Reading: A Commitment to Development

“Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers.” - Harry Truman

 

Reading is a valuable habit which helps in overall development. Books, Articles and Posts are a major source of information. We can pick any type of reading material, but books are the major source of knowledge which provides you concreate and detailed explanation. Most of the self-help and non-fiction books are written to develop one aspect of your life. Fiction books entertain you and can be a positive get away from the chaos of daily life.

 

Leaders are Readers

Reading books is one of the best things you can do for yourselves. Another motivation can be the fact that most of the successful people in the world are avid readers like Bill Gates, Sattya Nadella, Mark Zuckerberg, Indra Nooyi etc. They spend countless numbers of hours in reading books. "Hunger of Learning" is the main reason for their success. Another reason can be expanding the mental capacity to put your imagination and visualization skills to use.  

 

Advantage of book reading 

• Develops your thought process, critical thinking, positive thinking and analytical skills
• You learn new things and makes you smarter by gaining new knowledge and skills
• You can take advantage of somebody else’s experience to see the world from a different perspective
• Improves your language skills to build a better vocabulary and writing skills
• Reading lights up new ideas and increases creativity and imagination
• Reading improves focus and concentration
• It improves your memory and mental simulation
• Provides tranquility
• It’s an entertainment and stress reduction activity

 

Develop a book reading habit 

Develop your daily reading habit. Try to read at list 30 minutes on weekdays and increase the duration on weekends. There is a productive way of reading books - 1st skim it thoroughly, 2nd read it, 3rd create a mind map or notes of your readings and 4th develop an implementation plan. There is no benefit of reading if you don’t implement it in your daily life. Whenever you get time to revise your reading and re-check the implementations.

 

Speed reading technique

Sometimes reading is a boring task because it is a slow process. There are thousands of good books available in the world and we can finish only a few books if we read it at a normal speed. Learn speed reading techniques. It focusses on reading one phrase at a time instead of reading one word at a time. It seems difficult initially but after some practice, you can achieve it. With the help of this technique, your reading speed can double or even triple. There are lots of books and course available to learn speed reading.    

 

Selection of right books 

There are different categories of books like self-help, non-fiction, spiritual, fiction and technical etc. You can select a book according to your need and interest. If you don't pick an interesting book, then you will not be able to finish it. There are various types of books available - paperback, digital and audiobooks. Pick the right type according to your convenience. Writer selection is very important. You can check the review of the book or the writer on the internet before reading. Do some research work because you are going to invest time and energy in this. You can also take membership of Book club and Library.

 

 

 

 

Must-Read Books

My interest area is self-help, biography and nonfiction books. I have created my reading list based on my preferences:

 

1.       The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey

2.       Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki

3.       Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill

4.       The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz

5.       Start with Why by Simon Sinek

6.       Atomic Habits by James Clear

7.       The ONE Thing by Gary Keller, Jay Papasan

8.       Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

9.       Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell

10.   Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography by Walter Isaacson

11.   Elon Musk by Ashlee Vance

12.   Losing My Virginity by Richard Branson

13.   Wings of Fire by Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam

14.   The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason

15.   The Phoenix Project by Gene Kim, George Spafford, and Kevin Behr

16.   The DevOps Handbook by Gene Kim, Jez Humble, Patrick Debois, John Willis

17.   48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene

18.   The 33 Strategies of War by Robert Greene

19.   The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

20.   Eat the Frog by Brian Tracy

21.   The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg

22.   Atomic Habits by James Clear

23.   The Pomodoro Technique by Francesco Cirillo

24.   Who Moved my Cheese by Dr Spencer Johnson

25.   The Speed Reading Book by Tony Buzan

26.   The Mind Map Book by Tony Buzan

27.   The 4-hour work week by Timothy Ferriss

28.   Unlimited Power: The New Science of Personal Achievement by Anthony Robbins

29.   The 5 Essential People Skills by Dale Carnegie

30.   12 Rules for Life by Jordan B. Peterson

31.   Managing Oneself by Drucker

32.   Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E Frankl

33.   No Excuses! by Brian Tracy

34.   Secrets of the Millionaire Mind by T. Harv Eker

35.   The 33 Strategies Of War by Robert Greene

36.   The 5 Essential People Skills by Dale Carnegie

37.   The 5 Second Rule by Mel Robbins

38.   The Art of Happiness by Dalai Lama, Howard C. Cutler

39.   The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale

40.   The Magic of Thinking Big by David J. Schwartz

41.   The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande

42.   New One Minute Manager by Kenneth Blanchard

43.   Six Thinking Hats by Edward De Bono

44.   Deep Work by Cal Newport

45.   Getting Things Done by David Allen

46.   Ikigai by Hector Garcia and Francesc Miralles

47.   The Now Habit by Neil Fiore

48.   The 10X Rule by Grant Cardone

49.   Playing It My Way by Sachin Tendulkar

50.   Zero to One by Peter Thiel

 

For recreation purposes, I also have a small list of fiction books: 

 

1.       The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

2.       Harry potter by J. K. Rowling

3.       The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

4.       The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini

5.       War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

6.       The fault in our stars by John Green

7.       The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

8.       The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien

9.       Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott

10.   Alice in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll

 

Creating a habit is a self-commitment that requires to put in the effort every day. Reading is the commitment that can not only benefit you mentally but also helps in developing your personality. Reading enables you to gain knowledge and skills that are excluded from our lives due to the stressful work-life. George R.R. Martin rightly said, “A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one.”