Cultivating the well-read mind

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Growing up in Jamaica in the eighties, a boy’s world was often defined by the sun. Entertainment wasn’t something you streamed; it was something you chased. There was the world outdoors, a blur of motion filled with games of cricket, football, and the classic ‘police and thief’. But then there was the world indoors, a quiet space that opened up when the weather turned or the sun went down. This second world was governed by the written word, largely because there were few other options.

We had a television, of course. A single station broadcast in what we might generously call glorious black and white. But the frequent electricity outages made relying on it a fool’s errand. Saturday morning cartoons were an event, a fleeting window of animated joy, but beyond that, the screen was mostly a dark, silent piece of furniture.

So, on those days when rain hammered against the Portmore slab roof, I turned to books. My early companions were the Hardy Boys, solving mysteries I could only dream of. Then came Stephen King, whose mastery of language was a thing of both wonder and terror. His words could build a world so completely and then fill it with such dreadful things. Alongside King were the Choose Your Own Adventure books. What a revelation that was! The idea that I, the reader, could have some say in the story’s direction turned reading from a passive act into an interactive one. I wasn't just following a character; I was, in some small way, guiding him.

That was the spark. From those novels, my path led to the colourful panels of Marvel and DC Comics, where heroes grappled with villains and morality. By the time I encountered Chaucer and Shakespeare in high school, the foundation was firmly set. The language was different, more challenging perhaps, but the thrill was the same. I was completely hooked on stories, on language, on the power of a well-turned phrase. That early love for reading never faded. It began not as a discipline to be studied, but as a simple, necessary pleasure on a rainy afternoon in a place where the other options had run out.

The Benefits of a Well-Read Mind

So, why bother? In a world that's all about quick content, endless notifications, and constant noise, why should we make the effort to cultivate this 'well-read mind'?

It’s a fair question. And the answer, at least for me, isn't about looking smart or having a massive vocabulary just to impress people at parties. The real benefits are much deeper, much more personal.

First off, reading… and I mean real reading, the kind where you get completely lost in a book… it fundamentally changes how you think. In our world, we’re trained to skim, to scroll, to jump from one thing to the next. Our attention is fractured, it's shattered. As young persons would say these days, it’s "cooked.” But a book... a book demands focus. It forces you to slow down. It asks you to follow a single, complex idea—or a complex character—from the beginning all the way to the end. It’s like exercise for your brain. It's rebuilding those muscles of concentration and critical thinking that get so weak from disuse.

And then there's empathy. When you read a good novel, you're not just observing a character from the outside; you are living inside their head. You are seeing the world through their eyes, feeling their fears, their joys, their heartbreaks. You get to live countless different lives. You can be a detective in 1940s LA, a wizard in a fantasy realm, or a woman struggling for her rights in 19th-century England. That experience... it just cracks open your own narrow perspective. It makes you realize that your way of seeing the world isn't the only way. It builds a kind of empathy that you just can't get from a 30-second video clip.

Of course, it also gives you the words. We’ve all had that feeling... you’re trying to explain something, maybe a deep feeling in your chest or a complicated idea you’re wrestling with, and you just... you can't find the right words. Reading fills that toolbox. You see how other people, masters of the craft, have wrestled with those same feelings and ideas. It gives you a language to understand yourself, and then to communicate what you find to the people around you.

But maybe the most important benefit, right now, in this crazy, non-stop world, is that reading is the ultimate 'unplug.' It's a genuine escape. It's a quiet act of rebellion against the 'always-on' culture. You can’t scroll and read a good book at the same time. It demands your full attention. And in return, it gives you a real, restorative peace. It’s one of the last true sanctuaries for your mind.

Reading Widely

So we've talked about why reading is so crucial. Now let's talk about what to read. And my advice here is pretty simple: Read widely.

I mentioned how I jumped from the Hardy Boys to Stephen King to comics, and then to Shakespeare. At the time, I was just following my curiosity. But looking back, I can see how important that variety was. If you only read in one little box—if you only read sci-fi, or only business books, or only history—your world stays small. You're only exercising one part of your mind.

Reading widely is about breaking out of that comfort zone. It’s about picking up a biography of someone you know nothing about. It's about diving into a history book about a time and place you've never even considered. It's about reading a novel from a completely different culture, or trying a book of poetry even if you're convinced you "don't get" poetry. All of it... it's all adding new textures, new colours, and new perspectives to your thinking.

But "reading widely" also means something a little more challenging. It means actively seeking out and reading things that you think you're going to disagree with.

