Over the last number of years, I have rediscovered the joy of reading. As a kid, I remember coming home from school and reading two Goosebumps books in one evening. Or reading Jurassic Park for the fifth time (a book I revisited as an audiobook last year).
Then I just stopped reading for a long time. It's not that I ever completely stopped, but more that it wasn't something I would regularly do. I read The Hunt for Red October (another one I revisited in the past year as an audiobook) in college, but it took me about a year and a half. The first half of Fellowship of the Ring took me about a week. The remainder of the series took about 3 years.
I did read the Harry Potter series, at least all of the ones that were out to that point over the summer between junior and senior years of college.
Between Audible, my Kindle, and still enjoying the tactile sensation of reading an actual physical book, I read a lot more now (and yes, I am counting audiobooks as reading, even if the experience is different, I am still consuming the content).
I was talking with Abbie and said that I was listening to a book about a tiger poacher who was hunted and destroyed by a tiger in Russia in 1997 (The Tiger, by John Vaillant) and she just responded, "You read the most random stuff!"
It's true. Here is a sampling from my Audible, Kindle, and actual book library of books that I am in the midst of or have read recently:
• The Tiger, John Vaillant
• The Artist's Journey, Steven Pressfield
• The Sopranos Sessions
• Wolves of the Calla (Dark Tower, book V), Stephen King
• Killing the Mob, Bill O'Reilly
• The Beginning of Infinity, David Deutsche
• The Fabric of Reality, David Deutsche
• Vicarious, Rhett C. Bruno
• The Devil's Hand, Jack Carr
• Without Fail (Jack Reacher 6), Lee Child
• Caliban's War (The Expanse 2), James S.A. Corey
• The Ethereum White Paper
I've found that a key is being open to suggestion and recommendations. I have signed up for Ryan Holiday's reading list. I don't read everything on the list, but I have absolutely received some recommendations that I have read, and have then come across some amazing stories that I wouldn't have otherwise found (The Tiger, The Last Pirate of New York).
If I distill it further, I come back to a recurring theme throughout many of the things I've written - curiosity. I see an email from a source I trust (Ryan Holiday) recommending a book as the "best narrative non-fiction" he's read. So I check it out - and hear a crazy story of a poacher who picked a fight with the wrong tiger. A tiger that went on to pick out specific people to hunt and destroy, for lack of any better term.
I listen to a podcast with Naval Ravikant who recommends The Beginning of Infinity, by David Deutsche as a life-changing book, so I get it on Audible. And listen to it twice. Then I pick up another of his books, The Fabric of Reality.
I hear an interview with Bill O'Reilly, talking about his newest book, Killing the Mob, and find myself curious about it. So I get it and read about half of it on the first day.
Curiosity.
Naval said something that stuck with me - read what you like until you like to read. It's so simple. So straightforward. So right.
Just read.
Read anything.
Read everything.
Don't worry about finishing everything you start. If you lose interest, put it down. Pick something else up. Maybe you'll come back to it. Maybe not. It doesn't matter.
There is no functional difference between those who can't read and those who don't read.
So, do what Naval says - Read what you love until you love to read.