I started my vacation (off from Dec. 18th to Jan 5th).  In the day or so since it started, I haven’t been able to rest.  My mind, free from conventional 9-5 work obligations, is now flush with the desire to learn everything it can.  From delving into the unread caverns of my Google Reader feeds to gathering nine books from the business section of the Boulder Public Library – I am fiending to learn as much as possible during this time off.

I did this before.  After I graduated from college the thought that I no longer had a structure that focused on learning terrified me.  While a decent student, I never attacked my studies with much passion.  This thought woke something inside of me.  In the six months after my graduation, I had read over 150 books.  They were all kinds – “required” reading for high school, reference books, autobiographies, 20th century french literature, American classics, banned books, bestsellers, pop garbage – it didn’t matter what it was, I consumed it and, surprisingly, started to retain it.

That lasted for a few years.  I went to grad school because of it – my love for cultures and technology pushing me to study that from a sociological standpoint.  I didn’t last too long in grad school.  In fact, It was because I fell in love with the freedom to pursue any whim that my intellectual curiousity took me on – I felt shuttered in with my studies.  I’m probably lucky that my funding fell through and that I ended up becoming a graduate school drop out.

From there, I entered the world of business and found a new love.  With this new love, however, my energy to devote to new endeavors started to dry up.  Working hard all day and trying to maintain a social life became top priorities over trying to learn new things.  Not that my intellectual curiosity started to wane – but I started to simply focus it more on tasks that were easier to accomplish – reading the NY Times every day, staying informed on new music, subscribing to interesting feeds in Google Reader.  But books were nowhere to be found.  Every once in a while, a new book would surface and engage me (Tipping Point, Freakonomics, Blink, etc) but, despite a penchant to running up a tab at Amazon and Barnes and Noble – I no longer was reading anything that pushed my brain.

So today – I’ve already finished one book:  Tribes by Seth Godin.  It took me an hour – and, for the most part, didn’t satisfy my intellectual cravings.  I’m now onto my second and, this blog post aside, have been flying through it without any distraction.  It’s “The New Influencers” by Paul Gillin.  I like this one a bit more than Godin’s – but it’s too early to really review.  And, I’m not reading to write a review.  I’m reading to learn something.  Even just one thing – and it’s worth it.

This intellectual hunger probably stems from my new job:  Social Media Specialist.  While I consider myself pretty knowledgable in the subject, I figured a little reading wouldn’t hurt.  Plus, my personal goals are pretty ambitious for this.  I want to do something new with the medium.  I want to create something to be copied and written about.  Will I be successful?  Perhaps – but right now, I just need to satisfy this hunger and hopefully get there in the process…