Confession: if it wasn’t a pop-up book, I didn’t read it.
Fine. If it wasn’t comic books or the manual to a video game, I ignored it.
Reading bored me. A lot. Nine times out of ten, I would fall asleep five pages into any book I picked up.
Here’s the thing, though.
I’ve always been a decent writer. Never the best, though, in college, I thought I was pretty damned good. But when I did write papers, I was good enough to get a B+ or an A- most times.
There’s one thing that every entrepreneur and writer I’ve grown to love over the last few years swears by: read all the books you can get your hands on.
Starting in the latter months of 2015, I made it a rule that the first 30-minutes of my day would be spent reading.
And ya know what?
I fucking love reading now.
My alarm goes off at 5 am, my coffee maker has my coffee ready to go, and I’m sitting on my couch reading no later than 5:02 am.
In 2016, I’ve completed over 24 books; and for someone who could barely get through a book a few years ago, two a month isn’t a bad average.
So, here’s a rundown of what I’ve read over the last year with a brief sentence or two about what I learned from each book. I highly suggest picking any of these up for 2017, so just click each image and head to Amazon to grab em.
Read to Succeed
Just make stuff: write, paint, act, draw, whatever you do, do it. Even if your idea comes off of someone else’s.
Men need brothers: other men who push us to be better. Find them. Commune with them. And make sure they’re making you better.
You either choose to live life and love your woman with half a dick or you fuck life and your woman with every ounce of deep passion, intent, and fiber of your being. The choice is up to you: live and give half. Or live and give it all, leaving nothing behind.
The treasure we seek is always inside. Sometimes it just takes a long trip for us to realize this.
Hi, I’m Robbie, and have been, still can be — fine, AM — a giant dick. I’m sorry ladies for all the shit I never understood or didn’t understand about the world and being a woman. I’ll try and be better.
Fuck fear. Punch it in the face. And be so good at what you do, that other people need you for it.
Writing is hard work. But if you love it, get obsessive about it and keep working to be better using the tools of language.
Nerds rule. And you can turn any goal or attempt into a game and gamers will be the people who change the world.
Stop being so fragile. We need events that cause us to break to make ourselves stronger. All of this applies as well to business and the economy.
*(PS: all of this could have been said in less than 200 pages. But some writers need to masturbate to every word they write down.)*
Play with your writing. Mold it like clay. And try and keep it concise and felicitous.
Your teenage years suck. A lot. And you’re gonna be a cranky-angsty-whiny turd.
I already know Dumbledore dies, do I have to read this whole thing?
A how-to guide for wrapping up a story in less than 30 pages because your editor said you were too long winded.
Meh. Maybe I would have liked it more when I was seven.
You won’t do shit in life until you change your mindset from should to must.
We need communities as humans. We can’t live as lone wolves.
Give less fucks about shit that doesn’t matter and care more about the values in your life that provide meaning.
Everything you need to know about a species you can learn from their art.
This story is better than the prequels AND Force Awakens. Why is Disney so fucking stupid?
The salvation of man is through love and in love.
Can we please have this VR world already? I want to live in a virtual Star Wars universe.
You need rules for your day if you want to succeed.
You’re not as awesome as you think you are; keep your ego in check, or you might end up like Anakin Skywalker.
Europe and Asia rose in power over the America’s due to geography and more similar climates.