Weekly Challenge: I Read a Different Book Everyday for 5 Days

Yay to the second episode of my weekly challenges (first episode here if you haven’t read it)! This week I’m diving into an activity I always wished I was able to love – READING!

Why did I pick this reading challenge? In a nutshell, let’s say for two great reasons:

1. I’ve always had an image in my head where a perfect person spends her/his past time indulging in a book. People who read books seemed to be more put together, more grounded.
2. I wanted to find out if reading books can help with increased attention and focus, as suggested by several studies. As someone who has been suffering from attention deficit for most of my life, this was highly intriguing.

I picked 5 different books to read, a new one everyday. I picked these books from the collection I already had at home. I’ve owned these books for the longest time and have always been meaning to read. But never got to make myself do it. It felt nice to start reading them now. Disclaimer: I did not finish reading all the books, just dived into reading them.

Let’s take a look at the books I picked:

1. Zero to One by Peter Thiel. A friend suggested I read this book to have an understanding of the entrepreneurial perspective of everything. Reading the book has taught me the importance of creating a future. It teaches you what you can do to build your business’ own future and shape the future of the world in the process. Definitely see myself finishing this book.
2. The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren. This is a good book for those who are a little more on the religious side. It talks about the existence of a higher being and takes you on a spiritual journey to understand your purpose in this universe. The reason I went for this book was pretty much the title, the style did not fit my taste.
3. Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert. This book caught my interest after I watched the author’s TED talk. It’s done a great job emphasizing on how our creative brains function and the ability to expect a future makes us responsible for how we see happiness in the future. For me, it’s definitely a must-finish.
4. Delivered from Distraction by Edward Hallowell. This title immediately caught my attention. It’s addressed to people with ADD. Along with facts, the author talks about how it feels and actions that one can take to be successful even with attention deficit issues. This book is on the top of my list to finish reading.
5. Vlnrbl by Palak Vani. Palak is a dear friend. Professionally she is an Anxiety Coach. This book is easy to follow, with each page dedicated to an anxiety causing situation, followed by a way to change your thought process to reverse or alleviate. I’m looking forward to finishing this book!

So, there you go – the 5 books I read in the past week. And yes, let’s cut to the chase, what and how did this challenge change or improve me?

• The wild brain will make Day 1 the hardest. However, I did notice how much easier it became by the time I got to books 4 and 5. Truth be told, I wanted to just read 3 pages for the first day and just be done. However, reflecting onto my conscience made my heart sink and encouraged me to fulfill this challenge sincerely.
• If the topic doesn’t interest you, the book isn’t going to work.
• I felt smarter reading a book the classic way (Maybe I looked smarter as well?).
• A book reading session can easily turn into me-time or even meditation.

If you are into reading books, feel free to leave some book recommendations on the comments below!