I am
always encouraging my kids to read books and have supported a book-centric life
since they were born. Regular visits to
libraries and occasionally to the bookstore have hopefully instilled the
voracious reader within each of them.
But I wonder how many books they will get to read in their
lifetime. How many, at a minimum, will
be needed to help them form who they are and inform them on how to best
approach life? Which books should they
read -- in what order -- and by what age or stage in their lives?
Is
it possible to map out the reading they will do over the next 60, 70, 80
years? Think of how many millions of new
books will be thrust into the choices they face in just the next decade. Who or what will guide their selections?
There
is no magic number of books one must read, but is it safe to say that even
under the best selection circumstances, there are easily hundreds, no thousands
of books, that one should read in order to understand life -- its history, its
future, its possibilities. There’s so
much to discover about love, death, courage, and the emotional facets of
life. There are so many scenarios of
fantasy and alternate reality to contemplate.
There are many facts, statistics, events, biographies, philosophies, and theories to
input into our brains so that we can have a baseline working knowledge of the
world. And while we busy ourselves with
what was or is, new books revealing new truths, facts, and revised ways of
thinking overwhelm the marketplace.
How
do you choose science fiction vs. romance, or humor vs. mystery, or Buddhism vs.
18th country poetry? The truth
is it’s hard to choose until you at least test-drive what’s out there. Flirt with a variety of genres, writing
styles, and time periods. Discover what
speaks to you and follow your desires and needs. Building one’s library is an amazing thing
that takes a lifetime to unfold and is never a completed task.
Teachers
instruct kids on what to read. There are
recommended reading lists from libraries, the media, or Amazon. There are suggestions from friends and
family, bookstore workers, and those we share our lives with. But who or what guides all of this? How are we organizing our overall approach to
what we read, or is it all haphazard, reactionary, and happenstance as to how we
come by the books we eventually read?
We
need a list of books that entertain us.
We
need a list that instruct us.
We
need a list of books that explore new ideas.
We
need books that inform us.
We
need books that inspire or motivate us.
The
list goes on. We need so many kinds of
books, whether we realize it or not.
Some would say the book you need most is the one in your hand. If we apply ourselves, we can enjoy
many books or find something redeeming about them, so how do we avoid the risk
that we indulge in the books that are not the most important and valuable to
us?
It’s
not just a matter of a book being well written, selling well, or being given
awards. Even amongst that litmus test,
there are too many books to choose from.
Too many classics as well. So I
ask, how do we choose, not just one by one, but throughout our lives? Is there anything intentional that drives our
book choices?
First,
we need to know what those choices are.
We need a primer on the book world.
We need an introduction to the kinds of books that exist –a variety of
formats, genres, time periods, languages, etc.
Second,
we need to understand that a part of us should be in discovery mode and to seek out
books we normally would not read or don’t know much about. We need to try new clothes on to see what
fits.
Third,
we do need to be in touch with our lives and who we are. We should find books that
support our needs, desires, curiosities, and passions. We need to find out what is the best of the
areas that interest us.
Many
readers are lost at sea. They don’t
really have a game plan of what to read.
They don’t even know what they like until exposed to it. People live busy lives and are distracted by
technology; social media, and the explosion of entertainment options. But what we need is a reading curriculum for
life, one that can be customized, revised and built upon.
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Brian Feinblum’s views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog are his alone and not that of his employer. You can follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels more important when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog 2016 ©.
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