#reverb15 // Day 3 // Good reads

Kimberly Schoenauer
Dec 3, 2015
3 min read

I didn't have the opportunity to read a vast array of books this year, but I chose wisely and made the ones I did read count. Unlike previous years, I put more focus on non-fiction books. Shit I guess that means I'm growing up a little. Or something. Or, maybe I'm coming to an age where I feel like self-help/self-discovery books are more helpful than the fantasy happy endings of fiction. That being said, I DID read Shopaholic To The Stars and I loved every second of it's easy breazy chick-lit beach-vibe style. I'm a sucker for Sophie Kinsella. Sometimes you just need to get lost in something you don't have to get all philosophical about.

Then on the flip side are the books that make you OMG every other page with the realizations of truths that you know, but never really wanted to admit to yourself. One of those such books is called Capital T Truth: Little Hits from the Universe. If I were to name this book, it would be called Capital T Truth: Get Smacked in the Face Repeatedly for 39 Pages. There's a reason it's only 39 pages. Because the quote that goes "you can't handle the truth" is talking about anything at 40 pages and beyond. After 39 pages your mind will be blown and you won't be able to take any more. At least until 2016. Thought Catalog... are you working on that??

A section that spoke to me loudly, especially after my moment that was realized during the picture from yesterday's post (read here):

From the chapter called How Your Need For Certainty Disrupts Your Desire For Freedom, "Yet, we collect our stability and we root ourselves there. We say: this is who I am, these are the things I like, this is my plan, this is what I want, these are my dreams, these are my desires. We don't leave anything open to chance, not really. We stack these ideas of who we are on top of each other until we're so boxed in and so high up on this stack that any movement, any change of mind, any detour, is so filled with fear that we hold tight onto what we know based solely off the fact that the fall down is too long... ...Our desire for certainty, to root our opinions, to be right counteracts the natural state of being free. There is no freedom in certainty. We cannot be free while also dictating the future. True freedom comes from releasing what we know and stepping into what we don't. True freedom comes from surrendering to the present moment and leaving behind the stacks of baggage you've piled on yourself. You are only who you say you are. You only know what you know today. There is so much more to explore."

I have been on this self-discovery road for a while, coming closer and closer to knowing and understanding myself as a person. It's been SO important to me. Becoming authentic. It's the premise of my website forgodssakes. I've been so anxious to arrive at the knowledge of who I am. To just be certain. Then there are times like the one in that photo, where I realize, I haven't found myself at all! And I read things like this that make me realize that certainty is limiting, and that I'm not appreciating my journey one bit. Fireworks.

For $3.99 you can have this bad boy on your kindle/ipad/computer, and in a single sitting, if you can handle it, you can digest these 39 pages and get ready for some serious introspection and the courage to accept some hard realities. I'm a better person for having read it. And it won't be the last time that I do.