If you could send one message to your past, what would you like to tell your younger self? Would you want to tell yourself that you’re beautiful; put more time into playing the piano; or start playing a sport? The one thing I would want to tell my immature self is to “read books, I promise you will enjoy it.”
I am honestly so grateful for my wife who encouraged me and challenged me to read books. It was in 2019 and a local bookstore set a yearly challenge that if you read a variety of 50 books of different categories than they would reward you with a $50 voucher. My wife started at the beginning of the year and finished quickly. I wasn’t planning on doing it but then during the summer my wife challenged me to do it. Like a true competitor I accepted and worked hard to read those 50 books and I rushed by the end of the year to finish and claim my reward. Besides the in-store credit and the pride of finishing the challenge I gained the best reward possible; the appreciation for reading books.
Growing up I was a slow reader and I spent so much time reading every work of every line of every paragraph of every page that I didn’t enjoy it. I did everything possible to get out of reading and I was jealous of my friends that could read. I never liked the books that were required in school. I will still challenge most of them to this day: why were there never any modern authors and why are most of the endings depressing? How I got out of reading those assignments was by reading Sparknotes or texting ChaCha, A search engine that would help would answer homework questions (phones in my time couldn’t access the internet). With this distaste of reading in my youth I really missed out on great books. I am still missing out on them because I am trying to catch up while reading books that are currently being released. I remember my mom wanting me to learn to read so she bought Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time to help me learn how to read. Instead of reading I played video games.
When I was young I remember Narnia coming to Theaters. My family liked the books and I wanted to understand why so I took our copies of them so I wanted to read them but I was also lazy so instead I watch the movie, then the second came out and again I watched it without reading the book, but then I thought they wouldn’t make a third movie so I spent so much time reading The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and then the movie came out. When I watched the movie, I learned that my imagination is more powerful than film, but what did I do with that knowledge; nothing. I didn’t finish the series as a youth and I regret it. I wish I did because when I finally read the last book The Final Battle I thought the simile was profound and is something that I still think about to this day. I felt so many different emotions while reading the last book. I felt sad about Susan then happy everyone coming back and sadder because of the ending. If you haven’t read the books, read them enjoy the masterpiece of C.S. Lewis ending to this brilliant series.
Currently I have started reading the Percy Jackson series that I wished I read in my youth. I just finished the first book a couple of weeks ago and it was surprisingly better than I expected. I remember I saw the first movie, but I remember nothing that happened in it. I recently decided to read the book because other readers highly praised it and after reading the first book, I can confidently say it deserves that praise. It is better than the movie. The main character is from a broken home and deals with dyslexia. I think if I read this book I would want to be tested for dyslexia so I could be as cool as Percy, but now since I am older I know that I am not dyslexic I was just a lazy reader. The story is about Percy being accused of stealing Zeus' Thunderbolt and he sets out on a mission to return it before he gets captured.
I have not yet committed to reading Harry Potter, but I am planning on it! My sister loved the series, and she would read it to me and at the end of the chapter she would quiz me about what happened; No wonder she became a teacher. I still don’t know what I am missing out from not reading the books. It is on my to read list and I am planning on reading them there is just other books that get me distracted. I appreciate what Harry Potter has brought to the community and I see that many people started reading because of this series. As a chemist I should want to read the books and be on team Snap. I have seen all the movies and liked them and like every reader says about every adaptation "The book is better than the movie". That is not always true if you want proof read and watch The Prestige.
So, you might be like me and have a hard time reading books and you may be wondering how I have overcome this barrier. My last year in college, 2018, I took a class about speed reading, and I learned the technique of reading faster, but it only works if you work at it and read. Then when my wife challenged me in 2019, I started off reading slow but as I kept reading, I kept practicing those techniques and became more comfortable with reading faster tempo. After that challenge I kept reading because I enjoy reading books and I don’t want to lose what I worked so hard to obtain. I can change the velocity of how fast I read, and I figured out a good pace for me where I will be interested in what I am reading without getting bored. Each person is different and the more you read the sooner you will find your comfortable speed.
Here are some books that I have been recently enjoying in categories short, medium, and long depending on the length of the book. Side note most of these are fantasies because I enjoy reading fantasy the most. Some of them maybe Sci-Fi.
What books do you enjoy reading? What book(s) should I put on my to reading list above Harry Potter? Would you like more content about books, leave a comment!
Short:
- Narnia – C.S.
Lewis
- Alcatraz vs. The Evil Librarians – Brandon Sanderson
- The Seventh Tower – Garth Nix
- Beyonders – Brandon Mull
- A Series of Unfortunate Events – Lemony Snicket
- The Squire Tales – Gerald Morris
- Howl’s Moving Castle – Diana Jones
- The League of Princes – Christopher Healy
- The Chronicles of Prydain – Lloyd Alexander (Movie didn’t do it justice)
Medium:
- Percy Jackson – Rick Riordan
- The Boys in the Boat – James Brown
- Ender’s Saga – Orson Scott Card
- Discworld -Terry Prachett
- Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
- Abhorsen – Garth Nix
- Skyward – Brandon Sanderson
- Ransom trilogy – C.S. Lewis
- Project Hail Mary – Andy Weir
Hard:
- Lord of the
Rings – J.R.R Tolkien
- Cosmere – Brandon Sanderson
- The wheel of Time – Robert Jorden
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