Can you believe it is May already? I can't, because 1) I'm writing this in April (*) and 2) it is 40 degrees outside- but still, kind of crazy, it seems.
*Editing in May, though. It is 50 degrees today, and drizzly.The blog's first project was about books I've read that I determined in hindsight were 'life changing'. With the exception of a small follow up on The Checklist Manifesto, I'm essentially done with 2011, so I think it is time to move to 2012 and have a look at what happened in that year's reading.
So, here they are, my 2012 'life changing' books...drum roll please...
And...
(...drums...?)
Sorry, folks. The 2012 edition of this
*Meaning I skimmed the titles while eating banana bread2012 becomes the anomaly year in my recent reading history, a year where I read at the same rate I (assume) will do for the rest of my life and yet a year where I did not seem to put myself through rigorous self-examination in the spirit of ongoing personal growth.
**Or at least in the way I defined the idea in my 2011 posts
A transition year might be another way to consider it. It was a year where I was prepared for changes like those that I began, tentatively, to explore and semi-implement in 2011 and yet, for whatever reason, I did not continue during 2012.
Looking back at those 2011 posts reveals selections hinting at readiness combined with inaction. Although each of the four books sparked what I determined in hindsight to be a significant change, each of these adjustments also remained within the narrow confines of the specific domain described by each book (*).
*As a refresher and summary of those domain-dependent 2011 changes:
-> 'Keep The Change' led me to tip more generously in a server/bartender context but did not lead me to display greater generosity outside of that environment.
-> 'Good Calories, Bad Calories' and 'Born To Run' led me to reconsider my own assumptions in the context of how I understood nutrition and fitness but I did not immediately apply that approach to examine similar unquestioned assumptions (for example, whether I should replace my seated desk with a standing desk).
-> 'The Checklist Manifesto' saw me implement the concepts described in a work context but did not see a similar application in life areas such as packing for an out of town trip, preparing for a fantasy football draft, or determining how to best stagger book requests at the library.What is obvious to me now is that, even though I was starting to show signs of the thought process that is second nature to me today, in 2012 I was still limiting my own potential by applying my knowledge exclusively within the specific environments in which they applied. It was still unusual for me, for example, to apply my insights from grocery shopping to work projects or for me to watch soccer and see techniques that I could make use of in basketball.
Curious about whether my inability to find life changing books from 2012 was truly an anomaly, I looked ahead at 2013's reading list to see if I could find books I would consider life changing from that year. I did find a number of books, which was reassuring (and gives me some more blog material). I tied the source of these books to two adjustments I made in 2013.
The biggest adjustment is that I significantly increased my efforts at work. One reason for that stems from the direct relationship that work success had to 'good events' from 2012 (salary used to pay off loans, move into better apartments). Another reason is that diving into work helped me work through my first true exposure to mortality.
I remember how I really came to rely on the consistency and autonomy that my job provided to maintain stability and control in my life outside the office. The books I recently reviewed in preparation for my 2013 posts are very work-oriented and these feelings I experienced at the time were undoubtedly a driving force in my selecting and absorbing those books.
I also noted that I began rereading books in 2013. I had never set out to NOT reread books but did realize right around that time that I was not rereading anything. Why I started doing that at this time remains unclear but I suppose one possible explanation is that I was searching for meaning and looking for reassurance. Why not occasionally look in books that already imparted some level of meaning to me in the past?
Or, perhaps not. Maybe the above is just a series of coincidences I am reading into now. The stories we tell, including and maybe especially those about ourselves, always come with the elements that make it seem neat and logical- a beginning, an ending, and a coherent chain of causality that links the two.
Real life usually lacks those things. Real life is usually just a series of middles shoved messily into one another. So, maybe a truer explanation for 2012 was that I just picked out some lousy books.
That's about it for me this week. To partly make up for the lack of proper 2012 review, we'll start mixing in important books I read before 2011 (*). We already did one, Maniac Magee, and I'll sprinkle in some of the others as I go.
*2011 is a slightly significant reading year because it marked the start of my tracking the books I finished reading. However, the only impact it will have on you, reader, is that I will occasionally write about books whose names I do not remember.Back on Friday with the April edition of proper admin. Or is it the May edition? Not sure yet. It is threatening to expand beyond any reasonable size limit so I may break it up into two parts.
Until then, take care.
Tim
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Footnotes
1. 2012 books tangent...
I did consider 'forcing' a few books into the list, just to avoid a blank space here, but decided against it and decided to see if I could invent a narrative about my 2012 instead. Most of the books were either further explorations of ideas I already had started reading about (Why We Get Fat...), books about topics that interested me on a surface level but turned out to be fairly uninteresting once I got into the book level (Sex On Six Legs, Glock) or books that re-told in a different way ideas that I'd already heard (30 Lessons For The Living).
I also cite having read eighty-five books. I could place a set of quotes around most of those words- read, eighty-five, books, perhaps even cite. Some of those books might be partially complete, others might barely be books, others might just be subject to my own tracking errors. You never know. I think I did read seventy-five, for sure.
