My challenge for April was to read everyday. What may sound like a relatively easy task to some people, was always something that I had a problem with doing consistentlyā¦ or doing at all. Iāll go into more detail about where my aversion to reading came from and why I decided to start reading anyway. At the end, I will also talk a little about the books Iāve read and what they were about.
You should read more!
Reading is something I never really got into; not that I ever gave reading a fair chance. Though I have to say that the odds were always stacked against reading as a hobby for me. Back when I was in school, pretty much from elementary school on, I always had mediocre or bad grades in my German class. I just wasnāt interested in learning how to write fake fan letters to journalists discussing any of their stories I didnāt even read or discussing the morals of a book that is so old not even lightbulbs existed back then.
Anyway, my parents obviously wanted my grades in German to get better and they saw that some of my cousins had good grades and they were reading a lot. So they decided that reading must be the reason why they are good in German, and that I must read too to get better grades. However, I wasnāt really interested in reading, I wanted to play video games! In addition to my parents pushing reading onto me, I had to read books for class too. From adventures that a group of children had in my earlier school life to the good old classics in my later years. Yes, those good old classics they have to read in school since the 19th century that use old language paired with stories from an old society most people donāt understand. And then they throw their āItās a timeless classic! Everyone should know about this!ā argument in your face, not realizing that the only timeless thing about these books is their ability to avert countless generations of school kids from ever touching a book again after being forced to read that shit. Fuck those old books!
Besides the forced reading I had to endure, I felt there was a misplaced importance on reading as a hobby. It always came across to me that reading is a tool to get smarter. āAnd you want to be smarter, donāt you?ā, my parents often asked me. It wasnāt important what I read, just that I was reading. So I asked myself: Where is the difference in reading a novel for entertainment purposes and playing a story-driven video game? Both are a piece of art made for entertainment purposes. Both can contain socio-critical messages. Both can have educational purposes. Yet one is considered to make you dumb and the other is going to make you smarter. As a little gamer kid I was angry about this. My hobby was considered a waste of time; time I could spent doing more productive things like reading. I wasnāt about to accept this, so I just dragged reading from its high pedestal down to the dirt and reading became just as much a waste of time in my head as my precious video games were considered to be.
As a result, I never really read any books as a kidā¦ or as an adult. Excluding the books I had to read for school, I read maybe a handful of books in my entire life, which seems very little for my 25 years of living. Also, I was always reluctant to use literature for research purposes; why use these dirty old books, if I can find anything I want on the Internet?
Shift in Perspective
My view on books shifted after going on another YouTube binge (as all good journeys do) that ended in a video from Thomas Frank about the 5 hour rule. The rule simply states that you should spend 1 hour each day, 5 days a week into studying something and furthering oneās knowledge. The video wasnāt about books in particular, but rather books were used as an example of how to use that hour.
I really dug the concept of the 5 hour rule, but somehow this off the hand example of books as a means to educate yourself hit me like a fucking truck. I know, reading books for education purposes, what a new conceptā¦damn I canāt wait to tell everyone I know about this concept. Thatās gonna blow their minds!
Anyway, I just realized that reading books for entertainment is probably not something I enjoy, but reading for my personal growth seemed to resonate with myself. There is so much to learn in life and I donāt want my aversion to reading to impact my ability to learn about new things. And so I decided to give reading another try and I ended up in my April challenge: The Big Brain Acquisition.
Self-help and self-improvement
One of my favorite topics to educate myself about is self-help and self-improvement. Going on YouTube binges about these topics seems to be one of my hobbies (or at least was, until I decided to cut my YouTube consumption down). And so my love for binge watching self-improvement videos translated very well into reading books. Out of the two books Iāve read and the one I started, all three of them belong into that category. Well, I have a math comedy book called Humble Pi lined up, but I havenāt started to read it, so that doesnāt count.
I also realized that Iām way less hesitant to read a book from a person I already know from somewhere; know as in I already consume their media (YouTube, Podcasts, ā¦); or a book that is recommended from one of them. This reflects heavily in the book list I made, where almost all books are written by people who I follow or who were guests on one of the podcasts I listen to.
The Books
And so finally, we get to the books Iāve read and the one Iām currently reading:
- You are the Rockstar by Alexander Woodrow: a book about self-empowerment, how to be the best version of yourself and how to make your dreams come true. The author is the bassist of one of my favorite bands Our Last Night.
- Authentisch Leben (translation: Live Authentically) by Erich Fromm: a book about how in modern society people donāt seem to know their own values and goals, but rather internalize those of others. The book goes into more depth about how this phenomenon affects the modern human.
- Das Kind in dir muss Heimat finden (english version: The Child in You) by Stefanie Stahl: a book about finding inner peace and resolving harmful patterns by looking at the self-image and beliefs we formed as children. Iām currently reading this book.
Itās funny how my current read, The Child in You, discusses the exact topic that held me back from reading: How the beliefs we formed as a child, affect the life we live as an adult. I formed my belief about how books are a waste of time, because of how they were introduced to me, and I was carrying this belief until now. Iām glad I gave reading another shot, as I really seem to enjoy reading.
Next Up: Quitting Cold Turkey
My challenge for May is to eat vegan for the entire month. I wanted to reduce my meat intake for quite some time, but itās just so hard, when your go to recipes all contain meat. So I decided to just eat vegan for a month.
Newsletter
Also, I started a newsletter again! You can find the form at the end of every post. If you want to get updates on my blog or my other projects, you can sign up there š
See you again soon š
Ash