As a child, one of my all-time favorite hobbies was reading (yes, even more than music!)– it’s how I got so into writing. In fact, both my sister and I used to read so much that during our weekly trips to the library, my parents had to finally set a limit: we could only check out as many books as was our current age (imagine my excitement at age ten)! As a lover of libraries in childhood and volunteer at my community library for a decade, I plan to provide the same library experience to my future children as well. However, a majority of the books I’ve read were either before the age of 17, or after having turned 27, and this I blame on the college lifestyle and education system. Don’t get me wrong- I place very high priority on education even for topics that, at the time, are seemingly irrelevant; simply taking in knowledge & creating dialogue with fellow students can greatly expand your intellectual capacity and unlock the potential to become more open-minded and continually knowledge-seeking rather than believing things just because that is what you’re told. 

My love for the library and the peace and tranquility it provides as a result of reading, reflection, and creative expression in a safe space is the reason I excelled in all of my papers in all of my advanced English courses, and it is the reason I continue to give such importance to reading, writing, and education today. As a child and teenager, I read a lot of fiction novels; my tastes ranged from horror, thrillers, and dystopian to teen romance and young-adult character development. As I grew older, I began to prefer inspirational fiction, and most recently, I am getting into a lot more spirituality, self-health, and personal growth and development. Now that I am no longer paying thousands of dollars to be told what and when to read material on which I will later be tested, I am free to explore in the way I was able to when I was a child. A whole new world of knowledge and new perspectives has opened up once again and I can soak it all in, write it all out, and really educate myself on matters I feel are worthwhile and meaningful to my self and my life.

Below is a link to my account on GoodReads, where you can rate books you’ve read to get recommendations, create a wishlist on you personal e-bookshelf, and share your lists with friends and other members of the GoodReads community. I have also included links to Youtube videos of two of my favorite Youtubers talking about their most recent favorite books and recommendations. 

Join Me At Goodreads here 

Kalyn Nicholson’s Fall Must-Read Books 

Shir Levi’s Favorite Spiritual & Self-Help Books

“In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you.” -Unknown 

“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one.”

“We lose ourselves in books; we find ourselves there, too.”

“Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.”

“You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, who had ever been alive.”

“The best moments in reading are when you come across something – a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things – which you had thought special and particular to you. Now here it is, set down by someone else, a person you have never met, someone even who is long dead. And it is as if a hand has come out and taken yours.” -Alan Bennett