Three Advantages I've Gained from the 52-Book Challenge

Late last year, I stumbled upon the 52-Book Challenge on LinkedIn, championed by none other than Bill Gates. The premise was straightforward: read one book per week. I was instantly captivated. On January 1st, I aligned this new-found challenge with a long-held aspiration to read over 50 classics, setting my 2019 resolution to conquer 52 classics in 52 weeks.

Throughout this journey, three key insights emerged, all of which, I believe, apply to the pursuit of meaningful goals in general.

First, trivial pursuits naturally fade away as you chase meaningful objectives. Priorities organically ascend, while less important matters recede.

Second, the more time you dedicate to meaningful goals, the more time you seem to have. Time appears to expand, reinforcing the idea that no block of time—no matter how small—is insignificant. Just as every penny counts, so does every second.

Finally, your skills—especially the basic ones often taken for granted—remain open to further refinement. On a personal note, I hadn't anticipated the significant improvements in my reading speed and comprehension, not to mention the enhanced vividness of my mental imagery.

What advantages have you discovered in your pursuit of meaningful goals?

Books read: Treasure Island, Moby Dick, Don Quixote, The Old Man and the Sea, Gullivers Travels, Lord of the Flies, Of Mice and Men, Frankenstein, The Scarlet Letter, The Picture of Dorian Gray, War and Peace, The Call of the Wild, Arabian Nights, To Kill A Mockingbird, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Charolettes Web, Alices Adventures in Wonderland, The Metamorphosis, Great Expectations, Emma, The Canterbury Tales, Brave New World, Animal Farm, The Great Gatsby, Fahrenheit 451, Wuthering Heights, To the Lighthouse, Faust, The Three Musketeers, The Catcher in the Rye, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Paradise Lost, Robinson Crusoe, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, The Divine Comedy, Les Miserables, The Last of the Mohicans, Ulysses, The Iliad, The Odyssey, Crime and Punishment, 1984, Pride and Prejudice, The Sound and the Fury, Anna Karenina, Catch-22, The Grapes of Wrath, Jane Eyre, Aeneid, David Copperfield, The Count of Monte Cristo, Little Women, A Tale of Two Cities, One Hundred Years of Solitude, The Complete Sherlock Holmes.