Books I'm Currently Loving + How to Craft Your Reading List

"You can't use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have" -Maya Angelou

Welcome back to R+R with Rebecca! Its been a minute since I last blogged, and that is for a lot of reasons (graduating college, moving to the city, starting a new job, pursuing other hobbies, etc.). I'm returning because I miss the creative outlet that writing provides me with. Journaling is one of my favorite hobbies, so why not share my thoughts on the internet? They're here for anyone who wants to read them. 

Today's topic is books/reading. If you aren't a big reader, I wasn't before the pandemic hit and wiped out my social life either, but I got into it when I was sick of consuming the doomsday content that flooded social media and news outlets for all of 2020 and into 2021. I needed to direct my attention away from mainstream media, and books provided a sense of solitude. I have always enjoyed fiction books (whenever I did read pre-pandemic, it was usually a Nicholas Sparks-esque novel before bedtime) but didn't make much time during college to read them. During the pandemic, I found myself diving deeper into the non-fiction self-help category in order to keep my mind stimulated. While this genre of book doesn't take you to far-off places like a fictional novel about wizards and Hogwarts or a love story can, a lot can be learned from this genre of book.

Before I get into my reading list and books that I've been loving, I figured it was worth sharing some of the reasons that I've stuck with reading as a hobby and some of the health benefits that come along with doing it daily (I didn't even know of some of these prior to writing this post): 

• Books can have practical applications
•  I've read a couple of personal finance books now, my favorite being The Psychology of Money, by Morgan Housel. These books are incredibly informative. Housel, for example, gives practical and actionable advice on how to pick an investment strategy for your personal savings, how to spend within your means, and how not to let greed get in the way of your long-term financial goals. Graduating from college and fully supporting myself financially really forced me to take a look at my personal finances, which was something I didn't have to take seriously when I was relying heavily on my parents for financial support. Where exactly I want to put my money and what investment strategy I want to pursue were both questions that this book helped me explore further. Housel also gives advice on how not to let comparison compel you to spend every dollar that you take home from your paycheck.
•  Books can help you fall asleep faster
• It's no surprise to anyone that screens and the blue light that they emanate stimulate the brain. Blue light makes it harder for your brain to relax and thus, spending lots of time in front of a screen before bedtime may impede your ability to fall asleep. 
• I spend all day in front of two(!!) computer screens at my job and find myself scrolling on my phone during work breaks. This makes it extremely hard for me to fall asleep at night, especially if I am working late. I have found that reading a book before bed, even for only 15 minutes, radically lessens the time that it takes me to fall asleep, in addition to improving my sleep quality.
• Other thoughts from Healthline.com on how reading is beneficial:
• Improves brain connectivity
• Increases your vocabulary and comprehension- even if you aren't studying for the SAT, who doesn't want to expand their vocabulary? 
• Empowers you to empathize with other people
• Reduces stress
• “The study found that 30 minutes of reading lowered blood pressure, heart rate, and feelings of psychological distress just as effectively as yoga and humor did.”
• Lowers blood pressure and heart rate
• Fights depression symptoms
• Prevents cognitive decline as you age

I know that I cited books as a way to get away from social media, but Goodreads.com is actually a great way to see what your friends are reading and log what books you've read/are still on your list. 

I wish I made my GoodReads account sooner because I can only see books that I've read from June 2021 onward. Regardless, I love that when you mark a book as "Read," the site prompts you to rate the book and leave a review so that your friends can see what you thought of the book. I'm also fairly certain that GoodReads uses algorithms to feed you book recs based on which books you rated as 5 stars, 4 stars, etc.

Aside from my GoodReads list, I also keep a notes list on my phone and write down a book recommendation any time it comes up in conversation because how many times have you forgotten the name and/or author of a book that a friend raved about over dinner? No guaranty that I'll get to a book you recommend to me, but it will at least make this list :)    

Does the order in which I read books from my reading list matter? 

I'd say yes and I'll explain to you why. It's what I'm going to call "non-fiction fatigue" (copyright pending). Non-fiction books can be great for the reasons listed above, but you have to remind yourself that you are consuming someone else's opinion when you read non-fiction. In most of  the non-fiction, especially self-help, books that I've read, such as Deep Work by Cal Newport, the author argues for their point of view. In this case, Cal Newport argues that deep work is like a super power in our increasingly competitive twenty-first century economy. And yet, most people have lost the ability to go deep-spending their days instead in a frantic blur of e-mail and social media, not even realizing there's a better way. 
I'm not saying that Cal Newport is wrong in thinking this; if anything, I agree with him, even more so after implementing some of his productivity tactics into my workday, but I am saying that an American non-fiction author and associate professor of computer science at Georgetown University (which, according to Wikipedia, Cal Newport is) may have a different take on what productivity in the workplace means than a school teacher, for instance. The bottom line is that you can still learn something from non-fiction authors without taking their opinions as facts. I sometimes find that the line between opinion and fact gets blurred in my mind if I read too many non-fiction books back-to-back. This is why I like to alternate between fiction and non-fiction. 

I'll end this blog post with my favorite books from the past ~year. For context, I average around a book a month, depending on how busy I am and how long/quick the read. 

Non-Fiction

• Everything Will Be Okay, Life Lessons for Young Women, Dana Perino
• I read this right after I graduated college/entered the workforce and still reference her advice quite frequently in my work life. For example, not using exclamation points or smiley faces in work communications
• In My Own Words, Ruth Bader Ginsburg
• The Defining Decade, Meg Jay
• I've lost count of the number of friends that I've recommended this book to. A must-read for anyone in their 20s
• Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World, Cal Newport (mentioned above)
• The Psychology of Money, Morgan Housel (mentioned above)

Fiction

• Atonement, Ian McEwan
• A classic, especially if you love a good WWII drama
• The Davinci Code, Dan Brown
• Guilty Wives, James Patterson
• A thriller, also the first James Patterson book that I've ever read
• The Eternal Audience of One, Remy Ngamije
• It's good to broaden your horizons when it comes to books. It can be tempting to keep re-reading the same books (I definitely fall victim to this when it comes to TV shows, don’t ask me how many times I’ve re-watched Sex and the City). This book is written by a Rwandan-born Namibian writer, so this was out of my wheelhouse

That's all for now! Have a nice rest of the week. 

Lots of (self) love🤍,

Rebecca