Hey everyone. Happy Sunday to all of you. I’m going to let you in on a little secret about my book preferences that may shock you. My favorite books to read are not fiction. Instead, they are non-fiction. Well, at least that’s how it’s been for the past ten years.

Back in 2012, I started reevaluating my life and trying to find ways to reinvent myself. Why? Simple…I wasn’t satisfied with my life and what I had become. I kept wondering who I was, asking myself what did I want? And more importantly, how I could go about obtaining it. So, I took a trip down to my favorite place, the library because that was where I was getting all of my books at the time. (I like to read before I buy.) I went to the self-help section and the spiritual section. You would be surprised by what I am about to say since I am a daily reader of the bible, but the bible doesn’t tell me enough. Back in those days I felt so lost and had no one to lean on. Just a few friends who pretended to give a damn but didn’t.

I had many regrets about College and what I majored in, regrets about every guy I ever dated, and how I was handling my health and my finances. I wanted answers about the reasons why the world was in the state that it was and why God was allowing my life to unravel the way it was. I wanted answers and books were the only resources I could find. I read and inhaled every spiritual and self-help book I could get my hands on. I even read “The Secret.”

Those books gave me a lot of good suggestions and helped me to take a good hard look at myself. But ultimately, I was still on my own. I kept hearing God dropping hints to me about what I should be focusing on and no matter how many hints he dropped, I just wasn’t listening. Still feeling lost. It wasn’t until 2016 after I failed at going back to college to learn something new. I decided to focus more on my writing. That’s when I began to feel like I had a purpose in life.

Even though I ultimately had to change something about myself to be truly content, the nonfiction books did help me. They created a map of everything that I wanted to change about myself in small ways. Once I began taking those things seriously it allowed me to finally see the big picture. The answer had been inside of me the entire time. I was just too blind to see it. The writing was my saving grace like Tara was to Scarlett O’Hara. Everyone needs something that defines them and I guess I am no different.

Don’t get me wrong reading fiction has helped me with writing a great deal. But nonfiction helped me get my life together. You have to clean your house before you can start inviting people in and that’s what I’ve been trying to do. To this day I still prefer reading nonfiction over fiction. I read fiction when I want to escape my life and I read nonfiction when I want to fix it. It’s amazing how much books can impact your life in so many ways and I am glad that I have a love for reading. I have never been like the women I would see at work, reading nothing but romance novels. I read them too but that’s not all I read. I have many interests and many different genres that I enjoy. Horror, sci-fi, paranormal, poetry, autobiographies, spiritual, and self-help. They all serve a purpose in one’s life so I could never narrow it down to just one type.

But no book has impacted my life as The Bible has and that would be my favorite book of all. Even if it may not tell the whole story. It still serves a purpose because we all get a little lost sometimes. Don’t we?

Until next time…