RRR : Reading Rat Reflections

I was asked this question, and it gave birth to a post.

Question: How do you read so many books and remember to quote it in a timely manner?

Short Answer: Reading is a habit. Been doing that for over 25 years. Things have got accumulated in my head. As for quotes, I share what I find humorous/informative. A bit of humor on whichever topic is nice.

Long answer: I am happy you asked this question as it allows me to think about my history with reading right from my pre-teenage years to come up with an elaborate answer. Before you asked this question, I never thought about the ‘how’ I have read so many books. I think I have not read enough. What is ‘so many’ for one may not be enough for another. It is all on a relative scale of how we look at reading. I still have more than 70 books on my reading list. It is a reading list that is steadily growing. Hopefully, by reading this, one of you is infected with the enthusiasm for reading and take up reading with gusto for life. For those that are already avid readers, I implore you to do one better and give writing a try. Keep in mind both reading and writing are solo pursuits. Solo pursuits help to get comfortable with self. Further, I am completely convinced that reading and/or writing can improve anyone’s quality of life regardless of the state they are in. It is therapeutic and organizes the mind while one gets to learn about many topics along the way. It is my interpretation that reading non-fiction adds knowledge while reading fiction sparks the imagination. We gain regardless of the genre.??

Let’s look at my habit (internal) and influences (external) that lead me to become a reading rat. In the process, we would get to the “how” of your question.

Power of habit – Somewhere it dawned on me that the 30s are a really good time to form core habits that would yield disproportionately high returns throughout life. Stepping into our 30s, I guess most would have crossed the uncertainty/lack of confidence, etc. phase of teenage years and 20s where life pulls us in different directions. From the 30s – I would think the mind is somewhat better prepared to think of longer-term life goals. Since coming to Singapore in 2015, I have consciously worked on reading on average 10 pages or one chapter of a book a day – whichever is higher. There are days when I do not read a page but there are days, I read 50 - 100 pages. And then there are days when I consistently hit 10 pages a day. Just going by the number of books I have read in the last 7 years (over 100, yes micro-bragging ??), I can say with reasonable certainty that I have read on average 10 pages a day. At this point, the habit lives inside me. On the days I do not read, I am acutely aware of not reading which then pulls me back to reading. Awareness is a result of habit exerting its influence. At the start of every year, I write down books that I aim to read during the year. If I am falling behind during the year, the list I have put in place gets me back on track. There is always a book at my work desk, bedside table, and center table near sofa. I hardly watch TV so most of my leisure time goes towards reading.

What are the influences that led me to this habit? I say never underestimate the influence (positive or negative) of a close friend, spouse, and overall environment you are in. Due to Appa’s influence, I started reading early. Reading in my teenage years and 20s was dominated by newspapers. For a few years, we used to get 4 newspapers a day and I would read all of them. I find topics of national security, history, sports, economics, international relations, management, geography & politics particularly interesting. Reading newspapers gave me a base of multidisciplinary curiosity very early in life.

Unfortunately, I fell out of the reading habit for 3-4 years roughly between 2011 – 2014. During a conversation with a friend, I was complaining about how I am happy only when I am reading. Then he asked, “why aren’t you reading now, what is stopping you?” Answer: Nothing. I had simply fallen out of my reading habit as life got in the way and I was complaining about it. He didn’t stop with asking the question. He went a step further and got me back to reading by gifting me two books on South Africa that we were discussing for some weeks. This was when I was living in the US around March 2014. So, I am thankful for the early influence from Appa for the formation of my reading habit and then the influence of a good friend in my early 30s which got me back to reading – an activity that I enjoyed a great deal. Now, I am married to a person who is an avid reader herself and understands why I need to be left alone with books now and then.

Along with reading, I enjoy writing and sharing. I find such joy in sharing and that is why my conversations are peppered with what I have read. Writing things down solidifies our thoughts. It is a fabulous tool for reflection too. I believe we all have unique things to share as everyone’s life or journey is unique. With all the digital communication tools at our disposal, once something is written down, it is very easy to share widely. I recognize I share more than a regular person and it may annoy some. I take what comes with my sharing. It is OK.?

Time to quote a Ghanaian proverb, “The one who fetches the water is the one who is likely to break the pot.”

Looking purely at the positive side of the quote, I believe just like reading; sharing is a habit too. To give an unrelated example: If someone has a beautiful voice, beyond a point it is not for them to keep. They must share it with the world through singing. Similarly, if I have accumulated a lot of stuff inside my head through non-fiction reading over the years, at some point it is not for me to keep.

As much as this is about me answering a curious question, it is also about me indulging in one of the things I enjoy doing i.e., writing. Objective is to write with clarity and flow. I want to get better at it. The only way to get better at any activity is to engage in the activity consciously with the intent to improve over a period.

Hopefully, what I have shared here gets some of you to read and/or write which in turn may trigger positive second order effects.?