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Hey everybody,
How’s your sleep been lately? Mine’s been pretty shot. Stress, I think, built up from a number of things. Three months promoting You Are Awesome. (Thank you so much.) Way too much late night cell phone use. A few people close to me going through challenges.
When I find my sleep suffering I know it’s time to get back into self care. Going to the gym. Lots of long walks. Shutting off the phone early. Getting ready for bed early. And, of course, flipping open a book before bed so I can just slip away into another conscience.
Here are some consciences I slipped into this month,
Neil
1. Quietby Susan Cain. We need a word to describe that feeling when you feel for years like you’ve already read a certain book but then when you start reading it you suddenly realize you haven’t. That feeling. You know the viral TED Talk, you’ve flipped through the book in airports, you’ve read articles from the author, and maybe you’ve even talked about some key points from the book a dozen times. Maybe even acted like you’ve read it! But you haven’t. You haven’t read the book. What’s that called? A dummy book? An almost book? A placebo book? Do you have something better? If not I’m going with Placebo Book. Well, Quiet was a Placebo Book for me. I thought I had read it! Turns out I hadn’t. And that’s too bad because it’s a wonderful journey. And it is a journey, too. You are basically sitting beside Susan Cain on her six year (!) global quest to understand introverts -- from Tony Robbins seminars to Harvard Business School cafeterias to even Truth and Consequences, New Mexico to speak to the woman played by Michelle Pfeiffer in Dangerous Minds. It’s a helluva journey. And the wanderings, curios, and insights that jump out of the jungle along the way are incredible … all puzzle-pieced together by Susan’s stunningly brilliant mind. You will miss Susan at the end because this book is an incredible joy. Must, must, must read.
2. Electionby Tom Perrotta. I absolutely loved the 1999 Reese Witherspoon / Matthew Broderick movie Electionand I don’t think I realized it was based on a book. Guess what? It is! And it’s a great one. A super fast paced dark comedy that will briefly pluck you out of your brain and drop you right in the midst of a volatile high school student council election. Somehow light and dark at the same time.
3.Charlotte’s Webby E.B. White. I can’t think of a more beautiful way to slowly introduce a child to deeper issues around death and friendship than Charlotte’s Web. Do you remember Charlotte’s Web? When I picked it up both Leslie and I thought we did … but we didn’t. “Doesn’t the pig die at the end?” “Yes, yes, of course. Charlotte the Pig.” No! That’s not what happens! Take a trip back to your childhood and read (or reread) this wonderful magically realistic tale. (Sidenote: I did not realize that E.B. White was a famous New Yorker writer for more than fifty years and he wrote several children's books including Stuart Little and The Trumpet of the Swan.) (Sidenote sidenote: Did you know Conan O'Brien and E.B. White exchanged letters??)
4.Martin Luther King: The Peaceful Warriorby Ed Clayton. Do you remember Denzel Washington’s character in Philadelphia always saying “Can you explain this to me like I’m a six year old”? I’ve always loved that idea and it’s similar to how a CEO I used to work for at Walmart would ask me if the slides I wrote up would pass “The Grandma Test” or basically be simple enough that somebody’s grandmother, who knew nothing about Walmart, could understand them. I have a deep love for material that aims wide, clear, and simple enough that it appeals to a wider audience. (It’s a lot harder to be simple than fancy!) Personally, I’m starting to even feel that phrases like Young Adult, when it comes to book categories, are bizarrely ageist. Like who’s to say how old you should be to read Peter Pan or The Fault In Your Stars, you know? This Young Adult book by Ed Clayton is a great example. Martin Luther King Jr. personally hired Ed Clayton as a PR man for the civil rights movement. One of his tasks was introducing MLK Jr. to a wider audience so he wrote this straightforward biography about his upbringing and his work. It is a perfect way to go from 0/10 to like 5/10 on MLK Jr knowledge very quickly. I want to spend a month reading a book like this about every important person in history. Do you have any similar ones you recommend? (Sidenote: Anyone else feel like watching a great Denzel scene from Philadelphia? I couldn't find the six-year-old clip.)
5. The Essential Rumi.Translated by Coleman Barks. If you’re like me you’ve been seeing Rumi quotes floating around the Internet forever. And, if you’re like me, you had no real idea who Rumi actually is or was. Well, here’s the quick rundown: 1) He’s a he! Let’s start there. I always thought he was a she, 2) He was a 13th century Persian poet originally from Greater Khorasan, fled invading Mongol armies, and settled in Konya, Turkey, 3) He met Shams-e Tabrizi and thought of him as a spiritual sounding board and wrote a ton of incredible epic poems about soulful expression, love verses filled with yearning and desire, anecdotes, life lessons, moral stories, and even satirical tales. This is a book of his work and, if you’re like me, some poems will bounce off your tin can shell making zero impact and others will penetrate your heart deeper than you ever thought possible.
6. Professor at Large: The Cornell Yearsby John Cleese. A few years ago I was researching the idea of “creating space” for The Happiness Equationand I came across an incredible speech by John Cleese talking about your brain in open mode and closed mode. Turns out that was one of many speeches Cleese gave while serving as a Professor At Large (PAL is what they call him) at Cornell University. This book is published by Cornell University and is a great collection of speeches and conversations he’s held at the school. Thank you to Kevin Marusic (aka Kevin The Bookseller) for this recommendation. (Check out my chat with Kevin in Chapter 44 of 3 Books.)
7. David Foster Wallace: The Last Interview and Other Conversations. Editedby David Streitfeld. I just discovered this book series called The Last Interview. Do you know it? They have one with Hunter S. Thompson and one with Ernest Hemingway and one with Ursula K. Le Guin and one with (yes) David Foster Wallace. David Foster Wallace has such a beautifully complex mind and yet he’s able to explain big gargantuan ideas in such clear and simple language. One of my favorite answers in this book is when he’s asked by his Amherst Alumni Magazine “How would you describe the impact of your work? ... And how do you measure the success of your work?” Here’s a tweet I sent out with his reply. (If you like this, you will find plenty of other gems in the book.)
8. Convenience Store Womanby Sayaka Murata. Last year I recommended the book Totto-Chan: The Girl At The Windowby Tetsuko Kuroyanagi which was, a bit surprisingly I think it’s fair to say, one of Ryan Holiday’s most formative books. Nearly twenty years ago I spent a couple weeks in Japan and fell in love with the culture and Totto-Chan was a tiny window back in. Then the other day I was browsing the Staff Picks wall of a local indie bookstore and saw this Japanese novel was newly translated into english and slathered in awards I was like “Ooooo, gimme, gimme, gimme!” Perfectly satisfied my craving for another Japanese slice-of-life book. This time the slice of life is that of a middle-aged woman working in a convenience store in a downtown city. Want to hang out there for a few hours? Then this is a perfect conscience for you.
