I read three books today. All of them were great. And one of them even has to do with business, so I’m chalking up today as self-employed. I also moved my desk, ate leftovers, and did twelve pull-ups, so I feel quite productive for having sat on the couch all day.
Today I read:
Daniel Gilbert’s Stumbling on Happiness. I’d been meaning to read this since watching Dan Gilbert’s TED talk on happiness a few days ago. The book was interesting, full of counter-intuitive examples of how terrible our minds are at predicting how we’ll feel in the future. (Did you know that having kids makes you unhappy? Doesn’t matter, though, you don’t believe me and you’ll have them anyway. I will, too.) I’m disappointed that he doesn’t talk about synthetic happiness in the book, as it was the whole reason I picked it up. Oh well, it was a great read anyway.
Cesar Millan’s Cesar’s Way. Cesar Millan is the Dog Whisperer. I’ve never seen a single episode of his show, but his book blew me away. And I’m not a dog person, either. Every once in a while you read something that absolutely resonates with you and makes you go, “Yes! That’s right! Now I understand!” Cesar Millan’s book did that for me. He talks a lot about body language and nonverbal communication and animal instincts, which is right up my alley. I’ll be getting his second book, definitely.
Chip and Dan Heath’s Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die. So good. Amazing. Fantastic. If you ever attempt to communicate ideas to other people, you need to read this book. I had to keep putting it down every few pages because I was coming up with so many ideas I wanted to incorporate into my own presentation and I needed to write them down. Thanks to the Ed Dale and Mike Mindel from the Thirty Day Challenge for recommending this book. It has found a permanent place on my bookshelf.
And now I’m in the middle of:
Jonathan Haidt’s The Happiness Hypothesis. It got great reviews on Amazon, it seemed like everyone who bought Stumbling on Happiness also bought this, and Craig just happened to have a copy lying around. So of course I had to read it. It’s going a bit slower thanks to its extra-small font and the fact that all the research is so interesting that I have to keep looking it up. Seriously, “alien-hand syndrome”? Crazy!
David Deida’s The Way Of The Superior Man. David Deida’s understanding of relationship dynamics is astounding. He is an amazing writer and brings spirituality and understanding to relationships in a powerful way. It takes me a few days to process each page – the book is short but it’s taking me months to get through it. Read it. Of course, if you have no desire to ever have a satisfying relationship, feel free to disregard this suggestion.
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Hi Niels,
I wanted you to know that I ran right out and got my tubes tied thanks to your comments! Well, maybe it was a few years ago, simply because I had observed the same thing!
I could discern if you had a dog do have a dog or are gonna have a dog but his Be A Pack Leader DVD isincredible with the three key areas people have problems with. Cesar Millan’s information also translates to human relationships if you think about it! Especailly in work there have been a couple of clients who were really “red-zone” that I gave successfully used his information on.
As he says, its all about energy!
I need to get on those books asap as well!
Thanks for the insights.