2026-10-22: I found these old writings when I was cleaning up some stuff and added them here.
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I started my habit of reading books when I wasn't making much progress intellectually in my life. I started with a book on stress management by Dale Carnegie. Before starting I always thought that these kind of books were boring and they didn't have much interesting content in them. But I am thankful for starting with a very good book. The thing I liked most about it was that it gave me practical methods of dealing with stress and not some abstract concepts like most saints preach. Before starting this habit I have exclusively read fiction, both science and mythological fiction. I had a bad experience in reading these non-fiction books in the form of Robin Sharma's book, it was his writing style that didn't appeal to me. He used to repeat things to a point that it started to bore. And due to it boring me, retention of information from that book has been very low for me. So my suggestion in picking good books is that you almost never can go wrong with classical authors like Dale Carnegie, Stephen Covey, Sun Tzu and other such people. They are called classics for a reason. Also if you have any person whose content is great in your opinion, I think Thomas Frank is great, do read the books they recommend. One of the books he recommends highly is "The Power of Habit" by Charles Duhigg. This book was phenomenal for me. It provided me with a deep knowledge of how habits are formed and how we can manipulate them to our liking. And yeah, do maintain a "To-Read" list which is updated regularly. Tomorrow I will write as to how to find time for reading books.