On reading

Why read so much? What gets you going?

There are three reasons on top of my mind.

The thirst, perhaps. Of wanting to grow and strong self-realisation of not knowing enough. Like Merleau-Ponty wrote, it's like a constant motion that 'leads back without ceasing from knowledge to ignorance, from ignorance to knowledge.'. I am aware of my limited knowledge and I should be comfortable enough to accept that time and time again, but never to be complacent with it.

I also read to seek consolation in times of doubt. If you are lucky, you might have some kind of support system surrounds you that much wiser than you are, much knowledgeable than you are. A mentor, a father, a mother, or some sorts. Much of the time I know I am a fool and when facing problems, whether personal or professional, I can get myself to a dead-end. I sought to seek a better judgement and learn from other perspectives, one of it from reading.

Of wanting to reality-check my own thoughts. I find it important to challenge my beliefs once in a while. Perhaps not challenge, more like, enrich with the opposite perspectives. I spent much of my childhood in a singular perspective and I did not challenge it until way later in life. When it finally hit me, I wondered how could I did not see it from that point of view before. Not that I wouldn't find it reasonable, I just was not looking. Therefore, I try to spend time to look further nowadays. Perhaps in also embodying Beauvoir's belief that we all live in ambiguity. We are never in a closed box.

Books that so life-altering to you?

I find philosophy is particularly intriguing because of this. Most of us will face some kind of existential questions in our life. What am I doing, where am I going, what is it that I want to do? While it could be dreadful and taunting things to ask, philosophy acknowledges it and they do not dodge. Instead, they get up and face it upfront. I find it admirable the way they challenge their own thoughts, experiences, current environment, books that came before them as if it is a mathematical question to be solved.

Let's imagine our little life like a house. Built on a foundation. You fill it with nice activities, people, memento - sometimes what you bring could have a refreshing scent all around the place like sage. The other times perhaps you invite the wrong people and it turns amok. The house might get hit by a storm, or have to endure a long winter. I find our ability to think for ourselves and the way we see things - are the foundation of this house. Have a strong one and it will get you secured and prepared to face hardship. Have a squishy one and things might get swallowed underground. But, the whole house itself needs to be buildable. Meaning when the window is broken you obviously need to have the willingness to renovate along the way (I wrote about this whole 'renovation' process in another post).

But I got ahead of myself. Life-altering is a strong word but I have found The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus, Being and Nothingness by Sartre, Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Nietzsche, and Meditations by Marcus Aurelius helped me see things more clearly and shaped my perspectives to date.

Other than that, Factfulness by Hans Rosling is definitely an important work to revalidate my perceptions towards the world and how I better rely on data or media to shape my views.

Any advice on how to read more?

Honestly, I find reading comprehension is much more important than reading quantity. Therefore I don't celebrate reading goals (i.e., 50 books a year, or so) - I just don't think it's the right metrics to measure ourselves with. However, I find it important to try to read many books because we need to know what types of books resonate with us. It's like trying out several local coffee shops until we find the one that just sits with us and we are effortlessly willing to spend more time in it. Same like books, or much of everything else. Try and find the one suits you.