How I started reading more books
“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies . . . The man who never reads lives only one.” — George R.R. Martin
Reading has got to be the greatest hobby I never thought I’d have. I’d read a book here and there since I was at school but never really got into the habit of actually going to a book store (or Amazon) and spend money on getting something I wanted to read.
Back when I started playing poker a bit more seriously was the first time I actually paid money to get books but never really cared to expand my library outside of that until 5 years ago. Browsing on Amazon it showed me American Sniper by Chris Kyle and the book caught my eye, soon after I discovered it was being made into a movie and that made it more appealing at the time.
Later while I was traveling I saw the book on a Target and said “why not?”, it became the first nonpoker related book I’ve read in a while and it was a very enjoyable read.
Soon after, Jared Tendler (mental game coach to athletes and poker players among other things) had Mark Manson on his podcast and I instantly became addicted to Mark’s blog. It was no wonder that when he announced a book I was there to buy it. After that, I started getting books he recommended which lead me to Ryan Holiday I read most of his work and really enjoy all of his books, or at least the ones I could get.
My problem, if you want to call that a problem, is that I like physical books. I once tried reading a digital version and found myself with headaches. Unfortunately, there aren’t many ways I can get good books in my country so I rely on friends and family traveling (or myself obliviously) to get new reading material. Subscribing to Ryan’s newsletter was both a blessing and a curse since I find myself adding more books to the list without an easy way to buy them, but I’ve really liked the ones I could manage to get so far.
And now that I’m reading much more often I began to align that with another of my interests, like video games.
“Reading is essential for those who seek to rise above the ordinary.” — Jim Rohn
I played through The Witcher 2: Assassin of Kings once and The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt twice including the DLC and I don’t regret a single minute of all the 100+ hours I spent in that world, so getting the books wasn’t much of a discussion. Got the first one to see how it went and finished it in 3 days, same happened to the second one. Got the next three on a set last December and was done in two weeks. Finished the 7th book of the series last week and I’m currently going through the last two books of the saga. Despite a few negative reviews I read about The Lady of the Lake I find myself very much engaged in the different stories outside of the main characters.
The main theme of my library is self-improvement but I’m diving a bit more in bios, having already read Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. I’m also finding the stoic philosophy fascinating, read about it in Meditations of Marcus Aurelius and a friend talked to me about the work of Nassin Taleb which I’m looking to get next.
Even though my library is rather small at the moment and not at all impressive, I’m very proud of it. The idea is not to have it for show (although the hardcover books look pretty good), but to continue exploring new things and learn about different ideas outside of my area.
I believe we should always try to be better in all aspects of our lives. Personally, reading has helped me do just that and plan to continue expanding my collection in every chance I get. All it took was trying something new and that led me into something I can’t live without now.
Take the chance at new things and, who knows? You might find something you really love to do, just didn’t know about yet.
If you’re interested in poker and want to follow my journey through the microstakes you can follow me here.
