So now that my damn studies are out of the way I've been able to pick up a book again.

Currently I'm reading The Magic of Thinking BIG by David J. Schwartz.

Instead of doing what I used to do - powering my way through loads of books in short spaces of time, like Jonny fucking 5 - I took the advice that K was always trying to drum into my head; read, then apply what you've read. Which I've been doing since I started reading this current book.

I read at least a chapter every day. Each chapter has within it recommended steps you can take in order to start changing the way you're thinking/what you believe/how you behave/react etc. I find myself consciously reminding myself during the day at the office, of those specific actions from the book I chose to work on, and applying myself as necessary. Not only that, but some of the advice in the book that's meant for the reader, I've witnessed in other people too..

For instance, we had a comms session the other day with a senior, senior manager who was up for the day. During his presentation he decided to ask for ideas on a video we'd just watched, then he pressed on those of us who contributed, and some people who didn't. He could have not bothered, but he did. This was almost entirely a replication of an example/case study I'd read about in the book of this guy from a huge company extracting information, ideas and criticisms from his employees, during a similar scenario. It was kinda cool to see in action, something I'd read about the night before.

I've built up such an awesome collection of amazing books, and I'm excited to read them all. But, I'm even more excited to actually use the knowledge to my advantage rather than passively reading all these great books just for the sake of reading them, and not doing anything useful with the information. I'll even be able to re-read the books I already have done, because I didn't do fuck-all with the quality content they possessed within them. It was unproductive of me to think it was somehow making me smarter just because I could say I read 10 great books in 6 weeks, but it was ultimately pointless. Kowalski was right in saying I'd be just as well off reading fiction.