I have read 30 books this year, don't believe me? here, have a look at my goodreads stats. I am someone who use to read a lot but had stopped doing it about 10 years ago, largely because of the smart phone but this year I dropped the smart phone for a dumb phone, deleted all my social media profiles and bought myself a kindle and I have to say that going back to reading has been one of the best decisions I have made in my life. The years that I was not reading books, I have missed out on a lot of wealth and life enjoyment while the likes of Facebook, Twitter and Google have made thousands from my attention and work while making me miserable and stupid.
I started reading The Expanse novels to get back into reading. The thing that struck me the most while reading these books is how different the experience is when you read a book compared to listening to an audiobook or watching a T.V. show or movie. Books transport you into the world of the story. T.V. shows can't do this, with these mediums it always feels like you are sitting in your own world while the story is happening on the screen, not like you are a person living in the story watching things happen. If you are not someone who reads novels, I suggest reading a story yourself to see what this feels like.
I did not just read stories. I also read educational books. I think I heard Brian Tracy say that when you read a book, you are taking in 10 years of a person's life experience, why would you ever not want to accept such a beautiful gift. Here are some of the great lessons I picked up from the books I read:
- From the Book "Who Is Pulling Your Strings And What To Do About It" by Harriet Baiker I learned the many tricks people use to manipulate you so when I found my dream job and found the senior sales person there using various tricks to get rid of me like saying "Deepak you are a nice person and this job is not for you", I recognized it and was able to take steps to ensure this blew up in her face.
- From the book "How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big" by Scott Adams I learned that the way to maintain a good diet long term is to be on a journey to discover how to make healthy foods taste delicious. I had never thought of maintaining my eating this way. I was just eating dry chicken breast, broccoli, beans and drinking water during my 20s to stay fit; not this year, this year I have only eaten delicious food that I looked forward to. I even discovered how to make kale and spinach taste like ice cream(no really), so I have consumed more kale and spinach this year then I had done the rest of my life combined before 2021.
- From the book "The PE Diet" by Ted Naimen I learned why both low-fat vegetarian diets and high fat-keto diets work, its about keeping the protein-to-energy ratio high. the more protein you have for the amount of energy you consume, the more satiated you will be and thus the less calories you will consume.
- From the book "Why We Get Fat and What To Do About It" by Gary Taubes I learned that fat just does not stay in your fat cells, it gets released into you blood stream constantly and if it is not used, it get stored in different fat cells, knowing that was interesting because I had been adding fat to my diet because I was doing Keto, why would I need to add more energy to my diet when fat from my fat cells were circulating in my veins anyway, it gave me the license to try cutting fat consumption lower. I also learned about rat experiments were rats were starved and they still became fat because their hormones were saying conserve energy and when the rats were dissected at the end of the experiment the researchers found the fat starving rats had shriveled organs because they were breaking down their organs to ensure they could store as much energy as possible, amazing.
- From the book "Atomic Habits" by James Clear I learned that you can engrain a new habit for yourself by attaching it to a pre-existing habit: say you want to plan out your day everyday, you can attach it to your habit of brushing your teeth everyday, if you want to drink more water everyday, attach it to your habit of eating everyday, say you want to do kettlebell swings everyday, attach it to your habit of taking a shower everyday.
- From "The Almanac of Naval Ravikant" by Eric Jorgenson I discovered the only form of meditation that I have been able to do daily and it is to just sit with your eyes closed quietly for an hour. I don't quite do it the way Naval recommends. I go for an hour long walks everyday, I will start here then maybe move onto the sitting.
- After re-reading "The Power Of Less" by Leo Babauta I threw away half of my things and have been able to add more things that I enjoy in my life now. It felt crazy going to the library and giving away all those text book like Tim Ferris books I had in my closet, but I had kept them in my closet for years and would have kept for years more.
- From "Attached" by Amir Levine I learned that I have had insecure attachment style with which I have caused a lot of pain to avoidant attachment styles when I have tried to have relationships with them. I even blew away women I was yearning for inside when they wanted me because my insecure attachment system had been triggered by something they did, wish I read this book long ago, would have saved me people I loved a lot of heart ache.
