Who Am I?
Hey there! Welcome to AdrianWithBooks! I’m Adrian and I’m with books? Who am I, you ask? Some call me “the one who reads” and some call me Adrian. Maybe that’s because that’s my name or that’s just what I allow them to think. Anyways, I’m Adrian Rodriguez. Glad to have you. You may be wondering how you got here or why you’re still reading my rambling, well so am I. Now get out of here! Alright, come back. I imagine you’re here because we both have an affinity for books or a desire to build the habit of reading. I believe it’s our duty as human beings to learn as much as we can in the time we have on this earth. If knowledge is power, then let’s be our own generator.
I’ve discovered a growing issue in my life recently. It’s come to my attention that I’ve developed a growing obsession with buying books. While that may be true, I wish I could say the same about finishing them. It’s a habit taken over by my curiosity that gets destroyed by my ADD/ADHD. I’ve acquired a devotion to learning as much as possible with the time I’m given on this earth; however, in a world full of mysteries, it’s easy for the mind to wander to something not as boring as the current chore begging for our attention. I’ve decided to plant my flag in this corner of the internet to share and hopefully inspire others to join me in unlocking hidden gems of the universe and in ourselves. Even though I’m not the fastest reader, nor does my comprehension keep up with my eyes every sentence, I read every day knowing that my consistency will make me a better reader.
What Is This About
I used to assume that my boredom was my mind telling me, I should be doing something else. Eventually, I snapped out of it and saw a world full of infinite potential. Although with good intent, I’ve allowed dozens of overflowing shelves to taunt me as I figure out what book I should be reading right now. This blog is about an obsession that fills the shelves till the wood starts to bend. The more we read, the more we can understand. The more you understand, the more you realize you don’t understand. I’m in the process of changing my habit of buying books but not finishing them. We want to develop habits that will contribute to the person we want to become. Reading might be the best habit to speed up the process.
If you lose interest in a book that you were recently excited about, set it down and go back to it later. Keep track of the books you start so that you don’t forget what peaked your interest. What matters the most is that you read (something, anything) every day. Often, we assume that interest is gone forever, and we’re not meant to read it. I disagree. I think it’s more like a moment of redirection and a matter of time till it swings back to us like a boomerang. How we react to that redirection can determine how we progress as readers and learners. Distractions aren’t always bad, but we should constantly evaluate which distractions are worth our attention. This comes with time and practice as well as intentional self-analysis. Our brain sends us signals on how to live and be while we’re awake and asleep. Unfortunately, our earthly species doesn’t naturally pick up on these signals, so we learn. Once we make that decision to learn, our productivity reaches new levels. Reading with intent is essential to become the reader that’s not afraid to take on a challenge. I want to help others make this realization or at least start thinking for themselves. Reading for the love of it. Reading because it’s our responsibility to ourselves.
Inspiration comes to us in moments when we’re willing to be something we’ve yet to imagine, an elevated self beyond presently perceived limitations. Being something that 10-year-old-you would be proud to become. They say we are merely a product of our environment. I grew up with inspiration everywhere. I am truly lucky to be a part of a family that’s provided pillars of motivation throughout my life, although I didn’t realize some of it until later. Growing up, I watched my dad pick up a new book in the morning and onto a new one the next day. I would do that too, but he’d finish the first book while I’m still reading the introduction. I paid attention to little things and asked as many questions as possible when I was around my father. He made me feel like no question was off limits. Even when he had no answers, he gave me more questions. It was a reminder that this quest for knowledge, cosmic mysteries, and self-reflections never ends. For those of you rolling your eyes at the thought of picking up a book, thank you for sticking with me. This requires a certain amount of energy and commitment to building a productive habit, which is much harder to form than an unproductive habit. I don’t know about you but for me, doing 20 push-ups is much harder than grabbing a cup of milk and 3 double-stuffed Oreos.
Looking back to elementary, when the Scholastic Book Fair came to town transforming the library into a cosmic paradise of the newest books, everyone in 3rd grade was excited to get the new Harry Potter, Goosebumps, or Junie B. Jones, but I was racing to be the first person to snag the latest Captain Underpants. I wanted to be a good reader because I understood the importance that came from it, but to me it was one of the more difficult skills to master. Once teachers started timing our reading and I saw how much slower I was than everyone else, it made me feel small and insignificant. We’re to talk about the article from a handout that was placed in front of us only seconds ago. One after another, I’d look up and see other students finishing and I see how little I’ve read, I would get nervous. I would go from a random thought popping up every other sentence to every other word. It took me years till I started reading on my own. Eventually my curiosity of the world grew, and I began questioning everything. I started seeing Textbooks differently, but I still struggled to read every chapter assigned for homework on that darn syllabus. Can’t help to think where I would be if I did that for every class, every semester. This is my journey through the shelves, are you ready to start your own?
Who Am I Writing For?
