Getting into reading
As someone who is studying in one of the top academic institutions of the world, I am not particularly fond of reading. I guess I’m one of those students this famous article from The Atlantic is talking about. 1
Numbers vs. letters
I have never considered myself a bookworm. As a kid, I was not really inclined to read books, especially when I got busier in school. It’s not because I did not have the curiosity to explore the world. It was due to the lack of reading stamina, which I unintentionally ignored while I immersed myself in the world of numbers. Yes, it’s true. My parents told me that as little as a 3-year-old kid, I could easily count from 1 to 100. Even at a young age (7 or 8 years old), I was doing high school level math, ranging from advanced algebra to basic calculus. While my current self would have wanted my younger self to have a knack of the most abstract and ancient thoughts that humanity has ever produced, I don’t ever regret obsessing myself with numbers. Fortunately, a huge part of my academic success is largely attributed to my intuition with numbers and their significance in the sciences and engineering. It’s what got me to see the world outside of the motherland.
Throughout the years leading to college, I’ve always known that reading is a skill that ‘scholars’ must master. Being an expert and on the forefront of any given field requires the ability to ingest and produce knowledge through reading and writing, respectively. It just never really occurred naturally to me, which made me think that maybe reading is a strenuous task everybody just has to go through. This thinking led me to always have respect for people within the realm of humanities.
It must have taken a tremendous amount of discipline and pain to read piles and piles of books in a year.
However, it didn’t take long to realize that there are people who love reading, who romanticize the act of reading: most of them I met in Europe while I was traveling (will also write a blog about this). In a way, it is a form of meditation: both an escape from an unfathomable reality and an engagement into a relatable world. This is exactly what made me enter the world of reading. I was in a tumultuous moment of my life, typical young adult experience that forced me to find someone who I can relate with. They didn’t have to console me nor even talk to me. I just needed to know that the pain through which I was hurtling was not disconnected from people’s realities.
I discovered the power of fiction, although ‘unreal’, perfectly captures the parts of my life that needed validation.
The first book that I actually loved reading--front to back. (Read in 08/2024)
The first book that made me weep, which I thought I'd never do while reading. (Read in Winter 2025)
I just started reading this week. So far so good!
No, I don’t have it all figured out. I still don’t count myself as a bookworm, obsessed with reading in my free time. When I am feeling overwhelmed, I still resort to what people nowadays refer to as ‘rotting’: endlessly scrolling on social media platforms without a sense of time flowing.
Living a slow-paced life in modern times
This quote from LA Times perfectly represents what’s happening to me now in these digital ecosystems.
Such a state is increasingly elusive in our over-networked culture, in which every rumor and mundanity is blogged and tweeted. Today, it seems it is not contemplation we seek but an odd sort of distraction masquerading as being in the know. 2
I guess this is what has been stopping me from committing myself to deleting social media accounts. However, there is a counterargument I would often use, i.e., this is where I explore custom-made human experiences I could copy, modify, and make my own. As a means of creation, scrolling through social media allows me to curate a life toward a vision of my life in 10 years. Moreover, it also shows me how to be introspective on matters of the mind, the heart, and the soul. My experience borne from my identities is affirmed, ultimately validating my human existence.
However, one could also argue that such things can be achieved through other means. By sifting through non-short-form content like blogs and Pinterest boards and hanging out with people who possess the lives we want, we immerse ourselves, if not as much as, more than what we acquire from watching these reels. By reading novels, we give ourselves a noise-free space to reflect and love deep and critical thinking. We are given the chance to love our existence through people’s well-chosen words. Most importantly, we get the perk of entering a headspace that enables us to carefully design the life out of the things we ingest from said calming sources.
Despite not strongly believing in the removal of my social media presence, I strive to create and depict myself realistically, optimistically, and creatively much more than consuming content laced with dark psychological tricks devised by profit-driven collectives to monopolize attention.
Nonetheless, now that I have read books from fiction to non-fiction, I don’t ever see myself abandoning reading. Literally, I have nowhere to go but up, and it doesn’t take much effort. What makes it interesting to me is that reading today is an act of subversion that I deliberately do to disrupt the societal flow. Such a lost piece of art, surprisingly, made me find myself in a hasty world.
Everyday, I make a conscious choice to condition my mind to scan from left to right, not to scroll from top to bottom. Join me in this quiet rebellion by commenting below.