The epic fail of a numbers game....LOL

One of my great friends sent me this video the other day for me to appreciate the beauty of the divine symmetry of a circle. I am certainly grateful to his thoughtfulness, especially when I found it infinitely amusing to watch and I almost fell off my chair laughing...because...

* It was so outrageously wrong *

And the mistakes were so trivial that I have to write about it... haha..

Now watch it first..

For the sake of whoever reading this I am skipping all the mathematics. Let's not miss the fun part. But in case you want a full mathematical proof, tell me. This video claimed that the theory was from Nikola Tesla [Read Here]. But I really doubt it. If to my total ignorance, that any of the things I mentioned below is wrong, please let me know.

#1 God may have created the beauty of a circle but he did not make it 360 degrees. Human did. There is nothing divine about it and there is no code.

As to the first question why there are 360 degrees, you can take a historical approach [Read here]. I believe we keep using it because it is a handy number (i.e. it has a lot of factors). If say, we have 100 degrees in a circle instead, how many degrees are there in an internal angel of an equilateral triangle? 16.66666666666666... degrees (instead of the elegant 60). 

#2 When we bisect a circle and sum up the digits of an angle. It doesn't always 'reduce' to 9. 

First of all, why do we have to sum all the digits of an angle by the way. This is making no mathematical sense. But since it's the rule of the game, let's follow.

If a circle is a cake, we cut it once, each slice has 180 degrees. True.
We cut it twice, each slice has 90 degrees. Still True.
We cut it 3 times, each slice has 60 degrees. *FAIL*

His theory only works if we cut the cake in a power of 2 number of times. i.e. 2, 4, 8, 16....

#3 The sum of the internal angles of a polygon doesn't always 'reduce' to 9, too

Well...there is actually an easier way to do so. The sum of all interior angles of a polygon equals to:

(no. of sides - 2) X 180

So what about a polygon with 13 sides? 1980. *FAIL*
(Of course if you sum 1 and 8 it gives 9 too. But there is nothing magical about it. It's just a characteristic of all multiples of 9....)

#4 No. We don't call this a "singularity"...

If we divide 1 by 0, this is a singularity. It appears when a mathematical function is indifferentiable or discontinuous. [Read here]

#5 Nor a "vacuum", unless he's referring to quantum mechanics... 

*shake head* [Read here]

#6 These are not vectors "communicate" an "outward divergence", unless he's referring to fluid mechanics...

*sigh* [Read here]  

#7 This is not linear duality either. It's a programming technique for optimization...

*cross arms*  [Read here] 

#8 Yes this is meaningless. But no this is not even numerology. This is just a (failed) numbers game.

*face palm* [Read here]

# 9 And above all, his explanation of all these "reduce to 9" thingy left me speechless....

"9 models everything and nothing simultaneously"... I wonder if I should understand this sentence as science or literature, because neither way seems to make any sense....

My infinite astonishment converges elegantly into a single exclamation of

W.T.H.

Proust and the Proust questionnaire

Even my dearest friend who studied literature thinks Proust's text can be quite painful to swallow, it might be hard to imagine someone who was trained to be an engineer loves Proust. Yes I do. But his work is not meant to be swallowed. It has to be chewed, carefully, thoughtfully, until it resonates with your mind, perfectly aligns with your feelings, and you will understand why he is one of the most sophisticated writers in human history.

Still in his teens, his friend asked him to answer a series of questions about life, feelings and aspirations. These questions were very difficult to answer even for adults. But our dear Proust, not surprisingly, nailed it. If you are interested to know Proust's answers, read here. Since he was so famous, the questionnaire was then named after him.

Here is my take. I had fun thinking through each of these questions. I strongly recommend you to try them too! Enjoy! :)


1. What is your idea of perfect happiness?

I don't think perfect happiness really exists. But the illusion of perfect happiness can exist retrospectively in a form of consciously or unconsciously manipulated memory. And people are happy only when they have the desire to be happy.

2. What is your most marked characteristic?

Contradiction: Simple and complicated. Artsy and scientific. Passionate and cold. Timid and adventurous. Everything comes in pairs.

3. What is your greatest fear?

Not being loved.

4. Which historical figure do you most identify with?

I can only think of Yves Saint Laurent.

5. Which living person do you most admire?

I thought there would be many. But in the end I can only think of my mom.

6. What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?

I can't force myself to do the things I don't like or stop doing the things I like.

7. What is the trait you most deplore in others?

Dishonesty.

