It has been a very long time since I have properly read a book. I have always been an avid fan of reading as a hobby and as a good habit that’s worth practicing, it’s even on my about page listened among the hobbies I have.

Nevertheless, it had been a while since I’ve been so invested reading a new story. Don’t get me wrong, I still reread some pages of old favorites. But in all honesty, I just felt like I did not have the time to read something from start to finish.

However, the Easter vacation period started, and we traveled to visit some family. Obviously, due to COVID, we would not be able to go out anywhere, and most of the time was spent watching movies or YouTube videos with my cousin.

🚀 Discovering a new Universe

Because of this new free time, I decided to read something, I am not sure why, but I remembered a series recommended to me by a friend: Bobiverse.

So I decided to give it a try. I had not read anything about it, I did not look for any reviews, all I knew was that my friend’s nickname was Bobiverse too, so he had to like it quite a lot (Just like how I love Chrono Trigger, best SNES game indeed, @ me I don’t care).

The series is about a nerdy developer who gets his head frozen and turned into an AI 100+ years into the future. It feels quite grounded in reality and I really recommend it a lot. However, this is not a review, I might do one in the future, once I read the whole thing and let it process and bit more.

According to my Screen Time, during my first week of vacation, I spent 30+ hours reading, completing 3 of the 4 books of the Bobiverse series, totaling around 700 pages. And this week I will keep reading the 4th book, which has around 400 pages.

I am not saying all of this to brag or anything, I know people who read more as well as people who don’t care. The point is, I had never read so much in such a short amount of time.

🖊️ My favorite genre

I already knew what was my favorite genre, but I really never stopped to contemplate about how the huge ratio between it and the rest of the bunch. Is it Fantasy?, bibliographies?, essays? Self-help?, Wrong!, the answer is…

Science Fiction

What a surprise huh? Bobiverse is sci-fi, but I had never realized, that basically everything else I’ve read is, too. I used to think “I like sci-fi, but I have read a lot of other genres and kinds of books!”. But while trying to remember all those “other” books, I ended up with The Mangy Parrot, The Pilgrim’s Progress and Narnia.

Of course, I have read a few pages of books from school, biographies and such, but I can’t really name any right now. Yet I still remember Star Wars books, Halo books, 20000 Leagues Under the Sea, Ready Player One, The Time Machine… you know the drill.

There is something about sci-fi, reading and imagining things that could become true, realizing some of them became true. Admiring the descriptions of imaginary concepts and locations, and loosely used scientific terms, from the center of the Earth, to Virtual reality worlds. From submarines and telegraphs to Slip-Space traveling and Von Neumann probes. Infinite places, infinite concepts, infinite possibilities.

Some, if not all of them usually have characters that I really like and that I can relate to, or understand. Be it the nerdy programmer Robert Johansson, the epic engineer Cyrus Smith, or the complex and intriguing Captain Nemo.

The genre also allows the expansion of existing universes of movies and video games. Reading the origins of the first contact between Humanity and The Covenant, or the (sadly non-canon) secret Apprentice of Darth Vader. You learn lore and stories at a level that no other medium is able to convey.

It’s so much fun.

The best thing for me, is that it looks like I haven’t even started. If I look for lists of “The Best Sci-Fi Books”, Only some of the ones I have mentioned show up. I guess my taste is more “classic”, Jules Verne and H.G. Wells are only a small fraction of the genre. I still haven’t touched Dune, or anything done by Asimov or Huxley. So I still have a lot of material to read, I just hope that my previous experiences don’t ruin the new ones to come.

⌛ Finding time for Reading

Regardless of the genre, I think that reading is something that can be enjoyed by everyone. Some people say that they don’t like it, some say they can’t fit it into their agendas, just excuses.

I have talked about how great audiobooks and especially podcasts can be before, since they allow you to do other things while still enjoying a good talk or story.

Nonetheless, there is something about being able to focus on written, simple text, give your own voices to different characters, building whole worlds (and universes) in your mind and just let the time fly by.

Admit it, if you are reading this blog, you have time. Get an agenda, wake up early, stop being lazy!. I am writing this to myself but you probably relate to this too.

If you don’t know how to start, any of the mentioned books here are good choices, you can always search how many pages or words a book has, but recently I’ve realized that the important thing is not the length, but the enjoyment you get out of it. I haven’t really read anything longer than 500 pages or so. But if I the amount of time I spent reading 3 books in a week tells me something, is that as long and you get invested in the story, the number of pages doesn’t matter.

🗞 Wrapping up

I think this is the first blog I have done where I spent more than a day writing. Expressing my thoughts on this subject was quite challenging but also very fun. I found myself very surprised at the amount of reading I did, and I was so compelled by the accomplishment that I decided to write all of this.

I hope you try and find some time to read something soon too, and if you still think you don’t have it, at least exercise your mind in other ways.

This has been day 29 of #100DaystoOffload. I hope you enjoyed the blog, have a nice day.

Drink a lot of water, stay safe out there, read.