The Life of A Passionate Bibliophile : Feature Interview With Vladimir Laguerre

Bibliophile is a person who collects books or has a great love for them.

Bibliophile is the essence of who I am as a human being. If it wasn’t for my Kindle, I likely would have been diagnosed as a hoarder (although maybe I’m a digital one).

One of my favorite fellow Bibliophiles is a fellow Instagrammer by the name of Vladimir Laguerre. I’ve been trolling his page for months, worsening my book purchasing habits. Recently I reached out to him to learn more about his life as a voracious reader:

A little about you and your life journey. And what initially sparked your reading interest?

My name is Vladimir Laguerre. I didn’t have much of an interest in books until I got my first book a few years back which was The Secret to Success by Eric Thomas. I was big in self-help back then and I heard that successful people have big libraries. So I started buying books. I began by reading a lot of self-help and business books and slowly moved towards philosophy, classics and psychology books.

Approximately how many books do you read in a year and what drives your interest? Do you set reading goals for yourself?

Over the past couple of years, I’ve averaged around 25 books a year. What drives me is my curiosity. I love learning new things. I have set reading goals in the past but I stopped doing that now. I prefer to just read without having a particular goal.

How do you decide what books you are going to read? What sort of criteria do you employ? Are there specific reading genres you stick to?

Many books that I read are recommended to me by friends. In addition, my favorite authors get a priority in terms of which books I read next. I usually let my curiosity dictate what I pick up next as well. I tend to stick to books that hover around philosophy or enriching my knowledge in general. And I do tend to avoid business books now.

What three books have been the highlight of your reading experience in 2018? What three are you most intrigued about moving forward?

12 Rules For Life by Jordan Peterson, Ego Is The Enemy by Ryan Holiday and The Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi. Outside of that I am looking forward to reading more classic books by legendary authors like Dostoevsky.

What sort of responses do you typically receive from your book posts on Instagram? And what sort of benefits have you experienced in terms of your engagement on social media relative to your reading interests?

I usually get a lot of people who have read the books I post about and share similar feelings about them. There are also people that have never heard of the book and now want to read it. I also get a lot of book recommendations. Because of this I always have a list of books that I can buy and read. So it’s continuous learning for me.

What are your three all-time favorite books?

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, 12 Rules For Life by Jordan Peterson and How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie are my all-time favorites.

What’s the most challenging book you’ve ever read and why?

The most challenging book I’ve ever read is The Tao Te Ching. I found it challenging because it speaks of things at a depth that I don’t yet perceive. It’s a book I’ll have to reread in order to understand it better.

Are you a traditional paper book or Kindle enthusiast? New or used books? Library vs Bookstore?

I’m traditional. I love holding books in my hands. Both new and used are fine with me, although I prefer used books without highlighted text. I mostly go to the bookstore because I love to own the books I read. I donate some books to the library when I’m finished with them.

You have a quote on your Instagram page which reads “The more I read, the more I acquire, the more certain I am that I know nothing.” Can you elaborate on this a bit?

As I began reading more and more I came to the realization that most things, ideas or concepts that I believed I had a good knowledge of, I didn’t. There was always something that I didn’t know that was fundamental or very important to the subject. This kept happening with every book I read. So I feel like that quote applies to me best.

Have you ever met or corresponded with authors of the books you’ve read? What was that experience like?

I haven’t met with any authors of books read. I’m hoping to do so soon

What would be your response be to a person who tells you “I haven’t read a book in years.”

If you’re interested in reading start off with a topic that you enjoy. Start small, a little 200 page book will be fine. Most importantly, read at your own pace. It used to take me 2–3 weeks to finish reading small books like that back when I first started. Consistency is also important. But if you’re reading something you like, you shouldn’t be too worried about that.