This is a tough one. Our natural instinct is to build a little fortress of information around ourselves, an echo chamber that only reflects what we already believe. And let's be honest, it feels comfortable in there. But it's a trap.

Reading voices you disagree with... it does a couple of really powerful things. First, it forces you to actually understand what the "other side" is saying, in their own words. Not the caricature you see on social media, not the strawman version someone else built for you to knock down. You get to see their actual argument. And at the very least, you can now have an honest, intelligent disagreement. You'll know what you're arguing against, and why. Your own position will become stronger and clearer, because it's been tested.

But more often than not, something even more interesting happens. You might not agree with their conclusion, but you might find a little crack of light. You might find one point, or one shared value, that makes you think, "Okay... I see where they're coming from on that." You find some common ground. And in a world that feels more divided than ever, finding that little piece of common ground... that's not just good for your mind. It's good for your soul.

Carve Out the Time (And Defend It)

Imagine you’ve had a long, brutal day. You finally get home, you eat dinner, you clean up, and you think... "Okay. Finally. Time to read." You get your book, you sit down in your favorite chair, you open to your bookmark, you read one sentence...

...and then... buzz. Your phone lights up. A work email. Ping. A text from a group chat. Ding. A notification that someone you barely know just posted a picture of their dinner on social media.

And just like that, the spell is broken. The quiet sanctuary you tried to build is completely overrun.

Let's be honest with ourselves. The biggest enemy of reading in the modern world isn't a lack of time. It's a lack of uninterrupted time. And the biggest culprit is that glowing rectangle in our pocket. We have to make a conscious, deliberate choice to fight back against it.

Here’s a hard truth: You will never find time to read. You have to make the time. And then you have to defend it like a fortress.

You don't need to start by blocking out three hours. That's not realistic. Start small. Try the "15-minute rule." That’s it. Just 15 minutes with your morning coffee, before the rest of the house wakes up. Or 15 minutes right before you go to sleep. Put your phone on the charger... in another room. The kitchen. The bathroom. Anywhere but your nightstand.

This is the most practical advice I can possibly give you: Make your environment work for you. Have a specific chair that is your "reading chair." When you sit in it, your brain knows, "This is what we're doing now." I do the majority of my reading via the Kindle app, so I’ve created an automation on my iPad that as soon as the Kindle app opens, notifications are disabled.

For me, I also live by this rule: always have a book on you. You would be absolutely amazed at how much reading you can get done in those little "in-between" moments. The 10 minutes in the waiting room at the dentist. The 15 minutes in a long line at the post office. The 20-minute bus ride. All those little scraps of time add up, and they're moments you’d otherwise just lose to mindless scrolling. Make the choice. Seize that time back.

Curating Your Personal Library

Finally, let's talk about building your personal library.

When we hear that phrase, we all picture that romantic image, right? Floor-to-ceiling wooden shelves, leather-bound books, a fireplace, a comfy chair. And there is something truly special about that. A physical library is a record of your journey. It’s a collection of old friends you can pull off the shelf, feel the weight of, see your own notes in the margins, and find that one dog-eared page that means so much.

But let's be practical. Most of us don't have a dedicated room for a library. And more importantly, the goal isn't just to collect books as decorations. The goal is to engage with the ideas inside them.

And this is where the modern, digital reader has a huge advantage. Like I mentioned, I do most of my reading on my Kindle app. My "library" isn't a physical room; it's a system. But it's curated just as carefully.

Instead of shelves, I use folders. I have folders for "Linguistics," "Philosophy," "Academic Writing," "Biographies," and a bunch of others including science, religion, freemasonry and so on. This is my way of organizing my journey, just like arranging books on a shelf.

But here's the real power: highlighting and bookmarks. When I read a physical book, I might dog-ear a page. When I read digitally, I am in a constant conversation with the text. I highlight passages that hit me hard, that teach me something, or that are just so beautifully written I have to save them. I make notes, I add bookmarks.

And the superpower of this digital library? I can search it. Instantly. I can pull up every single note I've ever made on the idea of "courage" or "strategy" from fifty different books, all in one place. And everything is stored in the cloud accessible from all my devices. 

So whether your library is a physical shelf you can touch, or a set of carefully organized folders in the cloud, the principle is the same. Don't just read and forget. Build a personal treasury of the ideas that shaped you, the questions you've asked, and the answers you've found. Curate it. Revisit it. Make it your own.

Below I include a snapshot of some of the titles on my bookshelf that I just finished reading, are reading now, and what I plant to read next.