Books I've Read Recently
After many years of avoiding books, I've recently started reading more. It started with the book Atomic Habits by James Clear. It was suggested to me by my psychiatrist as a different perspective on how I could make effective changes to my life. A single sentiment stuck with me: if you want to become a reader, read. As silly as it sounds, that was all it took for me. I started by simply reading for 5 minutes, then in time it was easy to read more. I read on the train, I read on the couch, it didn't matter where, I would simply read. From there, I created my own philosophy about reading.
Well Rounded Reading Health Philosophy
I came up with categories for my reading philosophy:
- Junk Food - books that do not challenge me, but simply entertain me.
- Actual History - historical records written that fill in the gaps of my education that Texas didn't give me.
- Philosophy & Self Help - books causing me to shape & challenge my sense of self and my beliefs.
- Activism - books that teach me how our predecessors fought for their rights and how we can do better.
- Interests - books about topics that intrigue me.
Junk Food
I reach for a junk food book when I want to keep the momentum of reading itself going, but I may not be interested in challenging myself. This is a great book for before bed or when I need to get some distance from technology. For me, I've been reading the Song of the Lioness series by Tamora Pierce. I'm on book 4 of the series, and I've quite enjoyed it. Although I call it junk food, I think reading in any capacity is important; however, my specific goal with reading is to grow as a person and catch up on my education. I keep one of these books around at all times, but I may not always be focused on it.
Actual History
While Junk Food can get me into the spirit of reading, my true purpose is education. As I have grown older and as I have read more and more, I've learned the heartbreaking reality that Texas simply did not educate me properly. While those history classes gave me some high level highlights of history, I've learned that there were many omissions or key details that were simply left out or slightly morphed into a different message. The first book I tackled on my "Actual History" journey was A Black Women's History of the United States. Truly, this book floored me. It opens by expressing that black people's history and especially black women's history is so hard to track because of the limited amount of resources available. The authors set out to piece together journeys of black women throughout American history from America's earliest days to present day. When the authors lack a specific or direct record, they will find resources around the same time period and subject to express how the black woman's experience could have been. In addition to piecing together older history, the authors explore and expand upon context and history of famous black women in the United States. The story of Rosa Parks is taught in Texas history classes, at a general level, but they omitted the Montgomery bus boycott, how long it lasted, how many other black women were involved, how another black woman, Claudette Colvin, was the first to be arrested for refusing to give up her seat an entire 9 months prior to Rosa Parks. These sorts of details enlightened me to the broader picture of American History and what I had been missing.
The message I want to convey to you about my "Actual History" idea is that we must learn from our history, but we also must ensure the history we learn is accurate and with important context.
Philosophy & Self Help
The next category is more focused on self-improvement. How can I find confidence in myself and my existence? I want to be able to identify the true boundaries and beliefs of myself and be able to operate without question. For so long, I shaped who I was around what I thought was important but didn't have a concrete idea of why or how it was important. So, the journey to search for my true self felt like the best way to prevent myself from questioning my actions. It would reduce the amount of time, effort, and energy to simply exist. When I engage with self-help content, I am first trying to understand if it matches my philosophy and beliefs. After that, I am trying to analyze what components I can apply or introduce into my lifestyle to make an effective change or high impact.
I would classify the Atomic Habits book as my first book in this category; however, The Courage to Be Disliked was arguably more impactful recently. I aligned pretty strongly with, I'd estimate, 90% of the book's content and philosophy. The general premise is, as the title suggests, being able to be your true self knowing that others will not always like you. This book gave me the understanding and confidence to build those stronger boundaries and beliefs around myself. I find it's much easier to set those boundaries when I've changed my lens from how do I fit in to how do I make myself feel complete. Complete with self does not always mean comfortable, but it at least means peace with my actions.
Activism
The Activism category is a bit of a personal one for me. I grew up with a very political mother. As I grew up, learned more about myself, politics, and the world, I realized that I didn't truly align with her views and beliefs. Although I would absolutely love to put her on blast right now, I'm not quite ready to do that. But, perhaps if you stay tuned you'll get to witness that messaging.
Presently, I haven't read a book that I would classify as an activism book. I'm definitely open to suggestions! The next book on my "Activism" list is Let This Radicalize You by Kelly Hayes and Mariame Kaba. I am hoping to gain some confidence and insight into how I can become more active in my community and help effect change. In addition to reading, I've begun petitioning for a local city council candidate. I'll be writing a blog post about that experience soon. For now, my guiding principle is that imperfect action is far better than no action at all.
Interests
Finally, for my last category, I focus on books that center around my interests. I love traveling, cooking, baseball, history, and more. I try to encourage the reading momentum to continue but also spark more joy into my day. Reading about a topic I'm passionate about inspires me in other areas as well as scratching the itch of searching for knowledge. My first book that fell into this category was Kitchen Confidential. I could not believe how easy and fun this book was to read. I zoomed through it and even took some learnings away from it. ROAST YOUR SOUP BONES!! Anyway, It sparked joy and caused me to pressure my wife into reading it as well. It was such a pleasure to read.
In Conclusion
So, Now you understand my book philosophy, what I'm reading, and why I'm reading. If you have suggestions, whether it be a book to read or a new category I should consider -- let me know! I'm specifically here, on this blog, to share my ideas -- but if you ALSO want to share your ideas, I'm interesed in hearing that too. For now, I do not have any commenting software available, so you'll have to message me on Bluesky. You can also follow me on The Storygraph.