Lately I’ve been spending A LOT of time reading, much more than my usual amount. I used to get through a book a month maybe, devoting a good chunk of my spare time to keeping physically active or working on this site, (which I still do both of those things) but now that productivity has been something I’ve been very keen about, I’ve been able to squeeze in time for reading each day.

A LOT of reading. I’ve been averaging over a 100 pages a day now, which while may not seem like a lot to some, has been pretty impressive for me. I’ve always enjoyed reading, but when other obligations come into play, it's always been easy to push it aside and let those other things take priority. Reading was viewed as a kind of luxury, something I did when I wanted to relax or had the time available for it.

I don’t view reading like that anymore, I don’t just view it as a leisurely activity, something I do once in a blue moon or when I’m in the mood for it. I still get a great sense of enjoyment from reading, make no mistake about that, but now more than ever I realize just how powerful a tool reading can be in shaping my mind and helping to sculpt my thoughts and ideas. Influencing me in so many ways I didn’t think possible, leaving a positive mark on my time usage. Even if I spend the entire day reading, I know I’ve still been productive in stirring my brain around with new thoughts that subconsciously are being used in every action I do or decision I make.

I sort of view reading as a form of passive income for your intelligence and knowledge. Instead of a movie or TV show, something that gives you a temporary thrill or sense of entertainment, reading allows new mental images to form that will stick with you a lifetime. That’s not to say that everything on the television is bad or that every book you read is going to be great, but as a whole, reading forces you to flex the muscles in your brain more than most TV shows or movies ever will. When you’ve read an inspiring book, or one that’s planted new ideas into your mind, those ideas are something you’re going to continually benefit from, whether it’s the next day, the day after, or 10 years down the road.

As of now I only have two channels memorized for the television: the history channel and HBO. I probably watch less than an hour of each in a given week, sometimes far less. I find the problem with television to be that, because it’s setup for such a large audience, it’s rarely very intellectually stimulating. It’s ENTERTAINING, for sure, but very few times do I walk away feeling more enlightened in a particular area. I still have a few shows I enjoy, namely the X-files, (I admit to being a huge X-files junkie) but aside from that I have no desire to really even turn on the television.

When you do actively watch TV, you’ll notice that everything is sort of given to you. You don’t need to think about character portraits or paint a mental picture of the surroundings, everything that you’re supposed to see is displayed to you right there on screen. When you read a book, it allows a deeper connection between the medium (the book) and the reader. Your personal thoughts and imagination are going to come into view, and each person who reads the book will end up taking away a more personal meaning or lesson from everybody else. You can still get that to a degree while watching TV, but I find that most things on the tube nowadays leave very little in the way for that. It’s almost like they don’t WANT you to think, they’d rather do the thinking and simply give you the pre-packaged message. Like a lot of things in society today, TV serves as a temporary numbing of the senses, allowing you a blissful moment while you watch your show, and then slamming you back down to reality and giving you nothing for your time. When you actually look at it for what it is, it’s fails to provide an equal value for what you have to offer. You’re submitting your time and attention, but unless you’re truly learning something out of it, you're more than likely walking away from the deal empty-handed.

Years ago when I started growing bored with TV, finding it a bit uninspiring and dull, instead of filling that gap with the richness of books, I started replacing it with video games. In a lot of ways, video games are no better, but at the same time, they can be leaps and bounds above television.

The thing with video games is that they actively challenge your mind and/or reflexes. It may not always require the mental fortitude that books do, but a good video game can certainly bring a lot of things to the table; whether it’s storyline, critical thinking skills, or subduing the player with a sense of accomplishment. Even today, while I still enjoy playing a good game, I’m also aware of my responsibilities as an adult, and I certainly don’t spend the day fighting in some online battle when I have more important things to accomplish.

The negative aspect to video games is that some people simply can’t handle them. Maybe you’re like that yourself or you know of someone who is, but a lot of individuals have a hard time enjoying video games and at the same time knowing it for what it is: a game. They either become so addicted and engrossed inside of the game, or they lose interest in accomplishing things that actually matter. There comes a time when you have to stop worrying about getting that new set of armor for you character and realize that there are more important things in life. This behavior may be fine for children or teenagers, but as adults it’s a bit “loserish”. That's not to say you can't enjoy video games, but if that's the only thing you're accomplishing on a day to day basis, with little motivation to do anything else, then you may want to re-evaluate your situation.

It really doesn’t matter what you read, whether it’s fiction or non-fiction, so long as it provides a mental challenge for you. You wouldn’t expect to see a 40 year old reading a children’s book, would you? The problem so many people have with reading is that they’re unable to find something that truly interests them, something that can grab their focus and keep hold of it. Unfortunately, that’s most often due to the fact that these people don’t even KNOW what they like to read in the first place. When it comes to watching television, even if you have every channel in the world, the range of interests those channels cover is going to be far inferior than that of any library or book store. People that consume countless hours of television generally aren’t able to make these decisions for themselves, and thus they allow the television to call the shots for them.

The power in reading lies not in WHAT you read, but in HOW you read it. You can pull just as much from a piece of fiction as you can a piece of non-fiction, just as much from a science-fiction novel as you can a historical textbook. The power of reading comes in the fact that it helps to stretch your mind into new positions it’s never been, allowing your creativity to explore new areas of yourself that were previously hidden. I’m currently reading Frank Herbert’s Dune, and I find both his ideas and style of writing to be extremely inspirational. It’s such a good novel that I notice even a single sentence or quotation can throw a new perspective into my mind, allowing me to view something in a light that’s completely new to me. I also appreciate the fact that, because it’s written as science-fiction, I’m able to view his ideas and creative aspects. That’s really all a book is: a medium for the author’s thoughts and your own mind.

You can generally tell how active someone’s mind is by the amount they read. That doesn’t mean that because someone sits inside all day reading a book that they’re super intelligent, or that because somebody hasn’t picked up a book in years that their IQ is on par with a pile of dirt, but you can generally get an idea of what someone is like by the type of material they enjoy reading. As sad as it is, I know adults who still scoff at the idea of reading. Generally these individuals have no ambitions for life and their mental ability is far below what it should be. Somewhere along the line, people developed this thought process that reading is “boring” or “nerdy.” I hate to say it, but these are usually the same people that get left behind in life, they never really make it anywhere or push themselves to see what they can achieve. As time progresses, their mind becomes duller and duller until you wonder how they’ve even managed to make it this far on their own.

Even if it’s not something you partake in on a regular basis, I recommend you set aside at least 30 minutes – 1 hour each day for reading. It can be a book of any subject by any author, and it can be at any time of the day that you see fit. Experiment, search around a little bit until you find an author you like or a genre that holds your interest, making sure that each new thing you read is both exciting and intellectually stimulating at the same time. Before long, you may even get to a point where turning on the television or getting ready for that online dungeon raid holds no appeal over you. Besides, there’s really no reason not to read, and once you get started, you may find this surge of knowledge to be quite addictive.

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