I don’t read FAST, but I might read FASTER than many.
Some interesting facts about me on reading.
- Except for all the textbooks, the first English book I read was “The Lord of the Rings” back in 2001.
- I used to be more comfortable communicating in Singlish or Mandarin than in English. The tipping point was in 1999 when I was posted to 121 Squadron.
- I got straight As for my Chinese Language but a D7, which literally means a failure, for my English Language for my GCE ‘O’ Level.
- The highest record for the number of books read in a year was in 2021. I read a total of 18 books for the year, and I am on track to crush it this year
What makes me Read?
Well, I am not the kind of person who has loved to read since young. Probably I am a late bloomer, and this habit comes much later in life for me. Reading helps me break away from the current daily affairs and start to kick up some tips here and there for my business, work, and life. Learning from people who walked the path and sharing their valuable lessons with readers like me.
Reading is a great way to spend time on public transport compared to aimlessly browsing through social media. I used to be doing that, but I decided to cut down on that to focus on reading and writing. After reading, writing helps me articulate my thoughts and aid in my thinking process to straighten out some ideas.
I don’t read FAST
Before you conclude that I am a speed reader, I am not. However, I am reading my 6th book now because I took public transport for my work and meetings. Spending time on that allows me to reply to emails, WhatsApp, and read on the Libby App on my iPhone.
If I can read for 50% of the journey, I am reading 45mins daily. And this equates to quite a significant number of hours when I add them up over the month. Apart from public transport, I like to read when I drink my coffee in those traditional coffee joints. Yup, due to the current pandemic, I am reducing my time spent in these places, and I wear my mask after finishing my drink while reading the book.
Investing our time RIGHT
I benefitted from my time spent on LinkedIn and get connected to people. Statistically, I benefitted from 0.012% of my LinkedIn connections that I started to establish when I spent time on that. However, I have not computed that against my daily time before getting this 0.012%.
However, the gains that I have from reading are much more. It allows me to strike a conversation with someone when I can extract stories from those books. We can have meaningful engagement by chatting about how we feel about those current affairs and what we think might happen to our current climate.
We are none the wiser, but having all these as a conversation starter helps build and establish relationships when we meet up physically. Nothing beats something tangible and meeting people offline instead of trying to know someone online and realising that we know a lot about nothing at all.
Enjoy your time reading.