8. What is your greatest extravagance?

To have an unlimited amount of time to do only the things I love.

9. What is your current state of mind?

Slightly upset because Q8 seems to be unachievable.

10. What do you consider the most overrated virtue?

Courage. I consider it a necessity instead of a virtue.

11. On what occasion do you lie?

Either to someone so important that I can't afford to upset, but not important enough to sacrifice my happiness. Or to others who are too unimportant to feel guilty.

12. What do you most dislike about your appearance?

It depends. Sometimes nothing. Sometimes everything.

13.  Which living person do you most despise?

Those who pretend they like you more than they really do, to get the attention more than they really deserve.

14. What is the quality you most like in a man?

Elegance.

15. What is the quality you most like in a woman?

Elegance, too.

16. Which words or phrases do you most overuse?

"I don't care!"

17. What or who is your greatest love of your life?

Myself and this is very sad.

18. Which talent would you most like to have?

To love everything I think I love truly, deeply, madly.

19. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

To live my childhood again with my current mentality.

20. What do you consider as your greatest achievement?

I make a few people happy simply because I exist.

21. If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?

Myself as a man but with the memory of being a woman.

22. Where would you like to live?

Paris. Anywhere with someone loves me I love.

23. What is your most treasured possession?

My boundless curiosity.

24. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?

Living under the fear of a miserable future.
Wake up from a dream where you see the one you love who is lost forever in real life.

25. What is your favourite occupation?

To lose track of time in art of all forms. Writings, paintings, music, nature, love.

26. What do you most value in your friends?

Communication through the brain to share the thoughts and feelings. Not through non-sense or emoji.

27. Who are your favourite writers?

Oscar Wilde. Marcel Proust, Franz Kafka, Milan Kundera. And the painters who put their creative mind into words, most notably Vincent Van Gogh.

28. Who is your hero of fiction.

If life is considered a work of fiction, then Yves Saint Laurent.

29. Who is your favourite artist?

Renaissance artists: Michelangelo, Raphael. Portrait painters: Velasquez, Rembrandt. Tortured masters: Goya, Van Gogh

30. Who is your favourite musician?

Chopin.

31. Who are your heroes in real life?

My future husband.

32. What is it that you most dislike?

Losing control of my time for someone/something that doesn't worth my time.

33. What is your greatest regret?

I have lost the feeling of being a child as I grow up.

34. How would you like to die?

Right after my own funeral. So that I know how I would be remembered.

35. What is your motto?

"Life is too important to be taken seriously"  - Oscar Wilde

Why I stopped drawing photo

Read carefully haha. I am not saying I stopped drawing. I stopped drawing photos.

I think I mentioned my teachers hate people drawing photos, or drawings that look like photos. I can finally understand why.

You can never develop yourself into an artist if all you want is to make drawings that look like photos. Ever.

There are masters who can draw based on photos too, I know. But like I said, they are masters, and masters already have the personality that can shine through their work. So they can work on the images skillfully without losing themselves. For beginners, it's a nightmare to do so. Let me tell you why.

Type "realistic drawing" on Google and search for images.

Right. These are all drawings. Amazing?

Can you tell whether they are photos or drawings? No. Can you tell they were all made by different artists? No. Do you find anything special about these drawings? No. So what's the point of making them? No, not at all.

You can totally understand art differently. But to me art is something that communicates directly to my heart, not my brain. Just like listening to a great piece of classical music you let it guide your emotions until it hits a certain note, so perfectly, you cry. That's the tear of joy. This is something one cannot explain. But at that brief moment, you understand the composer, you know his feelings, so distinctively that it can't be mistaken to be someone else's. 

To learn art, you learn to express yourself through your lines. Consciously or unconsciously you're giving a piece of yourself in whatever thing you produce. Drawings that look like photos in other words hide all the uniqueness of the artist. Yes it impresses the general public but the work is empty. And the emptiness kills art.   

So what makes a great drawing? It can never be wrong to go back to the Italian masters. 

Leonardo Da Vinci

Michelangelo 

Raphael

These are all very simple sketches. But they are more than enough to show you the sophistication of Leonardo, the power of Michelangelo, and the sensibility of Raphael.

I also happened to find a great resource from the British Museum, showing 60 years of drawings by Michelangelo. Enjoy! :) [ Click here ] 

I hope I can buy the catalog of this exhibition but it seems it's all sold out :-<

Letter from an unknown wo(man)

No I am not in love. Not yet. But a pleasant surprise allowed me to gain a glimpse of it, through the keyhole of the door of love, which is, however, still firmly shut.

