Finally Completed a Self Imposed Challenge

I started out this year with one clear goal on my mind: Read at least one book every month. Meaning that I wanted to complete at least 12 books by the end of this year which is something I was never able to do in the past. I have always loved reading books, reading stories actually, from a young age. I read a lot of Tinkle and Archie comics as a child and I remember reading all those short stories in our English text books as soon as we got our textbooks at the beginning of the new school year. But until the seventh grade I never read a whole book/ novel. I don't remember the title of the book but it was a crossover of the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew that I got as a prize in the previous year. My on and off love story with novels started that year and I remember reading quite a number of Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew novels during those days. My reading habit picked up a bit in high school but with school books to study I did not read a lot. I completed the Harry Potter novels by the time I was in the twelfth grade. In college I did read a number of books during my college days but I was reading as frequently and it took me ages to complete even one book. There was a time in college when I started reading frequently and finished reading books at a good pace but that too didn't last for long. After I started working I did try to rekindle my love for reading but I was still reading like when I was in college.

But this year, as of the 22nd of August I completed my self imposed challenge of reading at least 12 books by the end of the year. And I must say that I breezed through it surprisingly, even for me and I am already through 25 percent of my 13th book. The reason, I think, that helped me this year was because I stopped making excuses. I used to make a lot of excuses before; I don't have enough time to read; I couldn't find the book in the bookstore; the book is too big; I only managed to get a reprint off the streets, the printing is horrible.

1. I started my journey this year with Trevor Noah's 'Born a Crime' which is an autobiographical comedy about Trevor's early life in South Africa. I couldn't get a hold of the book so I downloaded it in PDF format because I really wanted to read the book. Trevor is a wonderful story teller and that paired with his sense of humor only made the book delight to read. My next two books, 'Poirot Investigates' and 'The Art of Communicating' were also in PDF. 

2. The former is a collection of short detective stories written by Agatha Christie with Hercule Poirot, a Belgian Detective, solving crimes big and small. Hercule Poirot has become one of my favorite fictional characters ever since I first watched "Murder on the Orient express". I only recently realized that I love reading detective novels and having read a lot of Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys novels as a child explains the reason to some extent. 

3. The latter (before I forget and continue yapping about more detective novels) written by the Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh that, like the title suggests, teaches us about the art of communicating confidently and with mindfulness with ourselves and everyone around us.

4. 'Serene Strength' by Arun Kapur, talks about his philosophy about education and how education and learning play important roles in the making of a person of substance. It talks about the importance of the five areas of development namely cerebral, spiritual, social, physical and emotional which is a more holistic approach to learning. When we talk about learning we usually immediately think about students but I think that this book is as helpful for anyone who has the hunger to learn, student or not.

5. 'The murder on the links' is another book by Agatha Christie with, yes you guessed it by now, Hercule Poirot Solving yet another murder mystery that takes place in France and he now has a competitor in the form of an Inspecting officer of the detective branch of the French police. But Poirot manages to solve the crime with his "little gray cells". I just love the way the character of Poirot is written in Agatha Christie's books. 

6. After watching a Youtube video by Ted-Ed on why you should read Don Quixote, I could not help but download the PDF and read it. 'The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote de la Mancha' was written in two volumes in the beginning of the 17th century by Miguel de Cervantes. It's was originally written in Spanish and is one of the most translated books in the world and also often called the first modern novel. I have only read the first volume but I do intend on completing the second volume as soon as possible. The protagonist, after reading many books on chivalry and knighthood sets out under the name Don Quixote on a self imposed mission (much like my self imposed challenges) to revive chivalry fighting giants, trolls and villains which sadly are all his imaginations based on the books he read. 

7. Another self imposed challenge of mine is to read as many books by Bhutanese authors as I can as a show of support to our own local authors. Although I have read only two books by Bhutanese authors this year, I have a number of books lined up for the remainder of the year. I have already written a short book review on Pema Euden's 'Lomba' here on this blog so I will not talk about it here and instead ask you to go through it on the other post.

8. 'Ikigai' by Hector Garcia and Francesc Miralles comes in at number eight and also as the first book I completed in audio format. My daily commute takes about 30 minutes on each side which is plenty of time for me to indulge in either music or podcasts. The concept of Ikigai caught my attention from yet another Youtube video and ever since I learned that there is a book on it, the book has been book had been on my to-read list. Since I couldn't get my hands on the actual book, I opted to try out the audiobook instead of the PDF format this time as I am also trying to reduce my screen time as much as possible. The book talks about the Japanese concept of Ikigai which is something that gives a sense of purpose to ones life and how this concept is tied up with the Japanese secret to a long and healthy life.

9. For my review of the historical novel 'The Hero With a Thousand Eyes by Dasho Karma Ura on the Booknese Website:

https://www.booknese.com/book/the-hero-with-a-thousand-eyes-a-historical-novel

10, 11 and 12. The last three books for the challenge were 'Steal like an artist', 'Show your work' and 'Keep going', all three by Austin Kleon whos is a writer and also an artist. The books talk about ways being creative, sharing your creativity and getting discovered and staying creative. I was introduced to these books through yet another Youtube video, this time from a Youtuber by the name Ali Abdaal whose videos are basically about how to lead happier, healthier and more productive lives in his words. And these books have really helped me quite well during the last couple of weeks since I am in quarantine right now and also motivated me more during the last stage of the challenge. Although the books are centered about being creative I have found that the ideas shared can also apply to any aspect of our lives and help improve our outlook on life as a whole.

After completing my first audiobook at the end of last month, I have now indulged in all three forms of modern book reading. If I were to rate the three methods, I would say E-books/ PDF is my least favorite method. Although it makes unlimited number of books easily available whenever and wherever one wants, for someone like me who is easily distracted and is trying to reduce screen time, this form is not the best choice. Next would be audiobooks for me. I finished listening to the 'Ikigai' audio book in three days which means that I can strike off many books from my to-read list in a very short time. But the problem with audiobooks is that it takes a while to find a good audiobook or the audiobook you are looking for. And for me since I was listening to it on my commute, I had to stop driving and rewind whenever I could not hear properly because of traffic or when my mind wanders off or is too focused on the driving. It also poses a threat unsafe driving. For me, the good old physical books are the best way to go which surely is a given for anyone else as well. The smell and the texture of the pages take reading to a whole new level. Books are hard to get these days, especially by international writers due to the pandemic so I know I have to rely on the other two methods for the time being. And since Bhutanese books are not available in the other forms, it's a good way of showing support to local writers by buying their books which is why I am trying to buy and read as many books by Bhutanese writers as possible.           

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