In this era when our attention is constantly broken up by algorithmically driven feeds and fifteen-second videos, deciding to sit down and read a book is really a form of quiet rebellion. Social media offers a continuous stream of dopamine bursts that reinforce our preexisting biases or, in the worst case, stoke our deepest anxieties. Reading deeply works in the opposite way: it provides context, creates a sense of control, and provokes thinking that endure longer than a simple scroll.
I am writing this because I think I believe how we consume information shapes how we experience the world. When I look back at my life journey across Macau, mainland China, Japan, and the United States, working in the fast-paced tech industry while finding ground in nature, I notice that the most longlasting growth usually emerged when I stepped away from information feeds and instead opened a book. Whenever things seemed overwhelming, reading in depth anchors me and helps to reset my focus.
In this post, I’m going to talk about the reading spaces that have had an impact on me, describe how I leverage my local libraries for personal development, and also note seven books which have reset my way of thinking. My wish is that by the time you’ve finished you’ll have a fresh attitude towards books and also some specific tools that you can put into practice this week.
The Magic of Libraries
It is both a civic right and a duty to have a library. In a world which is moving too quickly, libraries provide us with the basic knowledge necessary to understand complicated issues and to make wiser choices as citizens.
I remember an interesting episode from NHK’s Document 72 Hours, which was filmed at the Kanazawa Library a few years ago and interviewed borrowers with different needs. A teenaged girl and her mom were looking for recipe books for a specific pie. When they were asked why didn’t they buy a book online, the girl commented that she didn’t even know the pie’s name or ingredients, how could she search for the right book? (Well of course you can contest that with modern LLMs, she could vaguely describe the taste she crave and the chatbot could “fill in the blank” and give her plausible candidates.). When you walk along the shelves it’s similar to playing Sherlock Holmes by following one lead, you are taken to a place you never intended to end up. If you pick up a book because its spine attracts you at that moment, you immediately find yourself in a totally different discussion. This kind of serendipity is difficult to replicate. The algorithms used by Amazon or on social media’s primary job is to show you more of what you already enjoy, and serendipity is thrown in as a bonus.
Bookstores are good at curating selections, but they are still retailers. In contrast, libraries get rid of the financial obstacle to curiosity since you can take a book at any time, try it out, and return it without any burden. This kind of freedom promotes exploration beyond your normal areas in a manner that one-click purchasing seldom does.
How I Use My Local Libraries
Getting a library card is still one of the most rewarding things you can do in most communities. In many areas of the United States, reciprocal arrangements allow one card to give access to library collections that extend well beyond your own city or county.
Here’s how I use my local library systems:
Begin with where you live. Apply for either the city or county system cards. Then, check your nearby cities and counties and see if they have reciprocal lending arrangement. In Washington state’s Puget Sound region, almost all the systems offer this.
Leverage digital resources to save you a trek for returning items. Most systems provide free access to OverDrive (books and magazines), Hoopla (music & movies), Kanopy (movies), PressReader (magazines), and to premium databases such as Consumer Reports, O’Reilly, and language learning platforms such as Rosetta Stone and Mango.
Take an experimental view of the physical/digital shelves. For example, I often check out three books on a subject I’m curious about. I’ll keep one that sparks my interest and return all the rest.
Talk to the librarians. They know the ins and outs of their systems and can often recommend finds outside your knowledge. It works like asking the locals for recommendations when you travel.
Join an event or workshop in the library! You’ll be amazed by the talents in your community and pick up a new hobby or skill while at it. I’ve tried soldering, bookbinding, making a guitar amp, crafting my own mooncake and kokedama in different libraries. It’s social, fun and honestly requires nothing to start. Today’s libraries aren’t just limited to books and media. They also function as community hubs. The county libraries near my home all feature local events, workshops, makerspaces equipped with 3D printers and craft machines, curated reading lists, and the very popular museum and park passes. If you would like to begin a new hobby, improve a professional skill, or just meet other people who are interested in the same issues, the library is still one of the most overlooked high-value resources available.
