Though good literature is timeless and much nonfiction is time-dependent, it would appear that my backlog of pleasure reading is in need of more time than the hour or so I devote to reading before falling asleep! Alas, this weekend is the annual University Lake barn sale where I habitually succumb to walking away with several grocery bags stuffed with even more to read.
Among the books (some of which are pictured above) I plan to have read before 2nd semester begins in mid January are the following:
- Charles Duhigg’s Smarter, Faster, Better: The Science of Being Productive in Life and Business and also his The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business. I try to read things of this sort because of my partnership in Schneider Consulting and out of interest in writing something like this. Greg, Jane, and I keep talking about publishing some of our accumulated wisdom from consulting the past 30 years.
- Cixin Liu’s Death’s End. I read the first two books of this science fiction trilogy and have eagerly awaited more than a year for the translation of the third volume. I try to read several works from global authors every year and at the time I read the first book, I was under the understanding the Carroll was expecting an influx of students from China.
- Ann Patchett’s Commonwealth. I admire and envy her way with words.
- Jonathan Safran Foer’s novels Here I Am and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. I tonight will finish his creative first novel Everything Is Illuminated.
- Robert Sternberg’s What Universities Can Be: A New Model for Active Concerned Citizenship and Ethical Leadership.I’ve always admired Sternberg’s depth of thinking and once had the pleasure reviewing his book on research dealing with wisdom. This year Carroll’s overarching theme is “Citizenship.”
- The Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu’s The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World. I deeply admire both men.
- Alan Moore’s Jerusalem.
- Maria Konnikova’s The Confidence Game: Why We Fall for It Every Time.
- Kennth Mikkelson’s (with whom I just connected on LinkedIn): The NeoGeneralist: Where You Go is Who You Are
- J. K. Rowling’s: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: A Screen Play
And of course, for the next six weeks I continue to read, learn from, and interact online with the author Jane Hart of MODERN WORKPLACE LEARNING: A RESOURCE BOOK FOR L&D. It is a fascinating and a very new reading experience for me to be interacting with the author and a number of fellow readers across the world as we read, discuss, and try to apply the ideas in her book. So much value is added to the printed copy I bought by my also having an online copy which I can annotate, explore the links and references, and perhaps even through my participation “refresh” it with ideas.
Lego, ergo sum.
