REading

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Reading is boring until something makes it not be boring.

We have all heard and we honestly know, Gen Z, how much we have stopped reading compared to how much our parents read. It’s amazing!

We don’t know most of the artists, I don’t even know them mostly, and sadly so don’t get to me about that, and biggest works or classics. 

I can remember I lived in a context where either of my family members or parents used to take a book wherever they went ‘to entertain themselves or just because. 

And I’ve never personally had a problem with reading, because of this I think, but to be honest I found myself to be lazy at it.

I would be lying in bed, and think ‘oh wow ok, I could read something now… but it’s simpler to watch a movie so I’ll do that.

I have thought about why I find myself to be lazy when it comes to reading and writing sometimes. Why?

I like it, but I find myself to be lazy to do it. And I can’t say anything else that it’s because it makes me think. And I don’t want to have to think or process information ‘textually’ sometimes. 

Schools make us hate reading and books.

I know it is all for us to learn and to educate ourselves, but men, you’ve done a terrible job motivating people to read. Really. At least from my experience. 

They provide assignments to read articles or books which are just odd and not interesting to many of us most of the time. 

Again, I repeat, it is for us to learn, yes, do we learn something out of these papers, probably the ones who do read, they do. Do we keep motivated to read by ourselves, later on, no men. Fucking trauma you leave on reading to young people. 

I can tell, not for all, but the people my age I know, most of them don’t read books or in general, don’t have an interest for reading. 

NO JUDGING. I’m sure you guys do other things than reading and you find them much more interesting than that. 

I’m just saying, damn. Honestly it was such a more common thing before technology. Social media changed it all and aaaaaaaa oh my oh my.

Anyway, the reason I’m talking abut this is because, this year, I’ve come to read a lot more than previous years. 

I can recoginze it leaves a lot. 

I feel like reading a book has something special in it. 

Once I saw an Instagram post or something that said:

‘It’s beautiful to give books because you give a piece of yourself and your knowledge to someone. You are never the same before and after a book’.

someone on instagram

I found this to be very true, and I had never though about it that way. 

See, I understand the process of, first of all FINDING a book, very mesmerizing and fun (not going to lie – when it’s in a actual bookstore… and if it a second hand one or a vintage book store >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> TAKE ALL MY MONEY). 

You get into a store, and look at all of the millions of pages written down by someone over so many different topics, genres, stories, languages, missions, goals, doubts, anything. And you go after the one that ‘calls’ you, for some reason. Or, you go after the one you had picked out before and are just looking for that. 

Personally, I always go inside with a blank idea. Not looking for one SPECIFICALLY and I just want that one and that’s it. This is probably the reason UI always go out with more books than I need but anyway… *hahah not the topic again*

And I have found that these books I grab for ‘no apparent reason’, tend to be books I resonate a lot with. I start reading them and I find out they have words I needed to reading and teachings I needed to have in front of me in order to understand them.

Even if it is a tale about fairies, wolves, robots, dystopian worlds, biographies, romantic novels – which I specifically have a love-hate relationship with because they provide you with ideals of love that don’t exist and they make you a hopeless romantic for no apparent reason and pfff being a hopeless romantic these days hahahah HURTS YOUR HEART. :,)-, anything you read: you finish it, and this book has come along with you in some ‘episode’ or sometimes ‘chapter’ of your life. 

And then, you remember the book, and you remember what it was about, and without even noticing, you don’t think of it as a bunch of pages and words, and you think about it differently than how you did before reading it. 

Before, maybe you were exited or just meh, I’ll figure what this is about. In the end, you might love it or not, but something is left from it in you.

I find this to be magical… I don’t know what you think…

And you know, if you give out a book, AND ITS MARKED BY THE OTHER PERSON, for me this can be everything when giving out a book.

Because you get to see what was important b¡for the other person when reading the same thing you are, and what they thought while reading it. 

If you are someone who wants to read, but can’t focus: listen to me. I have the same. To avoid this. Mark. Your. Books. It makes you become hundreds of times more engaged with your reading and you just pay more attention. 

If you grab it again later, you can see your marking and find the most important things written down at the moment you read it. 

Think about it this way: you mark someone’s words. Legit you do that. And for an author, that is also a sense of competition even if they’ll never know you did that or maybe even bought their book. 

I’ve mentioned so many times that reading makes you hot, and listen, IT DOES. 

Wtf why?

Ok, here it goes. Reading is training your mind constantly. Because you have to engage it to work and do many things while reading. It’s not just passing your eyes over random letters. This is why people get tired when they read a lot instead of watching a lot of videos. Your brain, identifies words, analyzes, thinks, understands, doubts, connect, disconnect, re-reads, and even gets you on your feeling sometimes. You do a lot mentally reading. 

And come on, who doesn’t like someone who has their mind constantly trained? It’s like taking your brain to the gym constantly. 

In México, we would say ‘tener el cerebro mamadisimo’ (having your mind be very toned/strong) I don’t know who I would explain this better in English, and it sounds a little dumb this way, but in spanish it does make sense lol. 

Imagine going with someone who has abs or big arms or whatever you might find ‘physically attractive’ (which isn’t something important in a person, but still, we do have things we like from a person’s physique), and I mean yeah cool, you might be hot to me. But having a ‘manado’ brain or in general being smart >>>>>>>>. Really. It’s a person who you can have a conversation about no dumb shit, and many times you can tell when someone reads or not. Not always, but many times yes. 

So read. You’ll be smart, have a conversation topic, and the rest is history. Do it for yourself though.

It might be though at the beginning starting because you get distracted, you might not be sure if you want this book, or you may read 1-2 pages and do something else. 

Pro tip: start with a daily goal. AN EASY ONE. Tell yourself. Ok, I’ll read 5 pages everyday. And do it. You’ll find yourself suddenly reading more than 5, more than 10, more than 15, and like this, you’ll love reading. 

Make sure it’s something yo are interested in as well. 

I find that reading is a ‘relaxing’ and ‘engaging’ form of entertaining. Like museums or expositions to be honest. You don’t do or go to this places to scream out your lungs, have so much fun your heart can’t stop racing, have the best time of your entire life and feeling adrenaline all over the body. 

No.

 It’s like reading the script of a movie, I feel. You read what the characters say, or what the author/director is trying to transmit to us. And in the end, having you being part of the work of this person, and something that goes with you through an ‘era’ ‘chapter’ ‘episode’ whatever you want to call it, of your life.

Just read.

Your future you won’t regret it… and I don’t think your present self would either… but that’s on you.

Happy New Year!

Best wishes for this year.

Sending you love and light always

I love you

Milena.