I'm Taking My Own Advice...

Advice is very easy to give to others but quite tough to implement in one's own life.

As a bookstore owner and a lover of books, I very often dish out advice to others with a view to encouraging them to give time to read good books. In 2013, I read a blog post on Lifelong Learning by Jen Harris and learnt that:

• If you read just one book per month for 12 straight months, you will be in the top 25 percentile of all intellectuals in the world!
• If you read five books on one subject, you are one of the world’s foremost leading authorities on that subject!
• If you read just 15 minutes a day — every day, for one year — you can complete 20 books!

Based on this discovery, on Hidden Treasures Bookstore's Facebook page, we invited our fans to  join our 15 Minutes A Day Reading Challenge. Here's how the challenge worked. Participants were to:

1. Choose a book to start with and get the book;

2. Choose a specific time in the day when they'll read the book EVERY day for 15 minutes, e.g.     6.00 - 6.15pm;

3. Start reading the book every day at the scheduled time;

4. When they finished reading the first book, take a second book and repeat the cycle;

5. Share their experiences (if they like) with us on our Facebook page as they go on this journey;

6. Invite their friends to do the same.

Since I resumed blogging about my experience reading books, I have done some self assessment and found that I have not taken my own advice. I haven't put in my daily schedule time for reading as advised in the 15 Minutes A Day Reading Challenge. Invariably, my desire to read regularly is not realised as other activities overwhelm any efforts I make to fulfil that desire.

The time has come for me to take my own advice. I really do want to share my experience about reading books. To do that I have to read books on a regular basis. So I have come to the place of a new commitment. I commit from August 1, 2014 to take the 15 Minutes A Day Reading Challenge.

I invite you to join me in this challenge.  Let me know in the comment box, if you're accepting my invitation.

It's Now More Than Two Years.....

A little over two years now, I started this blog and posted two entries.

I was full of enthusiasm. I love books. They have impacted my life positively. I was going to share my experience as I read books and saw their impact on my life.

What happened since then? Did I stop reading books? No, I didn't. I have read many books since 2012. Did they impact my life significantly? Yes they did. Did I blog about my experience? No I didn't.

Why didn't I blog as I had planned? Since the beginning of this year, I have given quite some thought to this  question. The more I thought about it, the more I realised that a desire remains a desire, if I do not have a plan for bringing that desire to pass.

In 2012, I created a blog. I desired to share my experience about how books build my life, thereby encouraging others to read books. I was excited.....but I made no plans as to how my desire will become a reality. As the days passed, my desire remained a desire. I promised myself, I write something tomorrow. Tomorrow came and I didn't write a word. My blog remained empty for over two years, twenty four months, seven hundred and thirty days...Not a word did I write.

Today, I awoke from my sleep. I really want my desire to become reality. I am taking the first step in writing this post. I commit to writing a post a week for a start.

A week from today, I will have another entry. I'll see you then....