I don't know how this dear friend of mine can always find the right thing for me at the right time. He recommended me to read a book called "Letter from an unknown woman" by Stefan Zweig written in 1922 (!) [ This is the book I got ]. It was about a desperate woman who finally found the courage to write a letter to a man whom she loved obsessively right before she took her last breath. She spent her entire life spinning around the man who couldn't even recognize her. A very sad story. You can feel her flaming love through the words, so powerful that it can almost burn you.

I see a little bit of myself in the man, a little bit of myself in the woman. I am spoiled. Spoiled rotten by my parents and a special friend who will be eager to read this post the moment I press "Publish". They are the people who are willing to hear what I am going to say, who care to know what I think of them, but will nevertheless love me all the same.

I feel blessed to be spoiled. But it's a happy sad thing. I am so eager to know what does it feel like to love someone unconditionally. I need a burning passion, not only towards art, towards adventures, but also towards other people, till then my life is complete.

May be I still haven't met the right person, or I still haven't learned how to let my emotions flow. But no I am not cold-hearted. I am sensitive. I am delicate. I know it's all inside me. All I need is a key, or someone who's kind enough to answer the door.

Knock, Knock. Please, let me in.

A beautiful book: A beautiful fall

It all started with a Yves Saint Laurent movie that I watched back in early Dec 2014. I wrote about it [Click]. And I drew something like 4-5 Yves Saint Laurent in a row [Click and Click]. Then I bought a book, and it took me nearly 2 months to finally finish reading it....

Well in fact, I think I have spent more time on Google and Wikipedia than on the book itself.

The Beautiful Fall: Fashion, Genius and Glorious Excess in 1970s Paris

[Click here to reach amazon page] because you probably can't get it anywhere in Hong Kong

It was not a huge book (around 400 pages). The kindle version is selling for only USD 11.99. Considering the author spent 5.5 years running around the world interviewing some 130 celebrities, this book certainly worth your time and money. As a matter of fact, this is actually the only book that I read EVERY SINGLE WORD from forward to epilogue, even the appendix and thank you notes. I think I don't really need to tell you how much I love this book.

But beware. You need to enjoy the book with an open mind. You need to be completely open about people being gay, about people taking drugs, people acting completely reckless, living in ecstasy and ready to burn themselves alive. It's a brutally honest book about youth, about how the most beautiful people turned into sad, old and lonely souls. How talents turned into sorrow, fantasy turned into depression. The first half of the book takes you to the wonderland of Paris in the 1970s, "the glorious excess". Then the second half of the book kicks you back to the reality, where you can almost see with your eyes how exactly these "beautiful" people "fall".

I'd call it a very sad book despite it is all about the most glamorous people on the planet. Life is cruel and whatever happened to these people will happen to me and you, too. You'd see a little bit of yourself from everyone. You can be a kid who refused to grow up. You can be a successful person who stuck in your past. You can be completely clueless. You can be striving hard. No matter how you're living your life, time flies. The sands in the hourglass will keep slipping through your fingers. And one day, you will wake up and wonder how your hair turned grey.

There are a lot of quotes that I'd love to share from this book. But I have chosen these 2 by Yves Saint Laurent, both in his later years. It perfectly resonates with the emptiness that the beautiful book left me:

****

"People think decadence is debauched. 

Decadence is simply something very beautiful that is dying. 

It's a beautiful flower that is dying 

and sometimes you have to wait a very long time for another flower to come along."

****

"The magnificent and pitiful family of the hypersensitive are the salt of the earth. 

I, without knowing it, was a part of that family. It is my own. 

I did not choose this tragic descent, 

but through it I was able to rise to the heavens of creativity, 

where I come across the fire-makers that Rimbaud spoke of, 

discovering myself and understanding that the most important encounter in one's life 

is that with oneself."

*I don't belong to the hypersensitive family...do I??

The hourglass of Dali

After my Duchamp sketch below, I immediately made another Dali Sketch. The earlier drawings of Dali was actually the VERY FIRST portrait I drew in my entire life. And it's now quite embarrassing to look at... (See Dali [1] and Dali [2], although Dali 2 was more a cartoon than a drawing.)

So I started searching for photos of Dali again. The reason why I am so obsessed with him is that there are a lot of interesting photos available, from being young and handsome, to becoming more mature (with his mustache growing ever longer). 

