I've always been proud of being pretty literate (a bit too much when I was a teenager) but I fell out of the habit of reading anything except manga and comics by anything other than necessity after I started college. The other year, I watched Dune and loved it. I had already heard so much good stuff about Dune from all sorts of sources over the years that I grabbed the book and was completely hooked. I kept going, liked each entry a little bit less than the last, slowed my pace gradually, and decided I was fine with letting the story be finished after God Emperor of Dune. But I liked it quite a bit, and it was probably the first time I had felt like an "influential" book had lived up to its reputation.
I end up with occasional down time at the job I have now, so reading was convenient l. I'm back into something of a habit and it's great. I feel more eloquent when I speak and more alert of the world around me. I used to feel like I was slowly getting dumber every month since I finished school, and that cognitive tasks got a little harder all the time. I partially blamed that I wasn't using my degree at my job (entry level programmers are not doing so great these days, in my experience) and reading has done me so much good in its place. Admittedly, after the initial burst of enthusiasm wore off, it could be difficult to make myself read. I blame that on the level of overstimulation that social media accustomed me to. Eventually, though, I got more used to it.
I could go on about all the ways I feel better and how it's given me back some self-esteem, but I will just leave it at the fact that I feel better about myself, have more discipline, and feel like I better person than I was. That said, I'm very cautious about not letting "I'm a better person than I used to be because I started reading books" warp into "I'm better than people who do not read books" because it's certainly a flattering thought, even if I disagree at a conscious level.
Anyways, I've built up a chunky reading list and have started working through it. I just finished Gulliver's Travels and figure I'll take a crack at The Brothers Karamazov next. Does anybody have a suggested translation? Also, feel free to share your own favorites, I'm not shy about adding on to my reading list since it's already daunting.