YOU DON'T DISLIKE READING, YOU DISLIKE WHAT YOU'RE READING

I've grown very fond of reading over the past few years. I use to be one of those people who claimed to hate reading thinking it's boring, it puts me to sleep, it's inconvenient, etc. It wasn't until I realized that it wasn't reading I didn't like, it was WHAT I was reading that I didn't like. I do not like to read fiction books. Fiction is boring to me, puts me to sleep, and I find it a waste of space in my backpack. If it's fiction, for me, it's gotta be on a screen (important to note that I do indeed love Harry Potter, but I know people will question my love given I haven't read the books, oops🤷‍♂️). Growing up we're handed books to read in school as assignments. Though I understand the importance of introducing great works of talented authors that carry significant weight in society, handing a high school student a book and forcing them to read it is not the way to inspire our youth to find an internal desire to read and educate themselves.

Needless to say I had a sour taste for reading ever since Fahrenheit 451. The long nights spent trying to read books for english just left me feeling helplessly exhausted anytime I saw ink on paper. It was like a bad case of PTSD. However, if you're like me, there's hope. It wasn't until I picked up Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill that I realized reading wasn't all bad or all the same. Think and Grow Rich is a book written in the 1930s and tells the story of how many of the worlds most successful businessmen came to be successful. I, as silly and cliche as it sounds, felt like I couldn't put this book down.

I would read every night and not only would I read every night, I would have to cut myself off so I would go to sleep at a reasonable time (around like 10:30 PM (which is still a little late)). After that I read How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. Yet another banger of a book. It was after reading that that I was convinced that I did like reading it just mattered what it was. Now, with that said, there are certain books I that I feel I would like to read then when I pick them up it doesn't hook me. Guess what I do next... I put that shit down immediately. I'm saddened to think at one point in time I was ignorant to what reading could be. I have wasted so much time not reading because of false premises I had floating around in my head and my inability to not finish a project I started.

So after realizing that I did indeed enjoy reading and that the more important thing was what specifically I was reading, I next learned the benefits of reading. This will get a little deep, but it'll be a fun ride.

We all think about many things every day. We analyze various situations: we try to rationalize our opinions, our thoughts, feelings, and actions as well as the thoughts, feelings, and actions of others, etc. The problem is we're using a very limited information bank. Our brain is our go to source of information which is why it's important to treat it as such (that's also why I find the Google Effect such an interesting phenomenon but we'll discuss that at a different time). There's so many ways to approach various situations and schools of thought. There are people who have dedicated their lives to making sense of some of the most common struggles in human existence i.e. romantic relationships, success in ones career, outlooks on life and death and marriage, what it means to be virtuous, how to handle hardship, war, economics, politics, religion etc. the list literally goes on forever. There's a reason these individuals are known. You don't have to agree with everything you read from every well respected philosopher, however, their ideas have stood the test of time... much better than yours and mine. These individuals have spent way more time thinking, reading, and writing than we have and often times about a very specific facet of life. So, the more I've started reading about philosophy, it's not that I now feel like some Oxford intellect, no, I just feel that the ideas I have floating around in my own head on my own accord are ideas that I am now able to make more sense of because I have the right ingredients.

I like to think of all the ideas provide by all these great minds like Plato, Aristotle, Schopenhauer, Thomas Aquinas, Marcus Aurelius, Baruch Spinoza, among many others, like ingredients to a cake. Without all the ingredients, you can't make a good cake, if any cake at all. When writing down or discussing ideas, without the proper ingredients to formulate a sensible thought, you're unable to do so. This is extremely limiting when it comes to growing and developing as a person. I often struggled to communicate my ideas to myself on paper let alone to another human being in real time without the ability to erase or cross it out. I feel that this is why people stray away from these conversations and the reason why they aren't more prevalent. When you start reading, conversations are more interesting, connecting with people is easier, making sense of past situations and thoughts that linger in our head happens easier. My point is, reading has played a pivotal role in the development of who I am. And that's not news to anybody, we know reading it important. But from one person who used to claim to hate reading to another, give it a shot.

Reading to me is as important as diet and exercise. I wouldn't be capable of handling half the things I do without pulling from some of the greatest minds we have to help navigate. Life is another great teacher, but life is more of the exam. Reading from these individuals is like studying to take the life exam, you're more prepared.

And to make one point clear: you don't have to want to be a philosophy professor to want to pick up a book on philosophy. Everybody who is current alive on earth lives a life in some capacity and therefore these philosophical ideas of life are relevant to you. BUT it's important you find what resonates with you so you can slowly venture more into reading without having to put yourself to sleep first.

I approach reading like a leisurely study. I make sure it's unbothered time and that I have some energy. I always have to have a pen because I'm going to make all kinds of notes. I am also a fan of music, something like Claire De Lune - Claude Debussy. You'll learn what you like.

List of some of my favorites:

• Think and Grow Rich - Napoleon Hill
• How To Win Friends and Influence People - Dale Carnegie
• Mediations - Marcus Aurelius (the version I read)
• The Enchoridian - Epictetus
• The Daily Stoic Journal - Ryan Holiday (more of a journal, hence the title but nonetheless full of good thoughts and ideas)
• Great Thinkers - Alain De Botton
• The Strangest Secret - Earl Nightingale

Go read some shit.

~ Bonde