My friends (the very few who bother to know who Dali is)
disagreed that he was handsome. Now look at this.

And This.

(It could possibly make a good Calvin Klein Commercial)

And he got crazier....

.....crazier

.....and yet, crazier....

As I keep searching, I found some rare photos of Dali during his last years. They touched my heart, so deeply that I couldn't help but made another sketch of Dali after midnight...

If you think of Dali, you think of his signature mustache and his huge eyes, full of life, full of energy, full of confidence. It made him a very unique person, very Dali. However the Dali here looked almost vulnerable. He was probably in his seventies. And the intense power in his eyes, that once made him the most fascinating person to look at, has left him.

However rich, however beautiful, however invincible you are,

you will have to face the eventual decline of life. 

Time is cruel, and it's just as cruel to me as to you.

Everybody is equally helpless.

Dali's most famous painting, "The persistence of memory" was about time. If it's the first time you look at this painting, I resist the urge to tell you the academic interpretations of his work. Surrealism is to be felt, not to be explained anyways.

Salvador Dali, 1931
The persistence of memory, oil on canvas

This is probably one of the last pictures of Dali I can find online. His mustache now grew all white. His fierce stare was nowhere to be seen. Dali , for the first time, looked calm and relaxed in a photo.

To balance out the unusual seriousness of this post, I decided to make a cartoon of this picture. XD

Everybody will eventually be memories of the others, 

but every breath you take is a miracle of yourself.

So make it count.

My September Reading List

I was in Paris last month so most of the books that I read in September were about Paris: the city, the culture, the people, the art and the food. I am amazed some of these books gave really accurate descriptions of what I have actually experienced. Others would give you way more insights than any other guidebooks would do. If you love art and if particularly impressionism, I'd strongly suggest you to read the books that I recommend below before you go to Paris. It will help you develop your own understanding about the artists and the movement. I talked to my painting teacher after my trip and he agreed this is indeed the best way to experience art :)

*Click the image to view details of the books on Amazon

Paris, Paris: Journey into the city of light
By David Downie

If I am going to read only one book about Paris this is it. David Downie is unarguably a very good writer. There are a lot of people who like his style. However from the Amazon reviews, there are also a few who hate it. To me, I am totally in love with this book. But if you're using it as a normal guidebook you'll be disappointed, as it is clearly for adventurers instead of general tourists. In his book he would take you through a walking tour along the Seine River, the Ile St Louis, Pere Lachaise Cemetery, the Luxembourg Garden  etc, telling you stories about these places with a unique sense of humor (which can sometimes be borderline mean but funny). I booked my trip to Auvers-Sur-Oise (a small village 27km from Paris, where Van Gogh shot himself dead) before I realized there is a chapter in this book about this place too. Most of the places that I picked to visit in Paris were not at all common. I am grateful how I managed to find this book that happened to cover almost everything I like.

There was another book called "Secrets of Paris" in my August reading list. While I still think it's a good read, I now know a lot more about Paris and I'd say a lot of things mentioned in that book were more for entertainment than being the reality.

Intoxicating Paris
By PJ Adams

This book is about the culture and the people in Paris, rather than the city itself. I started reading it before my trip however I didn't have time to finish it until I was on my return flight. But it turned out to be the perfect time to read this book. I have to tell you, the description was PRECISE, and you won't know until you've actually met and talked to the French people. This book managed to keep my reading light on almost during the entire flight, and my favourite chapter was chapter 3 haha.. :-$

Mastering the Art of French Eating: Lessons in Food and Love From A Year In Paris
By Ann Mah

There are a lot of books written about food in Paris. I picked this one because it was written by an American woman of Chinese origin who spent a year alone in Paris. I'd like to know what it's like for an Asian woman to live in the city of romance. I would call this book a food discovery journal and a cookbook, because there is a recipe at the end of every chapter. This book will definitely make you feel hungry as the author is very good at describing food. After reading it I decided to take a cooking class in Paris, making crepes :)

Forever Paris: 25 Walks in the Footsteps of Chanel, Hemingway, Picasso and More
By Christina Henry de Tessan

This book is a concise version of "Paris, Paris: Journey into the City of Light". If you like any of the famous people mentioned in the book you should definitely read it. There is a short description of each person, not exactly a biography but only the essential things that you need to know, followed by a map suggesting the route that you should take to follow his/her footsteps. The direction is extremely clear. I'd say it's the most tourist-friendly book out of all the books that I read in September.

