MIND WINDOWS
“Books?… Ugh! Please tell me about something else.”
That used to be my typical answer every time some of my friends would talk about the famous Enid Blyton series or The Famous Five series. My nine-year-old self deemed it lame to stare at thousands of words compiled together in several pages. “How do people even read five hundred pages a day without getting bored?” I asked Mr. Bayitse, my late grade six teacher. He smiled and dropped the “Adventures of Tintin, Volume 1” right in my palms. Since then, my love for books has plummeted, and I don’t think I will ever want to stop reading.
“What do books even do?” book haters may ask. In my experience, books fuel me with creativity and imagination. Everything on this earth started with imagination and was accomplished with creativity and deliberate effort. Books give our thalamus the fuel of imagination; they give wings to our minds and allow them to go where the body cannot. From fast-paced thrillers to heart-warming romances, these books give me the space to imagine and almost forget everything around me.
Besides imagination, books teach so much. 70% of all my vocabulary stems from the books I have read. I have learned so many lessons from books, be it from unpredictable fiction or motivational books. From the law of “omerta” of the Sicilians to the Pareto principle to Alan Watt’s Backward law to Robert Greene’s 48 laws of power, books teach me lessons that are indeed useful and applicable to one’s daily life. Through books, I have learned certain useful lessons that not even my parents, or guardians, have taught me. Overall, books are interesting avenues through which one can learn a plethora of the rules of life: I am a living witness to this.
You know how one seems to forget everything when one takes a walk, meditates, or listens to music? Books do that to me as well. They help to clear my head. After a hectic day of hustles and bustles, books are my go-to company almost every time. When I am about to sleep, I avoid all blue light and stare into the pages of any book I happen to have started. They are extremely therapeutic.
From the wisdom quotes of Robert Greene’s “48 Laws of Power” to the harsh truths of Mark Manson to the thorough motivation of James Clear’s “Atomic Habits,” the lessons are endless. From Dan Brown’s mastermind suspense thrillers to Sidney Sheldon’s addictive page-turners to Mario Puzo’s heartfelt blockbusters, my eyes can never stop gleaming with excitement when I have these compiled papers in one piece. What else can one ask for?
I am currently reading The Way of The Superior Man by David Deida, and If you want to start reading to become a better person, the books below could help: Thriller Fiction ~ Inferno by Dan Brown / Nothing Lasts Forever by Sidney Sheldon; Business ~ Lean StartUp; Wisdom ~ Meditations / The Subtle Art of Not Giving A F**k; Lifestyle ~ Atomic Habits; Strong Mind ~ Can’t Hurt Me by David Goggins. Open a book today and thank me later. As always, we are all in this together: We Rise By Lifting Others!