Just Read to Read

June 30th’22 would mark exactly a year since I decided to shift my approach to books.

As a kid, I had a phase where I read a lot. Archies. Asterix. Tintin. Famous Five. Hardy Boys. Devoured them all. Then I entered my late teens when life was YouTube, Facebook, friends.

Since then I’ve struggled to get back to it. Not to read, but to enjoy reading. Look forward it. Make it a habit. Something that’s not forced.

What I came to realise was - as a kid, I was reading to have fun. I was now forcing myself to read as a tool to be productive, to get smarter, to read because everyone was reading because of which I’d pressurise myself, always pick up books on management, self-help - you know the ones. What I was doing was, reading to serve a purpose. To be productive. To speed read. Finish as many books as I can. Stuff myself with information and knowledge. Pressuring myself with yet another thing. It’s amazing the amount of pressure, anxiety and stress we inflict on ourselves.

Then I thought to myself - You know what, let’s read to be curious, to be amused, to wind down. To get wisdom, not facts. Not to be productive or to add value to my life but to have fun. I started picking up all sorts of books from fiction, to comedy, history, biography, the classics, physics, time, bing bang, the life, The Universe and everything. Not trying to rush through a book to read more. But to read more while reading less. And it’s been great! To be mindful. Be present. To not read for a purpose. Just read to read.