Summer Reading 2018: Time for Reflection and Re-Creation

The last two years I started the introduction to the summer reading list with the same quote (read all my blog post on reading via this link). For a different reason, I repeat it one more time:

". . . the worst thing one can do to feel one knows things a bit deeper is to try to go into them a bit deeper. The sea gets deeper as you go further into it, according to a Venetian proverb. Curiosity is antifragile, like an addiction, and is magnified by attempts to satisfy it – books have a secret mission and ability to multiply, as everyone who has wall-to-wall bookshelves knows well (Nassim Taleb, Antifragile)."

For this list, I tried to find books that get you a bit deeper inside yourself, instead of getting deeper in history, science, philosophy or (business) decision-making (i.e. some of the ‘things’ Taleb is talking about).

I picked up just these books because I did not read a lot of new books this year relevant for this blog. (I guessed you didn’t really want a review of books with titles such as Baby-led Weaning, Babywise or Your Baby Week by Week; as those were the books I did read the last months.) Picking up books that you’ve read before, and reading through underlined sections and annotations, is a great way to reflect on yourself: Why did you underline it? What notes did you make? Does it still make sense? Which things did you forget but you really should remember from now on? Etcetera.

Whilst flipping through the pages, the books below magically seem to build on one another like this:

• You build something big, anything, by working on it bit by bit every single day. Things add up, like training for a marathon. One day, you look back and see all the work you have done leading to the thing you wanted to achieve. This concept is found in Bird by Bird and is mostly about writing but it goes for everything you want to achieve in life really.
• To achieve the above, you need rituals. You have to sit down (or move about) at the same time every day. This helps prepare your unconscious for the task ahead. Rituals are introduced in Bird by Bird but are the prime subject in Daily Rituals.
• But what should you be building on? That, of course, is something that you have to find out for yourself. Some intriguing thoughts on that can be found in David Foster Wallace: The Last Interview and The Three Marriages. What struck me is that finding the thing you should work on, is not about rationality. According to these two books it’s more about intuition and gut-feeling. But even then, it is hard work getting there.
• Hard work and maybe insight. Wisdom too. And prudence. Those are the subjects of The Art of Worldly Wisdom and would make a nice addition to any reading list. But the emphasis on prudence (i.e. acting with or showing care and thought for the future) makes it especially helpful if you want to build something big.

Here is my list for this summer to inspire you to get a little closer to what drives you. Or maybe make some welcome changes as you read through these pages filled with wisdom.

Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott. A book about writing. But at the same time about life. The struggle to write a book, and how to start, can be read as a metaphor for anything you would like to achieve in life. One of the bits I loved:

You get your intuition back when you make space for it, when you stop the chattering of the rational mind. The rational mind doesn’t nourish you. You assume that it gives you the truth, because the rational mind is the golden calf that this culture worships, but this is not true. Rationality squeezes out much that is rich and juicy and fascinating.

Daily Rituals by Mason Currey. Currey, in the introduction, describes what this book is about:

"The book’s title is Daily Rituals, but my focus in writing it was really people’s routines. The word connotes ordinariness and even a lack of thought; to follow a routine is to be on autopilot. But one’s daily routine is also a choice, or a whole series of choices. In the right hands, it can be a finely calibrated mechanism for taking advantage of a range of limited resources: time (the most limited resource of all) as well as willpower, self- discipline, optimism. A solid routine fosters a well- worn groove for one’s mental energies and helps stave off the tyranny of moods. This was one of William James’s favorite subjects. He thought you wanted to put part of your life on autopilot; by forming good habits, he said, we can “free our minds to advance to really interesting fields of action.”"

You can see why this is a great companion to Bird by Bird. This is not a book to read in one sitting. Currey has a little chapter on the routines of more than hundred authors, philosophers, artists and musicians. It’s a good book to put on your night stand for the holidays. Or a book that you can pick up if you already know you will not have more than ten minutes undisturbed reading at a time. There are some big names here: Freud, Hemingway, Murakami, Proust, Louis Armstrong, Stephen Jay Gould and Andy Warhol, to name a few. A lot in this book echoes what Anne Lamott writes in bird by bird. Consider Murakami’s routine:

When he is writing a novel, Murakami wakes at 4:00 A.M. and works for five to six hours straight. In the afternoons he runs or swims (or does both), runs errands, reads, and listens to music; bedtime is 9:00. (..) “The repetition itself becomes the important thing; it’s a form of mesmerism. I mesmerize myself to reach a deeper state of mind.”

