As the title says, here’s a brief insight into my life:
Books.
An infinite source of knowledge.
A window into another world.
Ever since I was a kid, one of my favorite pastime activities became reading. I said “became“ because at first, I preferred to play outside in the park as all kids do. But then, one summer when I was about 7-8 years old, I was bored out of my mind. My mom came up with a fun idea to make me start reading – if I read at least one chapter of a book per day, we’ll stay a bit longer at the beach.
At the time, she was reading Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (yes, you read that right!). She finished the book and considered it appropriate for me to read as well, so we started the „challenge“. Not only did I read one chapter of the book a day, I finished it in a few days.
Since then, I was a regular visitor at our local library and had a record of reading 2-3 books every 3 weeks. As you’ve probably guessed it, the Harry Potter series was the first on my list, and became my all-time favorite.
Fantasy books were (and still are) my favorite genre, along with the occasional rom-com. Classic books have become more appealing to me as I’ve grown older; Jane Austen and the Brontë sisters are at the top of my list.
However, it seems that the older I get, the less time I have for reading, something that I’ve always enjoyed. There was a time when I was so engrossed in a book, I even ate lunch or dinner with it beside me (The Hobbit, I’m talking about you). Now? I barely find time to read even one chapter, let alone an entire book.
The last time I actively read something was in November 2021, when an accident rendered me bedridden for over four months. The book I chose to read was Somebody to love – The life, death and legacy of Freddie Mercury. This is an excellently written biography of Freddie Mercury that depicts some of the lesser-known aspects of his life, so I was immediately intrigued and wanted to learn more. I finished more than half of the book before my leg improved and I was able to go out more, and I never picked it up again.
Long story short, this brief insight is not a self-deprecating lament about how I don’t read anymore. The moral of the story – and, ultimately, the objective of this blog – is to encourage myself and anyone else who stumbles across it to take some time out of their day to read again. It might be difficult at first, but small steps lead to great victory.
So, what do you say? Are you ready to take the challenge and go on this journey with me?
Let’s do this.
