Reading aspirational books

I set a goal a few years ago to read 24 history books before my 30th birthday. It seems a bit arbitrary now, and I can't remember exactly why I decided to do it, but I've just turned 29 and I've nearly finished. (Nearly - I've been stuck on my final book Merchants of Grain for months though!)

Honestly, I've read more history than I expected. The reason why I was because I've been trying to set myself up to avoid getting stuck.

Ways I avoid getting stuck:
  1. I can quit a book at any time. If I quit a book after reading a good chunk of it - maybe 50 or so pages - I think of myself as having "read" that book. (I feel differently about fiction.)
  2. I can read a book in any order. I normally read front to back, but not always, especially in books with lots of pictures. I especially seek out books with lots of pictures for this reason and jump around reading the captions and titles before deciding if I should read more of the text.
  3. I am wary of aspirational books.
The third point is the one that's been tripping me up with this last book. It's an aspirational book. Someone on Twitter said, "Everyone ought to know at least a little about the international shipping trade," and I thought sure, sign me up, I would love to be the kind of person who knows about international shipping.

I would love to be the kind of person who knows about international shipping.

That doesn't mean I actually want to know about international shipping.

As much as it hurts my pride to admit, I don't actually want to read this book. I'm not really interested in the topic, even though I think it's important, and I don't have any related knowledge. It's also not written in an especially engaging way (at least not anymore - in 1979 when it was published it would've been a banger!).

I want to be the kind of person who reads books from 1979 about shipping, but I will learn more and have more fun if I read engaging books full of pictures instead. So when I need to make a choice, like right now, I'm choosing to read less aspirational books.


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