The Spaces That Shape Us
It was only when I looked back at my journey with books, that I began to appreciate how bookstores I visited in various places have influenced me.
I developed a passion for books from a young age. My mother had picture books nearby when I was too little to read the words myself, which turned the act of reading into a joyful one rather than something that has to be performed for a test. When I got a bit older, the high-rise Xinhua buildings in mainland China took me further. Moving inside these multi-storey shops was similar to exploring an endless maze where you never knew what you could find. And “culture streets” such as Beijing Road in Guangzhou and Fuzhou Road in Shanghai are lined with special bookstores, each one catering to a different group of readers.
The sight of those towers and streets, containing millions of books, left me with a deep feeling of intellectual humility. Almost every area of human experience has a book about it. I realized that no matter how much I learn, I would always be a student standing at the edge of an ocean that humans can never map. Whenever I am stuck or begin to be too confident about my usual routines, I would intentionally browse the aisles that I normally skip, such as quantum physics, shipbuilding, politics, medicine, etc. Getting fresh perspectives from unknown domains is one of the most effective ways I have of breaking out of stagnation.
In Macau where I grew up, bookstores for a long time had a very practical purpose of selling textbooks and bestsellers. If you really wanted a wider and more interesting variety of books, your only option was to go over the border into those gigantic book complexes on the mainland. However, I’ve observed a gradual change in the last decade. Now small independent shops have popped up in neighbourhood corners along narrow alleys, and are operated by people who are genuinely interested in hosting talks on local heritage, urban design, and other aspects of the wider world. It breaks the mold of only catering to bestselling fads or test prep materials, and instead focusing on community and care. The change aligns with a society’s intellectual appetite, which has subtle influences in its physical surroundings.
Another trend that is harder to ignore is the brick-n-mortar vs online competition. As we see many bookstores around the world losing to online retailers, mini popups and the neighborhood corners I witness in Macau are also sprouting. When most of your books are obtained through one-click online ordering, reading can end up being no more than yet another affirmation like in the social media bubble. You only receive precisely what you requested and miss out on much of the magic that you never realized you needed. Visiting local independent bookstores, even just for a single afternoon spent browsing and talking to the owner, brings back a certain element of serendipity, human interaction and community pulse that algorithms are unable to match. Perhaps that is the altruistic reason why small shops are hanging on despite the strong headwind.
Many bookstores in China have become design destinations in their own right.Japan provided a different lesson. While visiting the thoughtfully curated Tsutaya Daikanyama or the crowded maze of antique shops in Tokyo’s Jimbocho district, the bookstores I saw there preferred intimacy. The quality of the books, the multi-disciplinary skill through which they were selected, and the quiet respect shown for the physical space all had the effect of slowing me down. Reading came to seem less like a race to gather information and more like a deliberate exercise of attention.
In the United States the indie bookstores I have spent time in usually place a stronger emphasis on human interaction. Handwritten notes from the staff are placed under the recommended books, and the store acts more like a neighborhood living room than a place for selling books. I especially love the kids section of these stores. With plush toys, puzzles, cartoon-painted walls and colorful chairs, they act more like an inviting family corner than a sterile retail space. It is a polar opposite of the repository-like book maze I grew up as a kid in Asia.
I also notice a common thread in all the bookstores I visited. In Guangzhou with its large book complexes, in the narrow streets of Macau, in antique shops in Tokyo or in small shops in the Pacific Northwest, the bookstore functions as a kind of pulse for the city. You can often sense a community’s hopes and fears by observing what is on display in the window, which tables attract people to stay awhile, and what subjects spark conversation. Each time I go to a new town, I make it a point to spend an hour in a local neighbourhood bookstore before doing anything else; the regional section and the staff’s recommendations usually tell me much more about the place than a guidebook does. For example, during my latest trip to a suburb in Tokyo, the very small bookstore above the train station (a very typical setup) featured books on these themes at the entrance: dementia and care, how to use ChatGPT, test prep for civic servant exam. This kind of information will never be found in guidebooks or influencer feeds, and can only be discovered if you browse local newspapers for an extensive period of time.
