The first book I read for fun was at summer camp when I was around 11 or 12. The book was A Cast Of Killers by Sidney D. Kirkpatrick. It totally captured my imagination and I read it without stopping, cover to cover. Thus began a decades-long obsession with reading. I actually got in trouble for reading during classes in school. This was especially annoying to English teachers who could not understand why I read my own books and not theirs.
At 16, I applied and secured a part time job at Waldenbooks in the local mall. This was perfect because of the discount. I was always on the lookout for deeply discounted hard covers and started building my collection.
Ages 12-18: Fiction
Every book I read in that period was fiction. I would find a book I liked and the devour every book by that author. These weren’t high minded books, by the way. Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Anne Rice, Michael Crichton, and Tony Robbins all were part of the diet. Some books were better like The World According to Garp or Catch-22 (My favorite for many years).
I liked being transported to another world where I could escape my mundane existence. I did not speed read, but I went through books fairly quickly because I was always reading. These books are all at the top of my bookshelf.
Dr. Beisel at Community College
I was a terrible high school student. (2.2 GPA) However, due to some ridiculous happenstance and luck, I was allowed to take advanced courses at my community college. Mrs. Frank taught me to speak in public and Dr. Beisel taught me to love history. These were different kinds of teachers than I had ever experienced. (More about that in another post one day)
After experiencing his course Psychohistory, I began switching my reading diet to non-fiction. At first, I tried historical fiction like I, Claudius and The Killer Angels. Quickly, this evolved into straight nonfiction.
Ages 19-30: Non fiction
For the next 10 years, I mostly read historical non-fiction. Early American history and WWII periods were especially intriguing. The Making of the Atomic Bomb was mesmerizing. I suggest The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich to anyone who wants to understand how nice people can do horrible things. It sadly has many parallels to what is happening in the world today. I had a biography period for a while. The absolute best were the books my Robert Caro. The Power Broker is an amazing story and the Lyndon Johnson series is terrific.
For a little while I started reading all about the Gnostic Gospels and how Jesus was never really a human who walked the Earth, but rather a retelling of older myths from Egypt with a Jewish flair added in. Basically fan fiction that took on a life of its own.
Ages 30-40: Work books
When I moved to California, I did not know exactly what job I was supposed go get. I had many “maybe” situations. I read books about Project Management, and Agile development including Scrum. I read all thousand pages of Mastering Exchange 2000 and other books about IT. At 32, I discovered Interaction Design and started reading everything I could about design. My product design book list. (not updated since 2009)
These books were enormously helpful in developing my craft as a designer. They directly influenced the products I designed (like Marketo) during that period.
I also read books on psychology, cognitive science, physiology, and more to better understand how people’s brains worked.
Ages 40-54: Stopping reading
When I turned 40 a terrible thing happened. I officially contracted the “old”. My joints started hurting and more importantly, my eyes started getting blurry
Design tip: Users over 40 can’t see small print. Stop putting it in your designs.
Also at this time, my career started taking more and more mental energy. Being young has so many advantages. Truly, I miss it. The point is that I was less and less able to see the text and retain the information. My brain was always flooded with work stuff. The result was a slow degradation and finally ceasing of reading. I did not read again for over a decade.
Retirement
I am trying retirement and seeing if I like it and can sustain it. We have a new puppy who takes much of my time. I am also trying to go back to my roots and trying to read again. Rather than reading glasses, I am trying my iPad with both the Books and the Kindle. The kindle I started The Hobbit which I remember fondly from my youth. On Books, I am trying an author I had discovered on TikTok of all places. Jason Pargin seems to always have an interesting take on various topics. I started with his Doom book and am enjoying it so far.
The eBook format allows me to bump up the line-height and the font size. Also, syncing my phone and iPad makes it easy to open it, read a little, and then continue with my day. I just started but I am hoping the reading muscle comes back.
I wonder if this journey is similar to others out there. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Whatya think?