My love for books first began as a pre-schooler when my mom read to me every night and I would doze off lost in my world of talking animals, glistening treasures, and thieving goblins.

Over the years, I’ve read 400+ books spanning different genres mostly fantasy, mystery, thriller, and classics. Every single book has taught me something and a few have been life-changing.

As a fiction lover, a common misconception I see is that fiction is only meant for pleasure reading while nonfiction, mainly self-help is to learn.

This couldn’t be further from the truth. Most of my fiction reads…

When the quarantine first started, the prospect of having to spend all day locked up at home loomed largely. I wasted away the first few weeks gaming, watching YouTube on autoplay, and scrolling through social media feeds for the most part.

I remember sitting on my haunches every evening and sifting through my contacts to find someone, anyone to call. I had become bored of being bored.

Fed up, I decided to make the most out of the situation. I discovered new passions such as writing on Medium and rekindled old ones such as reading.

Before I even knew it…

When the quarantine started, gyms closed everywhere. Being a fitness enthusiast that loved lifting weights, this was a highly unwelcome situation. For the first few days, I whined, lamented, and didn’t work out. But then I saw that I had two options — continue whining or work out at home.

I chose the latter but wasn’t very enthusiastic about it in the beginning. “What are mere pushups or tugging on resistance bands compared to lifting hundreds of pounds in the gym,” I thought.

I was absolutely wrong. It has been seven months since then and not only have I maintained…

My love for reading first began when I was a preschooler and my mom read to me before bed. Every night, I would doze off lost in my imagination of mischievous goblins, talking animals, and glistening treasures.

Then came children’s magazines, then frolicking with Rusty in the hills, then sleuthing around with Sherlock Holmes, then fighting Gods with Percy Jackson, and so on — over the years, as I grew and changed, so did my genre tastes.

But when college started, I suddenly gave up reading. Gaming, Anime, and YouTube took the place of books. …

I grind my teeth as I brace and go for another excruciatingly slow rep. “Easy boy! C’mon, gimme two more”, the trainer bellows. “No, no, I can’t”, I gasp. “Yes, you can. Remember, no pain, no gain.”

My biceps are beet red and throbbing by the time I am done with the set. They remain that way for another 9 days. “Still sore eh? That’s how effectively I train people. With me, you either go hard or go home.”, he says beaming with pride.

The line between growing a muscle and killing it isn’t all that thick.

I thought that…

The number one piece of advice that self-help gurus give when it comes to improving your communication skills is “Be a better listener”.

While I agree that it is important, I’ve found that just being a good listener isn’t enough to build a meaningful connection with someone.

Back in middle school, when I used to stutter, I feared speaking and hence listened for the most part. But except for ranters wanting to let off steam and boring blabberers, there were very few that loved talking to me.

When we broke up, I wondered if I had ever even known her.

…

Ever since I bought a Kindle, I’ve never bothered buying physical books but recently, I came across 2 books whose physical copies I ordered right away.

These books didn’t deserve to sit as bytes in a corner of my Kindle’s memory but rather deserved to live on my desk.

Every day, whenever I feel low, confused, or stressed out, I pick one of these up and sift through for a while. They always leave me feeling better.

Without further ado, here are those two books.

Stoicism has changed my life. It has improved my self-control, taught me how to deal with suffering, and reduced my anxiety and stress.

The first time I stumbled upon this ancient greek philosophy, I was fascinated by how simple yet profound its principles and ideas were. The best part is that anyone, irrespective of their standing or situation in life can embrace Stoicism.

Irrevocable proof of this fact is that the Stoic masters themselves came from different walks of life with a Roman emperor, a playwright, a senator, a water carrier, a merchant, and a slave being the prominent ones.

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