Books - My first love

I love books!! I can be in a book store for hours & the expectation of reading a new book & learning from it is unexplainable. I believe reading books is the best way to improve ourselves & make the world a better place. Some key points to highlight the benefits of reading are:

Neurons & Connections : Reading creates these connections in our brains which is very important for us to develop new insights & understanding. We then apply these insights to our professional or personal life. That is how we grow professionally & intellectually.

Exploration : Reading can be for learning or for pleasure. When we read, we are transported to another world where we hold hands with the author & be a part of the exploration together.

Specific Action : I learnt that just reading a book does not help us become better. We have to read with a specific goal on how we intend to apply what we read in our lives. For example., just reading a book on excel macros does not make us an expert in macros. We have to create macros & apply them in our worksheets to ingrain that learning & apply it.

Of course, the above works only for non-fiction books.

Highlighting : I learnt an important concept from the book Building a Second Brain by Tiago Forte. (It's an amazing book for those who want to retain what they read & apply them in everyday life). When we read something, there will definitely be points which resonate with us. Some sentences may nudge us, makes us think or reflect on a past experience or makes us more curious to go down a rabbit hole. These are the points or sentences which we need to highlight for reading or exploring later.

See the Pattern : There are hundreds of books written on various topics & when we read more than one book of the same topic, we get different insights & we see a pattern emerging. Catch that pattern, hold on to it. Understand that pattern & then build your understanding on that base.

So, now you see, I can go on & on about reading & it will never end. So I will rest my case on why we need to read & hope you develop this habit & make the world around you a better place.