Learning To Love Reading

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I hated reading for most of my life. From 5th grade until the summer after freshman year of college I barely read a single book for pleasure. My mom was a huge reader and loved nothing more than spending time in a library or a local bookstore. When I was growing up she would take me to the library and I’d have to check out a handful of books of my choosing. To her great, unspoken disappointment I found a loophole in her requirement to check out books and would always go for Garfield, Calvin and Hobbes, and other comic books.

This all changed the summer of 2005. I landed an internship at Universal Records, in the Motown Sales Division, in New York City. I moved in with my aunt Caren in Weston, Connecticut. I had a 20 minute drive to the train station, an hour on the Metro North, and then a 10 minute subway ride. Each way. Keep in mind this was before smartphones existed so I could either A) start to read or B) stare at the back of a train seat and bore myself to tears. I chose the former.

The first book I read that summer for pleasure was Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point. It was on my aunt’s shelf and, like everyone, I’d heard a lot about it. Turns out it was the perfect gateway drug for non-readers. I devoured it. I then went to Amazon and looked at all the other recommended books on that page. There was so much to learn!! I proceeded to order and read almost all of them that summer. I’ve never looked back. I had too much reading for class during the semesters but each break I would line up 3–5 books that I would tear through. My suitcases for trips and vacations became half-packed with hardcover and paperback books. Not surprisingly I bought one of the first kindles in 2007 and an early iPad as well (where I do most of my reading today).

I continue to read 20+ books a year. You can see my current wish list on Amazon that I call “The Pile.” These are recommended books from a variety of sources that I’ve researched a bit and look like ones I should read at some point. “My Nightstand” list is the ones that I’m planning on reading next. You can check out my Goodreads page here and follow along if we’re friends.

The last five books I’ve read:

1. The Wright Brothers by David McCollough
2. Born to Run (yes, I know I’m late to this)
3. The Inevitable by Kevin Kelly
4. Metaphors We Live By by George Lakoff
5. Sapiens by Yuval Harari

Any recommendations in this vein I should check out?

Thanks for reading! This post was originally published at AlexanderSWhite.com