The Books We Read… What’s the Relationships there?
Friday, June 30th, 2006I headed back to Duxbury for the holiday weekend tonight, only to realize that gasp, I forgot the new book I was planning to bring to the beach with me! Last week I had picked out a number of self-help and inspirational reads, and even a book on how to pray better, in addition to the first book that I read (not any of these topics), which was The Rule of Four. (This is not a review of The Rule of Four, but if you want my opinion, I would say that it rated somewhere between Dan Brown and John Grisham on the scale of bad to good.
I contemplated my options…
1. Go without reading this weekend.
2. Buy a new book or magazine.
3. Read the newspaper that is delivered to our home daily anyway.
4. Search the book shelves of the various rooms where my family members either live or used to live for a book I would be interested in reading.
Option #4 is what really got me thinking… I realized there are not very many books in my house that I have not read. I do not really enjoy rereading books. The books that I have not read in my house are either a. not interesting, or b. someone else is in the process of reading them now.
I looked through the books that were my Mom’s… many of the titles are similar to the ones found in my own library. There seem to be a lot of psychology and education textbooks, Oprah list type books, poetry books, and mostly American literature. This collection would have met my needs, except I’ve already read most of them.
Next, I moved to the family bookcase, where I see the Treasury Management textbook my Dad edited with Dr. Peck, and then other staple books… the Bible, all of Shakespeare’s plays, various classics, and even the MLA guide. I decide quickly to move to Billy’s room. The books I see there are written by guys like Donald Trump, Jack Welch, Tim Russert, and a slew of other CEOs and celebrity businessmen. Most of these titles proclaim topics of leadership, financial advice, decision-making, and power. What makes Billy read this stuff? Are these books helping Billy to become like one of those savy CEOs? What would I gain from reading these books? From what I estimate… probably not very much of what is in those books is more practical for me than what I read in other books.
This begs the question about what impact all the self help books and counseling texts I read have on me and my life? I can definitely see that the books that I read all the time about counseling and psychology are helping me to become a better school counselor. I think that in some ways I have become a better HR professional and even a better listener in other areas of my relations. I really enjoy reading stories about people that have done amazing things… like walking across America or hiking the Appalachian trail. I enjoy being outside very much, but I am not about to do either of these things. Is that the same draw that Billy has to finance and business leadership books? Is it an inspiration thing? Perhaps.