From External Spaces to Internal Mirrors
Using a quiet corner with ambient light and the intentional removal of phones, we can create an retreat corner at home for reading. Having a deliberate space separated from our daily routines, we can nudge ourselves and those around us that it’s time to move away from distracted multi-tasking and towards something more focused.
When we dive into books, we enter a world that transcends spatial and temporal limits. We can talk to people from anywhere and any time who had already been through similar experiences. The anxieties, difficulties in relationships, and doubts about our careers that we have are seldom new. Rather, many people unknown to us have lived through the same conditions countless times. A good book can act as both a shortcut to valuable wisdom gained through experience and as a kind of sympathetic listening surface for whatever you are currently carrying.
A book also acts as a mirror. When you read your favorite book five or ten years later, you will often find a complete different narrative and reflection. Even though the text remains unchanged, you have changed a lot. Reading thus becomes a long journey which brings you back to the starting point altered.
A Toolkit for the Mind: My 7 Pivotal Books
The books below are ones I have gone back to across different seasons of life. They helped during transitions, career shifts, and periods of quiet questioning. I share them with the same structure each time so the value is easy to take away: the question that drew me in, the core shift the book offers, how I have actually used it, a single sentence to remember, and three practical takeaways.
1. The Art of Thinking by Lee Tin Ming (李天命的思考藝術)
A compass for staying clear in the noise
- Question: We receive enormous amounts of information every day. How much of our judgment is being shaped by emotion and hidden bias without our noticing?
- Theme: Building a clearer framework for logical and linguistic precision.
- Reflection: The book keeps returning to the idea that many thinking traps hide inside ambiguous language. In cross-functional work and product design, I have seen how vague shared definitions at the start almost guarantee derailment later. This book helps me slow down, define terms carefully, and stay oriented when discussions become emotionally charged.
- Summary: Logical thinking is less about winning arguments and more about seeing yourself and the situation clearly.
- Core Insights:
- Clarifying concepts is the necessary first step for any productive conversation.
- Watch for cognitive biases dressed up in emotionally loaded language.
- Independent thinking requires the willingness to question what everyone treats as common sense.
2. The Courage to Be Disliked by Ichiro Kishimi & Fumitake Koga (嫌われる勇気)
Permission to stop living for other people’s expectations
- Question: Adler’s observation that “all problems are interpersonal relationship problems” still feels true. How much energy do we spend trying to manage how others see us?
- Theme: Reclaiming emotional autonomy through the separation of tasks.
- Reflection: The line “How others evaluate you is their task; you cannot control it” landed hard. Staying oriented toward a larger vision almost always requires saying no to many things so the few that matter receive enough attention. Trying to keep everyone happy is a reliable way to dilute what you are actually responsible for.
- Summary: Freedom includes the willingness to be disliked while remaining true to your own values.
- Core Insights:
- Past experience does not dictate the future; present choices and purpose do.
- Practice separating tasks: do not take on what belongs to others, and do not let others take on what belongs to you.
- A sense of contribution to community is central to feeling that life is worthwhile.
3. Danshari by Hideko Yamashita (断捨離)
Decluttering as a conversation with yourself
- Question: How much of what we keep, physical or digital, is held onto “just in case” rather than because it serves life right now?
- Theme: Shifting the center of gravity from the object back to the person living in the present.
- Reflection: The reminder that “the protagonist of decluttering is not the object, but yourself; the timeline is always now” helped during a trans-Pacific move when I kept over-preparing for every possible future. Whether dealing with closets or digital files, keeping only what serves the present tends to lighten both systems and mind.
- Summary: Letting go of anxiety about the future and attachment to the past returns space to the person you are today.
- Core Insights:
- An item’s value is determined by whether it serves you now, not by its past cost or hypothetical future use.
- Decluttering is largely a practice of clarifying mental priorities.
- Owning less often creates more available attention, time, and emotional room.
4. Time is Good Medicine by Hiruma Eiko (時間はくすり)
Learning to wait without forcing
- Question: In a culture that demands instant solutions, what happens when some forms of healing simply require time?