The Private Lives of the Impressionists
By Sue Roe

Sue Roe is probably one of the most popular writers about the biographies of artists of the 19th- 20th Century. If you read this book before visiting the 5th floor of Musee D'Orsay in Paris you can probably lead a private impressionism art tour to subsidize your trip. This book is one of the most comprehensive books about the impressionists that I know. Her new book "In Montmartre: Picasso, Matisses and Modernism in Paris 1900- 1910" was featured in the Musee D'Orsay book store when I was there last month. And it probably will appear on my October reading list ;)

Van Gogh: The Life
By Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith

This book is a huge book about Van Gogh, and is by far the best besides "the letters of Van Gogh" (928 letters written by the artist himself to his brother Theo, a must-read for anyone who wants to know more about Van Gogh). It was written like a fiction with a great deal of history. If you're very much into the artist like I am, you'd probably enjoy reading it a lot. But if you're not, I'd suggest you to read his letters first.

Hmmm....many of my friends refer Van Gogh as an impressionism artist. To be exact he is not. People usually call him post-impressionist, a name given to a group of young and rebellious artists in Paris of the late 20th century who refused to conform to traditions. They were inspired by almost everything: the impressionists, the chaotic city life in Paris, the nature, the Realism masters, even the Japanese paintings and Chinese art. They have very diverse styles and their personal lives were almost as interesting as their works. 

My August reading list

Instead of writing full length book reviews, I guess I will just write short summaries about the books that I have been reading. I will try to make this a monthly update. I hope I will be able to give you some inspirations on what is good to read.

***There are amazon links attached to the pictures of the books below, you can click to read the reviews and the descriptions of the books :)



Secret of Paris: Paris for beginners: An insider's guide 
by Vernon Coleman

I fell off my chair laughing a dozen of times reading this book. It's a book about Paris: the cafes, the people, the traffic, the history...everything. If you wonder why this supposed to be boring topics can be so funny. Read this:

I hope I won't get into some copyright issues by quoting the book this way. All credits go to the awesome author of this book :)

There are lots of funny paragraphs like this in the book, and it is still incredibly practical for someone who's going to Paris. I got this for USD 4.99 but it's now selling for USD 0.99. T_T

I think the discount is only valid until tomorrow. If you are going to Paris and need a guidebook that's fun to read, buy it now.




Impressionism: The History, The Artists, The Masterpieces 
by V. Kuvatova

I don't know why this book is selling for only USD 1.35 because art-books with pictures are generally quite expensive. I expect the book to be extremely shallow but indeed, it's informative even for someone like me who already knows a bit about arts. I have sent this book as a gift to one of my dear friends. This book is an impressionism 101. It covers several most famous impressionism artists, their important works and their lives. It's a short book, very easy to read and understand.

If you are planning a trip to Paris and wish to know more about the artworks that you're going to see, or if you simply want to impress someone who loves art. This book is a foolproof investment (of only USD1.35 and no more than a few hours of your time). LOL




Inferno 
by Dan Brown

Disclaimer: I am a HUGE Dan Brown fan. If you love Dan Brown, you will love this book.

If you ask me why I love Dan Brown's novels, I'd say it's because his books help you expand your horizons. It's entertaining, as well as "educational". I don't know how many Dan Brown fans would do this, but whatever facts that were quoted in the book, I would look them up and dig deeper. So by the time you finished reading this book, you would find yourself so familiar with the city Florence, and the artists and writers (Botticelli and Dante).

A side note: this book will be made into a movie by Sony Pictures to be released in Dec 2015. Yay!!!




Not in time
by Shawna Seed

I love this book so much that as soon as I finished reading it I wrote an review.
[ Read here ! ]

Not in time

I have been relatively quiet these few days because I have dived into a book - Not in time

It's a suspense novel related to art history, and part of the story was set in Paris (which were the reasons why I got the book). I have to say the amazon reviews are confusing. If you're looking for something like Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code", you'll be disappointed. I am always impressed with Dan Brown's thorough research on everything he wrote. However, half of the artworks quoted in this book were imaginary. But I don't think it's fair to compare Shawna Seed to Dan Brown because, if you don't already know, his wife is an art historian and painter, who co-writes almost all of his novels. 2 brains work better than one, true? (Guys, marry someone smart!)

