Having a Reading Library - Why It's a Great Idea

 Why It's a Great Idea To Start Your Reading Library Today.

Recently I have been spending much more time reading then I have in the past. Which is a lot when you consider I am an avid reader. 

With several hundreds of books in my collection I have many of them packed away in boxes. Tons of these are mostly work related books, such topics as programming, scholastic books, or the odd book out that I most likely had not even finished reading. 

It has been a tough few years when to came to my reading lists. Like most people out there I too have many different things that take up my time and keep me from pursuing the things I enjoy doing. So recently I had to make a change as decide which things I wanted to work on much more. 

First option was reading. I made a commitment to read every book that I already own. The mainly focuses on those books that I own and just never finished. Of these I easily have several dozen books. 

So with that in mind I decided I would delve deep into my library of technical books and take a more active role in learning PHP by actually using it. While I have been a computer programmer now for almost 20 years, most of the languages I have worked with, such as C#, C++ and Java have a little more structure to them then PHP seemed to have at first glance. 

I have been finding myself troubleshooting way more PHP files over the last several years then anything. This comes from working with WordPress so much. Not the WordPress itself is bad, but there is almost always some form of conflicts using plugins. 

Several years ago because of all the work I was doing on WordPress I also found myself learning a ton of relevant information on security concerns, mainly web security, and decided I enjoyed this field quite a bit. 

My original background was not computer science as many programmers start out but I originally went to college for an electronics major. I still remember taking those AC/DC Circuits classes along with Microprocessors on and 8086 Lab box of all things. Woot! Shows you how old I am. 

Never would have thought back in my 20's that I would actually enjoy using a language like Assembler to create programs. 

After many years as a computer technician I was able to dedicate my time to going back to college for a Computer science degree and never looked back. Along the way I learned many topics and collected books on all of them. 

Books on hobbies like Billiards, playing guitar, gardening line my bookshelves along with books like the I Ching, Building Computers, Wheel of Time, and a host of other titles, too many to list. 

But of all the things in all the books I own never did I learn that one thing that is the most important reason to have the books. 

That reason is "Personal Fulfillment of One Ability to Learn and Grow".

No matter how much I was to watch Television, exercise, or work, paint or play billiards, there was always a little something missing. For a long while I had not been reading directly from books. Much like most people I ready everything on the computer. Not even bothering to read a newspaper anymore. 

Now everyone will be different and you might not find the same level of joy from reading as I do. So let's think for a minute as to why the new found love of reading. 

There are several factors as to why reading the good old fashioned way seemed to make a bigger difference to me now then when I was younger. 

First, there was the tactile sensation of actually hold a book in my hand. The feeling you get when you turn the pages. Paper just has a nice texture. Book publishing companies spent time and money researching this just for this purpose. 

Second, was my vision. As I get older my vision deteriorates. I found myself having a much harder time reading on computer screens. The use of paper books actually meant I could give my eyes a rest from all the electronic glare that computers screens put out. When I was younger the rule was do not sit close to the television. Now I sit with a computer monitor within arms length everyday. reading a book actually gives my eyes rest. 

Thirdly was better sleep. I often find it next to impossible to read while I am tired. Playing a video game tired, haha can piratically play them *IN* my sleep. But I dare you to take a book to bed and begin reading it when you are tired. Hell even if you're not tired, reading in bed will often relax your mind more so than television. 

The fourth reason was self improvement. I found that there is an inherent truth to the world that many people just do not want to accept. This is:

"We are responsible for all aspects of our own lives."

While I am not saying that things do not happen to us, sure bad or good things happen to everyone, but if you accept that there is nothing you can do about it, then you would be wrong. I am a firm believer in the concepts of:

"We are what we choose to be." 

We make our lives out to be the way we want them to be, either by design or by negligence.

The fifth and the most important reason for renewed outlook on reading is my family. My family means everything to me. There is nothing I would not do for them, including read more.
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By reading more I set a much better example for our 9 year old daughter. As I read more, I also fing myself doing more. I inevitably end up teaching some of what I read to my wife or openly discuss topics with our daughter. As I like to read I also look for ways to help her to improve her reading and language skills.

As she has a hearing loss issue with one ear I also get to spend more time reading to her. This becomes even more special quality time that we might not have gotten otherwise. Being more receptive to reading her types of books has also open considerable new genres of books that I would likely never had read in the past.

As time goes forward I will continue to dedicate more of my time to traditional reading pursuits. Learning more information has never been a bad thing for me. It helps bring me closer to my loved ones and has reinvigorated many of my passions and hobbies as well. We often get into ruts in life and reading has helped take me out of one that held me in depression for many years. It all started simply because I chose to to pick up a book one day and read it with new eyes.

Your experiences may vary greatly from my own but you can choose what you get out of reading. That's another beautiful thing about having a reading library of your own, if you don't like the book you are reading, put it back and choose another one. There is no time limit for how long you have till you bring it back. Tuck it away and bring it back out when you're more in the mood.

Take care and happy reading.