What I learnt from 4 months of reading fiction
...that 14 years of non fiction didn't teach
Raw and Real Conversation
I started reading books in 2011.
My college friend Riddhi once dragged me to a Crossword in Himalaya Mall, which was by a short bus ride from HL college at the Commerce Six Roads in Ahmedabad, where we used to study.
Initially, it was meant to be a cool way to kill time. I was beautifully taken aback when Riddhi told me “you can go to Crossword and read books without paying!”.
Wait, what?
To a twenty year old wanting to be independent asap and not wanting to spend any of her parents’ money this could be nothing less than a dream come true.
So every day for the next one month (till the time my CA coaching began) I would go straight to Himalaya mall, and devour on self-help books in the Crossword book store.
It was my pilgrimage. Endgame. Home away from home.
Little did I know, that habit would go on to making me read thousands of books in the 14 years that have passed, so much so that now my entire career is about books and writing.
However, 4 months back I fell into the habit of reading fiction too, and the life lessons have been something I had never expected.
Here are some of them:
We are all looking for the same thing: to be loved.
There is a part of us in every single person we relate to.
The love of parents or lack of it could change multiple things.
However, to parent yourself when your parents didn’t makes the biggest and best difference.
The love we look for is something we only find within ourselves.
Expressing yourself makes things clear as water (even if it is expressing in a journal or a private blog).
If you lose someone in your family, you could either turn into a beast or a beautiful human being or someone in between. Two different books actually showed that.
There is nothing as beautiful as the love of sisters. There is nothing like the loss of that love of sisters while the sisters are still alive.
Having “no choice” is no reason to take the most foolish, ignorant and unpremeditated step.
So much of healing could happen when we sit and have conversations. In those conversations, don’t just vent out. Don’t just listen to wait for your turn. Rather, really listen to the other person without your point of view of how things should be. You will figure you didn’t know so much useful information, even though you had assumed you knew it all.
I have also learnt through books and experience, that what parents once said in a snap does not have to become their entire point of view about is. The entire gimmick of “your parents did this to you in childhood” is true…but what you do to yourself as an adult is even more important.
Emptiness is a sassy enemy. It makes us attract other people who would amplify our feelings of emptiness. Our job, then, is to acknowledge that emptiness and fill it up. So that we attract people whose cup runneth over.
A good fiction is full of unexpected plot twists. A good life is no different.
I have also come to believe that we all must pursue more businesses like opening a hair salon or a flower shop or becoming a chef or selling our paintings online, instead of all of us getting suited up like folks in New York or Gurgaon or Tokyo.
The only person that gets hurt and broken and miserable not pursuing the life of your dreams is you.
Being old-fashioned, classy, rooted in your values, not trying to impress anyone else—is the OG cheatcode to life.
We are all the same. Yet so different.
Our problem is we trust without using our intuition.
Our solution is that we must trust ourselves while trusting our intuition.
You have a life that no one knows of. Not even your closest people. But during those quiet moments, of those moments of being by yourself after returning home or checking your socials, what you do is who you become.
You can forgive people AND forever be distant from them.
I am still reading a lot of non-fiction (it is oxygen), but it is good to explore the other side of genre too.
Anyhow, some book recommendations for you from my fiction library (4 months is far too short of an experience to go with) but still:
Anxious People by Fredrick Backman: every human being must read it
The Wrong Daughter by Dandy Smith: I might not read any other thriller for a long time, but the plot twists were excruciating. (Spoiler alert: Just kidding. I know you won’t like that :))
Jonathon Livingston Seagull, by Richard Bach. One of my most gifted books. I have lost the count of the people I have gifted this book to, that now I do not gift this one in order to not repeat gifting the same book twice to the same person :)
It Ends with Us, by Colleen Hoover: The author has mixed reviews, so do I, but for girls that cannot take out one toxic person out of their lives, must read this. I did not like so much love in teenage (because people aren’t mature then), but solely for the courage of letting go of a toxic person, I’d recommend this book
I am not into romance but if you are and if you want to read a book on how to be a good guy or find one, do read “The Enemy” by Sarah Adams. It was so good that I have never read a romcom after this. Perhaps never would.
And please remember know that: (I have lowkey started to not write “remember” in my writing, because it is so Chat-GPT-ed word :))
2 Raw One-Liners from your girl:
A common sign amongst all your heroes is they listened more to what they liked, and less to people they wanted to be liked by.
It is not as much as the 8 hours of sleep that matters, but the sleep that starts around 9 pm that truly matters.
3 (for Real) quotes that you’d love too:
Don’t worry too much about starting salaries and be very careful who you work for because you will take on the habits of the people around you. —Warren Buffet, Berkshire Hathaway 2025 annual shareholders meeting
Are you avoiding things to do, to avoid the important? —Tim Ferris
You do better work when you do less.
Because most of us are on a constant treadmill, we haven't witnessed our own magic as yet. — The Corporate Life Handbook, by yours truly
I hope you found it useful. Let me know which one of these books are you starting today.
See you next week. Hopefully with something I have been planning for long :)
Stay raw, stay real, and never stop reading
Nishtha Gehija
LinkedIn | X | Daily blog | Weekly newsletter
Instant access ebooks for your reading, and spend some time with yourself:
The Corporate Life Handbook: The book everyone working a corporate job needs :)
The Career Changing Guide: My bestseller so far :)
How to Deal with Heartbreak: Because, life happens :(
Every Writer Needs to Read this: I wish I had this one, when I was starting out as a writer
This is What You are Looking for (Paperback): Small Life Lessons for a Happier Life