In the new Queer Coin Community the following questions have been asked as this week's topic:
Reading - Do you like to read? What kind of books, magazines, newspapers or articles do you like to read? Why do you like to read that?
Here's my sincere and honest answer:
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I love reading but... I love learning by listening even more.
I spend a lot of my time aiming to learn new things, more so than being entertained. I want to learn and grow and move into a life where I live more and more of my potential.
In my mind, learning is an essential practice in order to reach that (basically unattainable but very worthwhile) goal of becoming self-actualised.
So whenever possible I will learn by listening to YouTube videos. I do that a lot. Next in line are recorded classes by experts I respect. Podcasts are also great.
But when the only way I can access information I'm looking for is in written form then I can capably and do gratefully read my way through books, articles and posts of all kinds on all manner of platforms.
You when I truly love reading books? Actually, there are two instances:
When they're (really well written) stories that also teach me something at the same time, and
When I get to read out loud something, anything I find fascinating or interesting and I think the other person will love it too.
I really like reading out loud to a captive and captivated audience. I have no idea why.
So, to answer the next part of this week's QC topic, "What kind of books, magazines, newspapers or articles do you like to read?", mostly ones that help me to live into my potential in some way.
I rarely read newspapers. In my mind, they're full of fear-mongering, brain washing and people doing stupid and hurtful things that I can't do anything about. Thus, I don't waste my time or expose my malleable mind to such things if I can possibly help it.
I also rarely read magazines. For the above reasons but also because they're usually focused on entertaining (and selling to) the reader. And I'm (usually) disinterested in both.
As mentioned earlier I'll willingly read articles and books if I can't access the same information in an auditory format or... if I really want to consume that info and I'm in a space where I have to be very quiet for some reason.
So, to the final part of this week's topic, "Why do you like to read (those things you just mentioned)"?
I spoke to it earlier in this post: the desire to live into my potential and self-actualise (i.e. be the most fully expressed, authentic me possible in this lifetime). To do that requires learning from the best in whatever way I possibly can as often as I can sustainably take in new and useful information.
I'm sure I got my love of learning from my parents. They were both teachers before I was born and Dad continued to teach in different roles, on and off, until retirement. My mother is endlessly reading. Endlessly. I swear if I had a book shop she'd just set up camp with a cup of coffee and never leave.
This photo below looks like it's inside a library. The fact that my Dad was a librarian before and soon after I was born probably imprinted me in some way I still haven't fully understood. I'm sure my love of books and learning was imprinted in my genes long before I was born.
