge. I know a lot of people don’t really agree to that, but it’s one place where I can find content for almost any interest. And Medium has now become my single most preferred book discovery platform. There are all these great writers who go through so much of pain to read through tens of books, study them, and write about them. I can’t help but buy the books they suggest.
The thing about books is, they make you think. Fiction, for example, bring out the creative is you. The sky is your limit when you are picturing a scene from a fiction. Books about politics and history give you so much knowledge, making you feel so much better about yourself.
I just bought two books, The Red Circle and The Origin of Species. The Red Circle is about Navy Seals, and talks about how it’s not just the physical abilities that matter, but how the mental strength is more important. The Origin of Species, by Charles Darwin, well, do I even need to introduce that book?
So what I’m trying to say here is, read, read daily. Read whatever you could get your hands on. See a copy of Cosmo lying around in the room? Well, you should probably exit the room.