How I Read

I don’t read to escape. I used to. I used to read to feed my daydreams. As a kid, I was an avid reader of Garfield, Archie Comics, Sabrina, The Teenage Witch, and The Princess Diaries. I wanted magic, power, and royalty in my life because I felt they didn’t exist. With this being said, I could have read Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings, but somehow neither appealed to me. They are both respected and renown, but I couldn’t fall in love with their fantastical worlds. I never even watched their movies.

For the past couple of years, I began to read to change, for change, my kind of change. I rarely read fiction anymore, and when I do, I’m very picky. The fiction must be something I can learn from, and the lessons better be deep, even if the characters are incredibly shallow.

I read to learn about improving the path I’m forming for myself. Sometimes life’s road is rough and unpleasant, and I have to decide if I’m going to pave it with smooth and humble cement like Daring Greatly, dark-as-my-soul asphalt like So Sad Today, or generously swirled marble like How To Be A Bawse. My interest from teen fiction turned towards cultural studies, autobiographies, humour, and self-help. I’ve never read a Chicken Soup book, but had I’d known then what I know now, maybe it would have been good for my soul to have started reading them years, years ago. They are not for me now, but I hope that those who continue to read the series find what they need.

I own books like Lonely Planet’s A Fork in the Road and Clara Hughes’ Open Heart, Open Mind. They are still unread and freshly pressed. New books continue to find me. They distract me from books on my current bookshelf with they’re matte covers, catchy titles, textured paper, unevenly cut edges, and enticing synopsis. New releases and bestsellers want to be a part of my transformation into a better version of myself, selling themselves on bookshelves and online so well, they’re hard to resist! Good marketing, good timing, a good book, or all of the above? It is no wonder that my reading list is growing.

Have you read of the books shown below?