Reading as a job

In a recent newsletter, Ryan Holiday wrote about reading as a job:

A lot of [reading well] has come down to identifying as a professional reader, and by that I don’t just mean I read as part of my job as a writer or a bookstore owner, but that I see reading as my job.

It makes me a better person. It makes me a better parent. It makes me a better husband. It makes me a better boss. It makes me better at everything I do. So I take it seriously. I invest in learning how to do it well.

Well, reading surely doesn't pay the bills. But it will pay off.

I didn't read for a decade in my childhood, and I look back at that period of my life with regret.

Yet, I still feel guilty reading during my workday because the payoff is not obvious or immediate. So, I like Holiday's framing of reading as a job. It is similar to how having an identity makes forming a habit easier. If you want to break your ice cream addiction, saying "I don't eat ice cream" works much better than "I don't want ice cream".

So, I am a reader. And I'm off to read some books now.