Read a Book! Read a Book!

I used to be the #1 reader in my class as a child.

For many reasons, that ceased to be the case (smarter classmates, video games, my Palm Pre, etc.), but I bring that up to say that I grew up being good at reading and liking it.

Hell, when the 5th Harry Potter book came out (800+ pages), I was reading it at a 100 page-per-day pace, as a preteen.

After a certain point, I thought books were too boring to hold my attention. I preferred video games, TV, movies, or anything else. As a result, I missed out on a lot.

What I just described applies to the majority of people.

People don’t read these days because they prefer other ways to occupy themselves.

And when I say, “read,” I mean books. People have no issue reading captions on memes or the comments section on videos.

For the average person (my past self included), reading just isn’t stimulating enough anymore, especially when you keep in mind that they have so many options available to them.

Why stare at a rectangle with only words on it when you could be staring at an illuminated rectangle with words and pictures on it?

Well…

• Not everything is adapted into a show or movie, so if you don’t read books, there are potentially life-changing stories that you’ll never read.

• In the realm of non-fiction, there are loads of self-development books that could improve your mindset and quality of life. Again, you’ll never have your life changed by these books if you never read any books. (The reason I’m even writing this newsletter or doing any of this is because of The Millionaire Fastlane by MJ DeMarco.)

• Books have been around since before every other medium of entertainment (besides music), so by rotting your brain to the point where you can’t comfortably experience them, you’re depriving your Future Self of new knowledge, ideas, and ways of life.

Those are pretty good reasons, but they may not be compelling to some. What would these “some” retort with, you might wonder? I’ve heard some pretty flimsy excuses:

• Books are too boring. (This is like saying you don’t like music. Firstly, you need to explore topics that interest you. Secondly, you need to stop rotting your brain with constant stimulation to the point where you can’t enjoy normal things anymore.)

• Books take too long to read. (I consider myself a fairly slow reader, but guess what: When a book is good, I become a fast reader.)

• I don’t like physical books. (Same. Get an ereader. Or an ereader app. Or put PDFs on your phone. I don’t recommend reading on your phone because of the possible distractions, but it’s way better than nothing.)

By now, you can tell that I’m strong advocate for reading books. Why should you be one, though? I mean, why wouldn’t you?

• You can experience new stories and perspectives.

• You can learn new skills, mindsets, or philosophies.

• You’ll build your focused attention to better than it’s ever been.

For a newbie or someone coming back to reading, it can be a bit tough, I’ll admit.

But don’t worry.

1. Look up a book review site (GoodReads, etc.), and explore different genres that interest you.

2. Pick 3 of the top-rated books, check the reviews, and choose a book (save the other 2 for later).

3. (Bonus tip: Tell ChatGPT what you’re interested in. You’d be very surprised at how helpful and specific it can be with book recommendations.)

4. Acquire the book.

5. Read 1 page.

6. If you’re cool with that, read another page.

7. After 1 or 2 chapters, if it sucks, drop it, and pick one of the other 2. I know I said that you’ll build your focused attention through reading, but if a book isn’t your thing, you’re not gonna read it. A good book will keep you reading without you putting in much effort.

8. Become a learned or entertained individual.