The Three Marriages by David Whyte. A book about work-life balance:

"The current understanding of work-life balance is too simplistic. People find it hard to balance work with family, family with self, because it might not be a question of balance. Some other dynamic is in play, something to do with a very human attempt at happiness that does not quantify different parts of life and then set them against one another. We are collectively exhausted because of our inability to hold competing parts of ourselves together in a more integrated way."

What follows is a very unusual treatment of the work-life balance. It changed the way I look at my work and relationships. If you want to reflect deeply this summer, pick up this book. But only if you like a very new way of looking at your life:

"The pursuit of the self is the pursuit of that part of us not defined by our worries and anxieties. [I had to pause here for at least 10 minutes.] But this pursuit begins only by admitting that human anxiety is endless and to be expected. These waves of existential anxiety may knock down the surface self, but there is another, deeper self with a larger perspective that was never knocked down at all. (..) The pursuit of the self is also the pursuit of that part of us that is untouched by our successes and accomplishments."

David Foster Wallace: The Last Interview. This little volume of interviews with the writer David Foster Wallace makes me want to read his fiction. Zadie Smith said of him: “In a culture that depletes you daily of your capacity for imagination, for language, for autonomous thought, complexity like Dave’s is a gift”. Again, there’s a lot on routines and rituals here, but also some good thoughts on life and work:

"[W]hen you’re a child I don’t think you’re aware of how incredibly easy you have it, right? You have your own problems and you have your own burdens and chores and things you have to do. (..) I think when they [i.e. his parents] went into these quiet rooms and had to do things that it wasn’t obvious they wanted to do, I think there was a part of me that felt that something terrible was coming. But also, of course, now that we’re putatively grown up there’s also a lot of really, really interesting stuff and sometimes you sit in quiet rooms and do a lot of drudgery and at the end of it is a surprise or something very rewarding or a feeling of fulfillment."

Definitely a nice little volume for your summer reading list. For the Dave Eggers fans out there: he is one of the interviewers.

The Art of Worldly Wisdom by Balthasar Gracián. Written in the 17th century by a Jesuit priest. A keen observer of human behavior, his 300 observations give you excellent advice on how to get ahead in life. Although the book was written long ago, it still holds truths that you can use in your work as a manager and business decision-maker. This little volume, for some, is therefore included in a list of three great, timeless wisdom books: Machiavelli’s The Prince, Sun-Tzu’s The Art of War, and, thus, Baltasar Gracián’s The Art of Worldly Wisdom. I am only halfway through this book. Here are some quotes I found especially useful in a work setting:

"Don’t outshine your boss. When you counsel someone, you should appear to be reminding him of something he had forgotten, not of the light he was unable to see. It is the stars who teach us this subtlety. They are brilliant sons, but they never dare to outshine the sun."

Never exaggerate. It isn’t wise to use superlatives. They offend the truth and cast doubt on your judgment. By exaggerating, you squander your praise and reveal a lack of knowledge and taste. (..) To overvalue something is a form of lying. It can ruin your reputation for good taste, and  ?  even worse  ?  for wisdom.

"Be diligent [i.e. careful and conscientious in work and duties] and intelligent. Fools are fond of hurry: they take no heed of obstacles and act incautiously. The wise usually fail through hesitation. Fools stop at nothing, the wise at everything. Sometimes things are judged correctly but go wrong out of inefficiency and neglect. Readiness is the mother of luck. It is a great deed to leave nothing for the morrow. A lofty motto: make haste slowly."

For all management consultants out there:

"End well. [B]e careful of the way you end things, and devote more attention to a successful exit than to a highly applauded entrance. What matters isn’t being applauded when you arrive ? for that is common ? but being missed when you leave. Rare are those who are still wanted."

And for everyone out there:

"Be careful when you inform yourself about things. Much of our lives is spent gathering information. We see very few things for ourselves, and live trusting others. The ears are the back door of truth and the front door of deceit. Truth is more often seen than heard."

This wonderful book is to be read like Daily Rituals: take it in in small doses and do a lot of thinking about the deeper meaning and consequences for your strategies in work and life.

I hope this list inspires you to read this summer. Need more recommendations? Check out all my book reviews via this link.

Enjoy your summer.