It's the time of the year where everyone, specially in my LinkedIn, is bragging about the books they read. I'm perplex seeing lists and lists of books without a pinch of fiction in them.
I know, books are a great source of knowledge. I read books related to my work, to my academic work, and out of pure curiosity. But they're also a great source of fun and dreams and escaping the world and its rules for a little bit. And probably learn something in the way but that's not the point.
I'm perplex seeing how reading is now glorified as another way of being productive, as a group of check marks in a list and the implied failure if you don't achieve to meet the number of marks expected.
I rebel against this notion.
I haven't read a single work or academic book this year because it's been awful and my energy was non existent. Work and university were enough overwhelming without adding some voluntary extra work.
But I listened a fantasy audio book in English for the first time in my life and read thousands of pages in fanfics. But who cares because I can see how my list would look: Dead gay wizards, middle age gay wizards in crisis, gay dead non-wizards that did a heist, non-dead wizards in a BDSM world, gay dead non-wizards in the Hungers Games world...
Not very productive, uh? Probably not. Not a single Nobel awarded autor, no productivity tips, no stories about great entrepreneurs or billionaires telling you that you can also do it.
And I could scream loud and say that I improved my English and exercised my brains but nope, I mean, probably I did improve my English but the main thing was: They were fun. They made me laugh, and cry, and scream. They allowed me to talk to other people.
So: Fuck this idea that implies that reading is a productivity habit. I rebel against it. I wish for a bit of fantasy in all our lives.
Reading shouldn't be a task: it should be a bag full of treats.
