Why I Read. Every Day.
When I was in elementary school there was a significant push for kids to read throughout the summer. “Summer Reading” was all over the school building, the library, heck even Pizza Hut was pitching in to encourage us all to read books. In first grade I discovered “The Boxcar Children” series and I was pretty much sold on reading books for a good couple of years. But as the reading in school grew more intense, and the choice for personal reading lessened, so too did my desire to read.
Many of the books that we read in high school were interesting. There were the plays by Shakespeare like “Julius Caesar” and “Twelfth Night” (my personal favorites from Shakespeare), Hiroshima and Night, and eventually my personal favorite book for years, Brave New World. But between those few books there were long and drawn out mid-18th and early 19th century reads that were mandatory. The Red Badge of Courage lost me very quickly, as did Ethan Frome and most of the other books we read in sophomore English class.
For years I failed to see myself as “a reader” because reading was slow and arduous. I could not get into books for school but I muscled through them because I had a compulsion to get good grades. Occasionally, I would find a book that drew me in and I enjoyed- I remember stumbling upon John McEnroe’s book he wrote with James Kaplan aptly entitled You Cannot Be Serious and absolutely loving reading about his wild life. Every year for my birthday, my mother would buy me whichever John Grisham novel had been released recently (I have read all but two of his novels, and those two are on my shelf right now waiting to be picked up soon) and I loved each and every one of them.
There were other books too. The previously mentioned Brave New World was the first book in high school that I truly understood and didn’t feel like it was a chore to read. In college, the time for pleasure reading was practically zero- between researching for history papers, keeping a full time job as a member of the cross country and track teams, and working multiple jobs it was rare that I could sit down and pick up a book for something outside of academic pursuits. It’s a bit of a shame, in retrospect, that as an education major I was not able to educate myself with something as basic as books!
As a graduate student, a teammate of mine recommended reading this book he had read over the summer by Malcolm Gladwell titled Blink. He gave me his copy and as soon as I picked it up I knew that I wasn’t going to put it down until it was finished. I was still very much a slow reader, but now I was starting to remember how once upon a time I loved reading and learning from books of my own choosing. My teammates showed me other authors that became important to me, Gladwell being the most impactful. There were the books by Daniel Quinn which I devoured, others by Gladwell, rebuttals to Gladwell’s books, more Grisham novels, and an entire world of books about my favorite thing to do, running!
As I’ve aged and progressed through my various careers, I’ve continued to search for more knowledge and wisdom to help refine my craft. While the world was shutting down and it seemed like nothing made sense any more, I needed to find new ways to occupy my time and improve as a teacher. Teaching 18th century American history on 21st century technology from my living room was making little to no sense, and the frustrations of it all were a bit much. That’s when I ordered You Win in the Locker Room First by Jon Gordon and Mike Smith, my first Jon Gordon book. To say that I was inspired would be a colossal understatement- I was transfixed on the idea that a book written by an expert could fundamentally change the way I approach my jobs. Since that book, I’ve read every one of Jon Gordon’s books and dozens of similar reads. His books led me to buying Jocko Willink and Leif Babin’s books on leadership, which got me interested in learning more about Navy SEALS, which turned me onto more books about the modern wars and treatment of soldiers. Eventually I needed lighter reads so I took out my backlog of Grisham novels, then the history of Ireland. I’ve read books about drug use in Germany during World War II, Christian-based health guides, nutritional texts, financial advising books, personal finance responses to financial advisors books, politically left leaning books countered by politically right leaning books, books about attaining power, books about giving up power, ancient Stoic philosophy, books on modern philosophies in opposition to Stoicism, courtroom novels, novels about strangers in a shipwreck, and pretty much anything else that I can find on sale somewhere. I’ve bought books from Amazon, a local bookstore, a bookstore in Austin, TX, directly from publishers, the discount shelf at Barnes and Noble, and even the discount rack at my Shop Rite (a $20+ Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson book for $4- sign me up every time!) and each one of them has added immeasurable value to what I do every day.
I read each and every day because I have learned so much creating my own curriculum of books for pennies on the dollar compared to going to get an advanced degree to learn the same thing, arguably less! Learning how to read through Jim Kwik’s “Kwik Reading” program online was an absolute game changer for me and is perhaps the most impactful class I’ve ever taken. By the time I was taking that class online, I had been reading for almost 30 years, but I was never a ‘trained’ reader, just a slow one. The books, articles, novels, textbooks, and everything else I’ve read each day for the last few years have all collectively revolutionized what I am able to accomplish as a teacher, a coach, and a leader. Reading anecdotes and stories from other perspectives has helped me be more empathetic, and helped me understand more of my own personal blindspots. When students ask me what they can do to best help themselves for their future, 100% of the time I will tell them to learn a few of the basic reading techniques that will make reading less arduous, and allow them to find books that will enrich their lives.
Read as much and as often as you can- it will change your life!