Reading books for work and pleasure#
In my childhood I basically lived in the library for comics and what can be considered now as business kind of books. The storytelling books never attracted me to seek them out actively and even today most are recommendations from others or an algorithm telling me that I may like those as well.
It wasn’t until I started to join the workforce that storytelling books really took off as they became available as usenet download and I could read them on my commute to work, or better said listen to them during my commute as they were audiobook downloads. It was a solid 10 to 15 hours every week listening to an audiobook instead of the radio and wasting my hours.
As YouTuber CGP Grey said in an earlier episode of the Cortex Podcast that this is a method to tell your brain about all kinds of situations in the hope it will remember it when the time is there. If it is true time will tell, but in a lot of cases it will also shape your view on certain subjects as you gain more knowledge.
With this in mind I still buy audiobooks and physical books to gain more knowledge and insight. I even have my wishlist filled with some retailers to buy them when there is a discount and you don’t want to break the bank. Another option are public libraries which are great for storybooks and business books that have earned their place. For more recent IT books buying may be the better option unless you can wait and you know your local library will have them.
Another benefit of buying those books is that you can sit down and read them, but also to make notes for later and easily go back. Something that doesn’t work for me correctly with just a book in PDF or ePub format, but Google Play Books makes it easier nowaday for you to make remarks and highlight sections that also are visible on Google Drive.
Especially the changes that are coming with cloud, big data, and zero-trust require that we start thinking differently about the whole IT-landscape. Taking your time to explore and think about it takes time and I would recommend taking that time now that you have it. It also gives you the freedom to take your chances with another position or company, or even start your own. Always keep exploring, reading, and learning.