Read for pleasure so you can read for growth.

[00:00:00] You are listening to the Daily Five, an experimental podcast by Aurooba, where I talk about something for five minutes. So let's get to it, shall we?

[00:00:16] The other day I was recounting the plot of the latest book I had read, and it was a sci sci-fi/fantasy book and, the person I was recounting it to, they were like, "oh my goodness, I used to be a book reader once, right now I'm trying to read some books and I just can't get into them, I don't know, maybe it's because I have like a really busy family life or something."

[00:00:47] And I asked them, well, what are you trying to read right now? And they picked up the book that was sitting right beside their desk, and it was a book about. how to raise [00:01:00] better children. And I asked, well, what kind of like, do you like this book? And they're like, "well, it's a really useful book. Like it's gonna be a really good book if I could just sit down and get myself to read it.

[00:01:15] I don't know why, but I used to be able to read so much before. I used to love reading." And I sort of just blurted. Yeah, but I bet you weren't reading books like this. And they're like, that's true. "I used to read a lot of like romance and fantasy and mystery novels," and I'm like, well, if you wanna try to get back into the habit of reading, it might be worth considering that it's not the reading that's the problem, it's the subject matter that you're trying to read.

[00:01:50] And it made me think about how, when we're trying to develop a habit, especially one like reading, we often [00:02:00] try to read capital G, Good books, growth-oriented books, self-development books. It's like somehow once we became adults in a working life, we think that we are no longer allowed to read for pleasure if we are reading, if we are taking time out of our day to do reading instead of the other 7 million things we could be doing, it had better have a use, it had better be useful.

[00:02:31] And I think that, that might be one of the reason why so many adults have trouble reading, at least the ones around me. I don't know what this says about general habit making, but if you're trying to develop a reading habit, maybe don't start and stick only to the capital G, Good Books. Books that you think are useful and growth oriented [00:03:00] and self-development-y.

[00:03:01] You know ? go read a novel. Go read a fiction like maybe a mystery novel or a romance novel. You are allowed to enjoy what you read. And I would argue that taking that time to feed and nourish your soul with interesting, fun stories that you can read and take you out of your current environment and you know, make your imagination come alive,

[00:03:32] The benefits of that to the rest of your life may not be easy to point to, but they are most certainly there, because people with a better imagination and restful hobbies, which is what reading fun stories would be, are more creative, are more productive, are happier, and are able to treat other people better.

[00:03:57] Now, I don't have any particular studies I can [00:04:00] point to, but I know this to be true anecdotally, and if you think about it, you'll know it to be true too. So listen, I read all kinds of crazy books. I had this trouble myself. But once I started to read the books that I enjoyed, it was also easy to throw in the occasional growth oriented book because now I was enjoying reading and I was curious, and I had allowed my mind to feed on every kind of thing and not just one kind of thing.

[00:04:33] So if you're trying to read, try to read for your soul, try to nourish your creativity. Don't just worry about the capital G, Good books. Thanks for listening. Talk to you tomorrow.