These are excerpts from the author’s book “Deep,” which contains eight of his small books published in the form of Wisdom Literature covering different aspects of life: Facing troublemakers, dealing with pain, personal financial issues, gastronomy, reading, criticizing, inspiring, and feeling always good to go.

Series 5: Reading.

Stop Reading for a While

• Don’t worry if you feel inclined to stop reading for any length of time. To stop reading does not mean to stop thinking.

• Look at any period of stopping reading, whether compulsive or intentional, as if it were a recovery period in which you regain your mental fitness after a long status of reading glut.

• A reading pause is useful and refreshing, especially when it is not for a long time. But that does not mean it is mandatory if you find yourself reading with interest and pleasure and do not feel any annoying restrictions on the rest of your life aspects.

• A reading pause provides time to reflect on what you have read and what you can do next. Feel free to ask yourself during the reading pause any relevant question you encounter, even if the question is about the usefulness of reading in general. Don’t worry; this is the best period to ask questions about reading in general and to get convincing answers.

• If you take a long break from reading without accomplishing anything, including positively reviewing your previous reading performance and refreshing your mind, it is best to push yourself back to reading, not necessarily all at once but at least gradually.

• Don’t let the illusion of giving up reading and pursuing any other hobby or work occupy you during the reading pause period. Reading is not a full-time job or a job you perform along with other work. Rather, it is a healthy mental practice that permeates your life in all its aspects in the way you see fit.

• Use your reading pause to discover new authors from different perspectives and horizons. Add some of their books to your want-to-read list for when you come back to reading.

• Thinking or dreaming about writing must have knocked on the minds of every reader in one way or another. Don’t worry if you find yourself unable to write professionally. Deep reading actually involves rewriting the read text in view of the reader’s critical questions and interactive relationship with the text. Just be sure to express your questions and interactions in a simple way to get involved in rewriting the text, or even coming up with innovative ideas. Reading pause is a good chance to evaluate such potential and enhance the possibility for relevant achievement.

• If during a specifically timed reading pause you feel an urgent desire to return to reading a book before that period expires, do not hesitate to do so. You can count that return to reading a particular book as if it were a time out from the reading break itself. Resume the rest of the break later, after you finish reading the book. Otherwise, you can be satisfied with that amount of reading pause if you feel that it has achieved its goals early and you have taken the necessary recovery to return with a new spirit to continue reading.

• A reading break should not only end with returning to reading refreshed with a new spirit and a scattered set of lessons learned. It is also best to have at the end of the break an overall updated reading regime interspersed with reading breaks as felt useful and further needed.

• Don’t worry if you feel inclined to stop reading for any length of time. To stop reading does not mean to stop thinking.

• Look at any period of stopping reading, whether compulsive or intentional, as if it were a recovery period in which you regain your mental fitness after a long status of reading glut.

• A reading pause is useful and refreshing, especially when it is not for a long time. But that does not mean it is mandatory if you find yourself reading with interest and pleasure and do not feel any annoying restrictions on the rest of your life aspects.

• A reading pause provides time to reflect on what you have read and what you can do next. Feel free to ask yourself during the reading pause any relevant question you encounter, even if the question is about the usefulness of reading in general. Don’t worry; this is the best period to ask questions about reading in general and to get convincing answers.

• If you take a long break from reading without accomplishing anything, including positively reviewing your previous reading performance and refreshing your mind, it is best to push yourself back to reading, not necessarily all at once but at least gradually.

• Don’t let the illusion of giving up reading and pursuing any other hobby or work occupy you during the reading pause period. Reading is not a full-time job or a job you perform along with other work. Rather, it is a healthy mental practice that permeates your life in all its aspects in the way you see fit.

• Use your reading pause to discover new authors from different perspectives and horizons. Add some of their books to your want-to-read list for when you come back to reading.

• Thinking or dreaming about writing must have knocked on the minds of every reader in one way or another. Don’t worry if you find yourself unable to write professionally. Deep reading actually involves rewriting the read text in view of the reader’s critical questions and interactive relationship with the text. Just be sure to express your questions and interactions in a simple way to get involved in rewriting the text, or even coming up with innovative ideas. Reading pause is a good chance to evaluate such potential and enhance the possibility for relevant achievement.

• If during a specifically timed reading pause you feel an urgent desire to return to reading a book before that period expires, do not hesitate to do so. You can count that return to reading a particular book as if it were a time out from the reading break itself. Resume the rest of the break later, after you finish reading the book. Otherwise, you can be satisfied with that amount of reading pause if you feel that it has achieved its goals early and you have taken the necessary recovery to return with a new spirit to continue reading.

• A reading break should not only end with returning to reading refreshed with a new spirit and a scattered set of lessons learned. It is also best to have at the end of the break an overall updated reading regime interspersed with reading breaks as felt useful and further needed.