A quick antidote to being in an echo chamber is to READ widely.
An effective way to improve your leadership skills is to READ widely.
If you prefer, listen to audio books or podcasts or…
This in reflected in the book, You’ve Got To Read This Book! 55 people tell the story of the book that changed their life. The profiled readers are leaders in various fields / ways, and the books range from esoteric to practical to inspirational to historical to…
While browsing in a book store this week, I overheard a young couple discussing how important a book had been to them in grade school. The young woman said she still had a copy and reads a chapter when she feels down or discouraged. I had a lovely chat with them about reading and asked about the book. Caddie Woodlawn, they reported. I bought a copy.
In contrast to their experience, I was turned off to reading by a “bad” graduate school experience. When I applied to an esteemed program in Literature, it required a “qualifying exam” which I had to pass with 70% to get admitted. The exam covered over 100 works of literature – from Dante’s Inferno to Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury. The exam provided short quotes, and we had to identify their source – both the author and the work. One of the quotes was unidentifiable, saying something like, “and he walked onto the porch and opened the door and entered the house…”
When I submitted my finished exam, I asked the proctor about it. He stiffly replied, “It’s obvious, because one author is known for his and / and sentence construction”. I undiplomatically replied that was what we should know on the way OUT of the program, not on the way INTO the program.
Fortunately, the exams were anonymous – with coded numbers – no names. So I was admitted despite my rebelliousness. I overcame the negative experience about reading – but maintained an aversion to academic elitism. In an act of rebellion, I wrote my thesis on a topic that was ignored / discounted at the time: Black Drama.
While many of us have positive feelings about reading, many more have negative feelings due to school / educational experiences. To assure you get current and useful information, it is important to:
(1) neutralize any negative feelings about reading and learning
(2) expand the way you learn / get new information
(3) access information in the way that works for you
REFLECT:
How do you feel about learning and reading?
How do you get most of your information – social media, books, stories,
movies, lyrics of songs, Podcasts, comments from others…
How can you expand your sources of information?
Here are the 55 people / books. Check them for what you have read, and what you’d be interested in reading. Intentionally stretch to new areas / topics.
- Jacquelyn Mitchard A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
- Kenny Loggins Siddhartha
- Catherine Oxenberg The Power of One (about Peekay in South Africa)
- Jim MacLaren The Passion of the Western Mind
- Wyland The Silent World
- Lisa Nichols The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
- Rafe Esquith To Kill a Mockingbird
- Chellie Campbell When I Say No, I Feel Guilty
- Malachy McCourt A History of India
- John St. Augustine A The Life and Teachings of the Masters of the Far East
- Sheryl Leach A The Power of Now
- Gay Hendrichs The Book of Life (The Enchiridion)
- Pierce O’Donnell Profiles in Courage
- Pat Williams Veeck - As In Wreck: The Chaotic Career of Baseball’s Incorrigible Maverick
- Lou Holtz The Magic of Thinking Big
- Rudy Ruettiger Psycho-Cybernetics
- Danny Edward Scott Casalenuovo Chicken Soup for the Prisoner’s Soul
- Farrah Gray The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success
- Rhondra Byrne The Science of Getting Rich
- Mark Victor Hansen Resurrection
- Michael E. Gerber 100 Selected Poems by e.e.cummings
- Tim Ferris Vagabonding
- Christiane Northrup Natives of Eternity
- Doreen Virtue Man’s Search for Meaning
- John Gray The Science of Being and Art of Living
- Philip Goldberg Vedanta for Modern Man
- Bernie Siegel The Human Comedy
- Dave Berry Inside Benchley
- Sue Ellen Cooper The Great Divorce (C.S. Lewis)
- EllynAnne Geisel Gone With the Wind
- Earl Hammer The Time of Man
- Nancy Pearl Space Cadet
- Wally Amos Love is Letting Go of Fear
- Jack Canfield Life After Life
- Jim McCann Scripts People Live
- Larry Jones Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secret
- Debbie Macomber The Bible
- Arielle Ford Key to Yourself
- Michael Toms Dante’s Inferno
- Bob Young Don Quixote
- Craig Newmark The Cluetrain Manifesto
- Kate Ludeman Learning to Love Yourself
- Amilya Antonetti The Alchemist
- Jim GuyThe Teachings of the Buddha
- Gary HeavinThe Secret Kingdom
- Stephen Covey Man’s Search for Meaning
- Maynard Webb The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
- Marc Bekof Mutual Aid (Kropotkin, 1902)
- Max Edelman Mein Kampf
- Diane Wilson The Hero With a Thousand Faces
- Gary Erickson The Legacy of Luna
- Mo Siegel The Urantia Book
- Doris Haddock Peace Pilgrim: Her Life and Work in Her Own Words
- Lois Capps The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time
- Louise Hay The Game of Life and How to Play It
(Note: this book wasn’t written by this author.
Florence Scovill Shinn wrote this title long before
Louise Hay’s time. Hay wrote The Game of Life. I
recommend the original by Shinn.)
APPLY:
* Choose a book you haven’t read / heard on audio-book, and experience it
* Or ask that the right book / resource be brought to you now
You’ve Got to Read This Book: 55 People Tell the Story of the Book That Changed Their Life, Jack Canfield and Gary Hendricks, Collins, 2006.
