Read in your 20’s
A photo of several books was posted on Twitter, and lots of people I follow have been piling on and roasting it.
Visually they look very similar, you may have read a few or seen these prominently displayed as you transfer at LAX airport. “The 5am Club”, “The Miracle Morning” that sort of fluff.
Thankfully, for my ego, I’ve only read a couple of these. But I hope that people on twitter don’t see these critiques and get put off reading. I think reading is good™. What’s helpful is to have a few good reasons why you read.
I started properly reading when I took a job that was way out of my comfort zone, and I felt pretty scared and out of my depth.
I ordered several books on amazon, mainly related to my job and vowed to not feel that out of depth ever again.
I suppose that is still a big reason, a sort of second or ongoing ‘education’. Whatever I did at University, and however helpful it was, it was still only a few years of my life, at a pretty young age. I’d hope to keep learning about new things for many more years. A good book can help me think a bit clearer, write a little better and generally improve my understanding of the world.
Otherwise, I read for entertainment. And really that’s the main reason why anyone should read - it’s nice!
I’ve gone through many different stages. I’ve gone too deep into self help. I’ve read books for the wrong reasons. I’ve stuck with bad books too long (don’t). The main reason to avoid bad books is it takes a lot of time to read a book and we only have so much time on earth.
But I’ve also stumbled across books that have really helped me.
That’s why I read, and I enjoy it. The toughest thing of course is finding time and energy to build a habit.
Stephen King has the best advice on this: “If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time to write. Simple as that. Waiting rooms were made for books –– of course! But so are theater lobbies before the show, long and boring checkout lines, and everyone’s favorite, the john.”
You heard it. Read when you can, and you’ll start to see some cracks of available time where you’d better off be reading.
Lastly, a guiding principle that I’ve followed for a while now.
Likely around the time that I started investing in books. I subscribed to an email newsletter by author Ryan Holiday. He ends each email with: “ I promised myself a long time ago that if I saw a book that interested me I’d never let time or money or anything else prevent me from having it.”