This year I have done a lot of reading. I love to read articles, research papers, magazines, newspapers and especially love reading books. This year I have added several new books to my library. I usually have 2-3 books on the go at any one time. I tend to read my books before bed and so depending on what my mood is I will gravitate to certain books. The books I tend to read are geared toward learning something that is against convention. Now why is it that I enjoy these books? It’s because in my life I have found that in order to really learn something worth learning you must be comfortable stepping outside your comfort zones and the areas we as a society deem to be appropriate. Why is it like this? Well when you spend enough time learning the history of man you will find that throughout man has been very much controlled and deceived in many ways. One of the ways we have been manipulated is in the subjects we deem proper and improper to speak of. Some subjects just the very mentioned of them will automatically trigger a response in someone without them even knowing anything about the topic.
One thing I have come to learn in my days is that I should never judge anything without looking into it extensively, learning all sides of the topic and then coming to my own conclusions. Even when I come to my conclusions I have to remain somewhat open minded enough to re-examine my thoughts and beliefs in order to take in any new data or information on the subject and once again re-evaluate and come to new conclusions that may make me feel uncomfortable.
It is my open-mindedness that has allowed me to achieve the knowledge I have when it comes to certain subjects. I could have easily turned away from knowledge regardless of how unbelievable it first seemed but I choose to absorb the information in and apply the methods discussed in Adler’s book “How to Read a Book” to determine the validity of the information.
One of my passions is to collect books on History that are accurate. Why is this? Because there are countless books on History and the vast majority of them are not accurate and serve a specific purpose for someone or some group. It seems strange that this would be the case but when you study history you’ll find out that this has always been the case and is nothing new. In my quest to build a library – that can empower one’s mind to be able to accomplish things and achieve success in life with happiness and health – the key ingredient is to collect books of real value.
One special note I will make to you, I have found that it is very difficult to find “real” and “valuable” books to buy; they are either not available or very expensive to purchase. You make of that what you will! ;)
It is so incredible the amount of information I have gathered in the time I’ve been collecting and I am very driven to continue this quest and to continually add to my expanding awareness.
Kevin Araujo