I hope to bring out the readers in the non-self-believers and, spark interest from intellectuals leading the way in the diverse subjects that the brain tends to gravitate towards. I truly believe that many of the personal problems we have can be solved by reading. Chances are whatever hardships you’re going through, you’re not alone. There’s someone out there who’s overcome the same problem, and its possible one of those beautiful people wrote about how they overcame it. Next time you’re stuck in the middle of a sentence, and you start questioning, “Why am I reading when I could be watching Netflix while shoving a pizza into my face?!”, I want you to remember what problems are on your mind the most and are they someone else’s problems or your own? Intention goes a long way toward finding the change you want to make. Sometimes I’ll read about a problem that a good friend is going through so that I can understand their situation. Other times, I’m striving to expand my understanding of topics I find important.
The question I keep asking myself is “what can I do that will bring value to others?”. I struggled with this question while trying to keep up with full workload in college and a full-time job. Reading was a hurdle I dedicated myself to overcome. Simple as it sounds, it was important for me to change some habits in my life. I wanted to be an actual reader, someone that picks up a book with a purpose and a reason. I made it a point to buy, not rent, most of my college textbooks because I knew that it was going to take more than 16 weeks of an hour and a 1/2 classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays to master. The purpose of this blog is to advise others to take time each day to pick up a book for nobody but themself. Learning not for a grade, or your boss’s new project, but for your own individual curiosity and growth. The books I’ll be writing about are my suggestions to you. I won’t be offering you a summary; this isn’t cliff notes. I’m not here to give you any answers to your quiz. I want you to join me on the quest for answers. I’ll tell you what I’m reading, why I’m reading it, how it changed my thinking, what other readers got out of it, and we’ll learn about the author. Getting familiar with who your reading helps you put a face and life behind the words. If they have any audio books or videos on the internet can help as well. Some people, run a tight schedule. There’s no shame if all you can fit in your day is an audio book while driving to and from work. If you’re an avid reader or if you haven’t picked up a book in years, please read this blog. I think I have something here for you. I hope this inspires you to reach out and share your thoughts on the books I mention or take your first steps into a bookstore in years. This is me offering my hand.
How You Can Get Involved
If you’ve made it this far, I appreciate you for sticking with me. Remember you’re not alone. I want the WithBooks community to be a place for everyone to be free from expectations and willing to dive into a new way of thinking. Don’t hesitate to share your thoughts on the books I mention. Let me know if you’ve already read one or if you started read it after seeing my blog. Tell me how you’ve changed and if you’ve helped others change after reading these books. I’d like to get my readers involved in the conversation as well as the authors I reference. You can comment under my blog posts or email me directly with your book suggestions, questions or to tell me I’m an idiot. I’m all ears!
Goals For the Future
For some people, thinking about our goals can be stressful. Our doubt and everything stopping us becomes all we think about but being able to temporarily let go of those doubts allows us to think open and freely at least for a moment. That moment can take us places that seem unimaginable, but we imagined it and the thought now exists inside of us, brewing in our brains like a light bulb fetus. On a serious note, find a balance between your idealistic and realistic selves, then learn how to shift back and forth as necessary. To be able to control how we view the future, our ambition and potential, and how to learn from the past instead of judging ourselves with regret, will propel us forward into the person we can and want to be. My goal is to make an impact on as many readers as possible and maintain a positive conversation about self-learning. I want to further the conversation on how were evolving as a species, a country, a society but more important, in my opinion, as individuals. As I improve here, I hope to grab the attention of authors from the books I mention. This can become a vessel for authors to showcase their writing. With steady improvement, I want to see this evolve in many forms that can bring positive change to millions. Why not? There’s so many individuals and groups that are actively hindering humanity’s evolution. I want to spend my life contributing to humanity’s advancement into the future.
Read On
Thank you for joining me on this journey through the shelves. This is my plea for you to take yourself seriously as a reader. Put yourself in the driver seat of your mind’s spaceship and set it to hyper speed. While we take in the thoughts of others carefully, we owe it to ourselves to take no piece of information as a universal truth, instead find as many pieces to the puzzle you can find that’ll take you closer to reality. Imagine a puzzle factory, somewhere in the manufacturing process, a rogue puzzle piece goes undetected in the shuffle with no one knowing it’s missing until a janitor finds it hidden in a dark corner years later. He barely noticed it while sweeping under machines one day, as he did any other day, but this is no other day. This is a day of discovery, and greater truths. That janitor could be YOU! Hey just look at that guy from Good Will Hunting, he was wicked smart. That was a bit of a stretch, I know but on a more serious note, this is a crucial aspect to navigating the way we see the world.
If you’re not quite following yet, that’s okay. I’m still figuring this “life” thing out along with you, so let’s get started. Read on and share your findings. Join the WithBooks Community to increase this literacy movement across the world. I know I’m a dreamer, and I’m pretty darn sure I’m not the only one. It’s not just AdrianWithBooks, it’s YouWithBooks, it’s He, She, They, We WithBooks. The accumulation of individuals striving for better, creating something new, reaching new heights, setting world records to be admired for years to come with hope that someone in the future reaches heights even further is what drives evolution forward. Together we’re contributing to the advancement of the human race not by existing, but by living our days in pursuit of improvement. I believe exceptional improvement comes from individuals finding that mixture of genuine thought and past discoveries to compare results with those around you. So read on for the sake of humanity. Queue Steven Tyler: Read On! Read Oooon! Read Ooooooooon!!!
AdrianWithBooks 