In a smart way, Shawna Seed worked around this by adding more elements in the book to keep the readers happy: a little bit of mystery, a great deal of romance, and very likable characters who you can easily relate to. I actually see a lot of myself in Gen, the main character in the book, who is quiet, shy, self-conscious, socially awkward, mentally active, loves art, adores Paris, admires impressionists, loves cats, always blushes at the wrong time (and hates it), eats standing up in the kitchen (lol)... You can now probably see why I love this book so much. It's funny, and almost miraculous, how it powerfully resonates with me.

"So what do you love about art?"

"I like the way you can look at something an artist created hundreds of years ago, something that captures a moment of life, and that moment can still feel real centuries later. Passion, love, loss... So much of the world feels temporary, but a really great piece of art is timeless"

SPOT. ON.

Quick maths behind the ice bucket challenge...

Despite the number of psychology books that I read, sometimes I find human behavior is indeed quite difficult to understand. For example, the ice bucket challenge that went viral.

I know this thing is here for a good reason: to raise the awareness of ALS (Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis). But honestly, how many people who tried to freeze their brains by throwing ice water over their heads bother to know what does ALS stand for?


But I am not here to discuss whether it's stupid or smart to do the challenge. I am here to do some simple maths:


**********************************************************

Each person in the ice bucket challenge nominates 3 other people to do the same within the next 24 hours. So the number of people pouring ice water grows 3 times every day.

• Assume there are 7 billion people in the world, in 21.27 days the entire population would have poured ice water once.

• Assume only the people living in developed countries have access to clean water, and 10% of them did the challenge, using a 20 cm X 30 cm X 40 cm ice bucket. We could have wasted 2.4 million cubic meter of water (or 960 Olympic-sized swimming pools), in a little more than 2 weeks.

OK. This is all I want to say. Judge it yourself : P

About reading

Yet every human is unique, our feelings and our needs do not diverse as much across different cultures over time. Chances are, every question that makes you scratch your head was already asked a thousand times by the others even before you were born. Every problem that you face in life must already be conquered by someone, somewhere. There must be a solution to everything. You can either sit here, hoping to be hit by miracles and enlightenment (that happen once in a hundred years). Or reach out and seek help.

Unless you're lucky enough to have a mentor who is always by your side to guide you through life, books are always your best friends and will never let you drown in despair.

There are a great variety of books that I am interested in: art, science, finance, health, psychology, cooking, and occasionally novels as well. Recently I am very much into self-help books. One of my friends once told me he never believed in any self-help books and thought they were a waste of time. I guess it very much depends on which stage of life you're in. You can't find a parenting book helpful if you're not planning to have kids. To me, every self-help book helps. Of course some of them are easier to understand, while others may take you a little more patience. You need to keep an open mind to let things inspire you. My point is, it doesn't really hurt you if the books you read can't solve your problems. But you hit a jackpot if it does. So why not give it a try?

How to pick a good book

My suggestion is to go to amazon.com and type something that you're interested. There are books about EVERYTHING that you can think of.

How to start a riot...LOL

Once you've found your topic, read about the authors of the books on your list. Study a bit more about his/her background, and see if he/she is reputable in that area. If you want to read about dieting, ask yourself do you like the author to be a scientist or a supermodel? they may approach the same problem in completely different ways.

Another useful way to pick a good book is to read the amazon reviews. Read the most popular ones as well as the ones that rated the book 1 star. Try to understand why these people love/hate the book and see if they make sense.

How to read a book

I have read a book about how to read a book. One interesting tip was, try not to read from the beginning till the end. Of course there are books that are truly page-tuners. But more often you will find several chapters in a book less interesting than the others. And most people will just stop there and give up reading. Next time when you read and find yourself losing interest in that book, jump directly to the next chapter. You'd rather skip something uninteresting than to miss out the more inspiring content that follows.

No time to read?

Really? What about the time that you spend on facebook, whatsapp, wechat, twitter, instagram, tv, youtube...I normally read on the bus before work, and after dinner before I go to bed. I read ebooks instead of physical books. I have installed amazon's kindle app on my iphone, ipad and laptop. This awesome app automatically synchronizes all your reading devices and remembers where you stop at.

You don't have to read only one book at a time

Thanks to the amazon kindle app, it's easy for me to switch from one book to another. Sometimes you may feel tired reading about the same topic and it is a good idea to take a break and read something else. I am currently reading a novel (Dan Brown's Inferno), a self-help book (Jen Sincero's You're a badass) and a book about behavioral science (Daniel Kahneman's Thinking fast, and slow). These books are covering completely different areas. So when I have too much of one thing, I switch to another.

My friends, I hope this entry encourages you to read more.

Keep learning!

XOXO