Emotional Reading - Part 1

“The reading of all good books is like conversation with the finest (people) of the past centuries.” – Descartes

I have been writing my thesis for the past few months, reading a lot of books as a part of the process. Juggling between performing, teaching, practicing and Ph.D. has been so overwhelming that it gave me a lot of stress and anxiety. This led to a terrible consequence called 'Emotional Reading'. Yes. Although reading my subject books strained my eyes, I still chose to read so many non-fiction books to reduce my anxiety and stress. And what a wonderful bad habit it is. It keeps us away from the bad, boring and cliched movies, gossips, low-quality conversations and makes us travel through time. These are a few of the books I read, reading and re-reading for the last couple of months along with reading books related to my research work. Presenting five of them in this post. 

1. Real Artists Don't Starve: Timeless Strategies for Thriving in the New Creative Age

Author: Jeff Goins

I picked up this book after reading a quote from the book on one of my friend's walls on Instagram. Not many books were written on dealing with artists' problems and this book is a good start. Every chapter elucidates on the differences between a starving artist and a thriving artist with respect to mindset, market, money. Although I disagree with a lot of things the author said in this book, I have learned how to be unapologetic and dynamic as an artist. 

2. Man's Search for Meaning - The Classic Tribute to Hope from the Holocaust

Author: Viktor E. Frankl

If you feel you are unlucky, unhappy and are in a hopeless situation, grab this book, sit with your tea and read. You would feel so privileged for having this life after completing the book. I picked up this book after watching a video on Facebook on how Viktor Frankl kept his hope to come alive out of concentration camps. He imagined himself about meeting his wife after his release from the concentration camps. It is only after his release from the camps, he realizes that his wife was killed long ago. Ever since then, he dedicated his entire life for the betterment of humanity. In this book, he speaks about the tyranny and ruthlessness of concentration camps, and how mindset and thinking separate the Holocaust survivors from the men who lost their lives in the camp.  This book, I would say, changed and in fact changing my life, bit by bit, every time I read it. 

3. The 5 AM Club

Author: Robin Sharma

This is one of the trending books now and I was skeptic about reading it at the beginning. But once I bought it and started reading it, I couldn't stop. Robin Sharma is known to teach life lessons through gripping characters in his books and this book is also such genuine and wonderful attempt to teach the importance of waking up at 5AM. No character seems to be a waste of time or show off. In fact, this book is not meant to be read but meant to be practiced. It is like that textbook, which you have to keep working on, for days and months. 

4. Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance

Author: Angela Duckworth

By now, you might have understood my pattern of choosing books. I have been choosing self-help books to boost up my confidence :P and thankfully no book was shallow or a waste of time. This book is again an amazing book written by Angela Duckworth, an American academic, psychologist, and popular science author. She was also a McArthur genius grant winner. Angela through her personal stories and stories of many other people tells us what makes a person successful? 'Genius' or 'grit'? Undoubtedly grit. She presents the results of her authentic research on how 'never give up' attitude took people to unimaginable heights despite their average genius. This book is a true inspiration to those who are doing their research. As researchers, we are often frustrated, confused and on the verge of giving up as we don't see the end goal. It is a long, tiring and a lonely process. This book gives a lot of confidence to all those people who are working on their long term goals. 

5. Ballerina Boby

Author: Misty Copeland

Misty Copeland, the principal dancer of the American Ballet Theatre, has always been my inspiration as she struggled hard through her personal and professional life and raised like a phoenix out of the fire, with sheer talent. This book is again a rare one as a dancer herself has written about dancers' problems. She shares her personal struggles, lows and highs, meal plans and so many other things. Her perspective enlightened me as a dancer and it motivated me to embrace myself for whoever I am.

I also read/ have been reading Psycho-Cybernetics, Designing Destiny, Smrti Yoga: Yoga for Memory, Ageless Body, Timeless Mind, Don't Sweat the Small Stuff, Sita's Dharma, What is Sri Vidya, He's just not that into you, Pride and Prejudice, Zen and the Art of Happiness, The Four Agreements, Oneness with life, M. S. Subbu Lakshmi: The Definitive Biography, The Art of Choosing,and at the end some silly stuff like How to finish your dissertation in six months :P

I shall share about five more wonderful books in the next post. Until then, happy reading. 

“Never trust anyone who has not brought a book with them.” – Lemony Snicket