10: Reading
In the past year or so, I’ve been rediscovering my love of reading. As a child, I could get lost in books easily, often finishing a book at 4am because it was simply “too good to put down”. Through high school and university, most of the reading that I was doing was mandatory, and there were more external demands on my time. The pleasure of reading simply because I wanted to faded, and it became more of a task.
It’s been a gradual process to build reading into my life and daily routines more. One quick way that I’ve been working on this is always having a book with me and reading while I’m on public transport- if only for 10 minutes. This year, I’ve also been lucky enough to be able to travel a lot, and for extended periods- some exploring of home soil in Australia, and some through Scandinavia (currently underway), and this has given ample time for my mind to relax and be able to absorb new ideas, information and thoughts.
As I read more, I’ve found my curiosity growing as a flow-on effect. This makes me want to read even more, and learn more, and so the cycle continues. I am currently reading “Atomic Habits”, and really enjoying that the content is about building habits- while I’m building more regularity into how much I’m reading. Some of the books that I’ve also been reading in the past year that have really stuck out to me I’ve put together into the following collage:
Collage and images with hands are my own, all other images sourced from google.
This process of re-learning the magic of reading has been hugely rewarding, and the thoughts and information I’ve been gaining from this has been amazing. While over here (predominantly in Sweden, my partners home country), I have been learning some Swedish, and will be taking an intensive language course starting soon. I’m excited about this- however often find that formal language classes can be quite dry and uninspiring. So, in the spirit of making the language learning process more enjoyable, I picked up a copy of Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone, one of my enduring favourites- in Swedish. Reading “Harry Potter och de Vises Sten” has been hilarious, and good fun.
Reading much more in the past year has really been sparking so much more enjoyment in my life. Taking in so much information has also been making me reflect a lot more- partially as a balance to digest all of the information. This often manifests as writing a journal, which continually remains one of my best strategies to relax, unwind and sift through my mind. This blog is an extension of that, and a more refined version of some of these reflections and thoughts.
Until next time!
AP