💯 100 Books Later
I recently completed my 100th book. Here's a quick reflection:
I started with self-help, but it gets repetitive real fast. Once you have read 10 or so books, the 11th book simply fails to hold interest. I had to quickly start exploring other genres. Self-help is what you see advertised or shared via word of mouth - it sounds smart. But that's just the tip of the iceberg.
There's a right time to pick a particular book. Mastering this (picking the right book at the right time) is the key. Start with a short gripping fiction to get some momentum going (like The Alchemist or The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy). Then move on to longer but readable ones (The Martian, Dark Matter, etc.) and finally non-fiction (Factfulness). The trick is to fall in love with reading itself rather than a particular book.
After reading 100 books, I now put more time into selecting books, sometimes hours at a stretch. I have reduced my non-fiction consumption to half of last year and added fiction (And Then There Were None, The Little Prince, etc.). I've realized that you can't really conquer your to-read list. Each book references other books. The pile keeps growing. Hail Hydra.
My main reason for choosing books is that they set a foundation for higher-level discussions, with someone who has read the same book(s). You simply can't do that on top of articles. So yeah, I'll continue this for the foreseeable future. Reading also gives you access to others' minds. And you learn that nothing is rocket science, well, except rocket science. It's a huge confidence-booster.
Until We Meet Again...
🖖 swap