- Theme: Developing a more patient relationship with low periods and transitions.
- Reflection: The gentle insistence that time itself can be a healing agent has stayed with me. There have been seasons when the most useful thing I could do was stop trying to fix everything immediately and allow the situation to unfold. That restraint is harder than it sounds and often more effective than constant intervention.
- Summary: Time may not solve every problem, but it frequently gives you the strength to carry them until they resolve.
- Core Insights:
- Respect the natural rhythm of certain processes instead of demanding immediate answers.
- Emotional processing takes time; covering discomfort too quickly can prolong it.
- Steady, non-dramatic presence is often the most useful support you can offer yourself or someone else.
5. Community Design by Ryo Yamazaki (コミュニティデザイン)
Building connection rather than just infrastructure
- Question: Why do so many people feel isolated in cities that possess sophisticated physical infrastructure?
- Theme: Prioritizing lasting human relationships over one-time spectacles.
- Reflection: The observation that it is better to create a place ten thousand people want to return to a hundred times than a facility a million people visit once has shaped how I think about community projects, local publications, and even questions of overtourism. The goal becomes sustainable belonging rather than momentary attention.
- Summary: Real design work is less about buildings and more about the quality of interactions they make possible.
- Core Insights:
- A community’s health depends more on members’ voluntary participation than on top-down programming.
- Investing in human relationships is usually more durable than investing only in physical infrastructure.
- Good community design helps people find meaningful roles rather than remaining spectators.
6. Forty, A Brand New Start by Yataro Matsuura (40歳のためのこれから術)
Treating the middle of life as a beginning
- Question: The traditional idea that one becomes free of doubt at forty rarely matches the actual experience of standing at the midpoint and feeling newly uncertain.
- Theme: Reframing midlife as a chance to recalibrate rather than a decline.
- Reflection: Matsuura’s insistence that forty can be a starting line rather than an ending arrived at a useful moment in my own career transition. It gave permission to treat the second half of life as open territory still available for curiosity and revision.
- Summary: Midlife can be approached as a reset by traveling lighter, with more attention to experience than accumulation.
- Core Insights:
- Physical and mental changes can be met with acceptance rather than resistance to youthful standards.
- Shifting emphasis from external achievement toward internal richness often becomes possible at this stage.
- Every transition, even difficult ones, can become material for the years ahead.
7. Zizhi Tongjian (Comprehensive Mirror for Aid in Governance) by Sima Guang (資治通鑑)
Using the long view of history as ballast
- Question: When short-term turbulence or high-stakes decisions arrive, where do you find an orientation that is larger than the immediate noise?
- Theme: Developing strategic patience and clearer insight into recurring human and organizational patterns.
- Reflection: Reading across centuries of rises, falls, miscalculations, and recoveries made the present feel less unprecedented. Whether in technical projects or community dynamics, many crises that feel unique are variations on long-standing patterns of incentive and organization. The book trained a habit of stepping back and asking what the longer arc suggests before reacting.
- Summary: History does not repeat mechanically, yet human nature and systemic dynamics remain reliable mirrors for decision-making.
- Core Insights:
- Clever short-term tactics cannot rescue a system whose long-term alignment is broken.
- Studying incentives across historical cycles builds a more durable form of patience.
- Learning from earlier mistakes is often cheaper than repeating them yourself.
Conclusion
Rather than treating reading as a passive kill-time hobby, we can view it as an ongoing conversation between your current self and the collective wisdom of many who’ve treaded the same road. Whether you walk into your local library this weekend, spend an hour in an independent bookstore, or sit down with one of the books above, I hope you can consider a shift of how you consume information: step away from the feed for something that will sink in and subtly change you in the future.
You can start with these:
- Get a library card and explore one digital resource or attend an event you are not familiar with.
- Remake a small corner of your home as an inviting reading place: chair, light, and clear boundary between it and other hustles.
- Choose a book from the list that applies to a issue you face currently, and read it slowly with a notebook nearby.
- Visit the largest library or an independent bookstore near you, and deliberately browse an aisle you would normally skip.