New book

I started reading a new book yesterday:

This was on my yearly book list, technically for Q4….but I was in the mood for something “inspirational”. I’ve been in a pretty low time of reading. Hasn’t felt like I’ve had much time for it lately at all. I finished a book on June 12 and then somehow just never really started another one until yesterday, the 29th. Oops.

I released a few holds from suspension at the library, and this one popped up, so I swung by to pick it up.

My eyes popped out a little when I saw it on the holds shelf:

I hadn’t realized it is as thick as a textbook!! For a second I thought, “Did I reserve the large print version??” Lol. Nope.

It’s an interview style book, where Tim Ferriss has interviewed more than 100 of life’s “experts”, or latests and greatests in their fields. He’s asked each one a series of identical questions, things like “In the last 5 years, what new belief, behavior, or habit has most improved your life?” or “If you could have one gigantic billboard with anything on it (getting a message out to millions)- what would it say and why?”

Others are a little quirky, like “What is an unusual habit or an absurd thing that you love?”

There are 11 questions total.

Seems interesting! I haven’t followed Tim Ferriss’ work much, but I know he’s pretty popular. I love memoirs/ reading about interesting people, and I do enjoy reading interview answers, so I’m hopeful this will be a fun read.

*It also seems full of inspirational quotes/ tidbits (interspersed or as part of the answers or commentary), so expect some to be coming your way. 🙂 I’ll probably write a bunch down in my Reading Notebook.

From the intro:

🔷”The only true voyage would be not to travel through a hundred different lands with the same pair of eyes, but to see the same land through a hundred different pairs of eyes.“ -Marcel Proust

🔷“What we don’t do determines what we can do.” (*I really love this and it made me pause. It is true. We cannot do all things. Time is limited in life. So choosing carefully what we will NOT do certainly does, then, open up the space and time for other things, instead, that we WILL (or can) do.)

🔷 “Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.“

From 1st Interview (with writer, teacher, chef Samin Nosat):

🔷 “While cooking, I have ruined more dishes than I can recall.“

(As she is a professional chef, I found this quote inspiring…a nice reminder that the path is never easy, and no one succeeds without many, many, many failures along the way.)

🔷 “The more clear I am about what my goals are, the more easily I can say no.“

Are you reading anything good right now? Has anyone read Tribe of Mentors? I have such a big list of books I want to read, but my reading life has been weak lately. Sad. I like that this book is divided up into shorter/smaller chapters, so I’m looking forward to at least reading one each morning.

Daily Gratitude:

I am grateful for a nice text exchange with an old friend last night.

4 thoughts on “New book”

I haven’t read this or anything by Ferris. We debated using one of his books years ago for the women’s leadership group at work but we worried that the length/size of the book might scare people off, even if we focused on some short sections within the book. It sounds like an interesting book, though!

I’m reading a good fiction novel right now – The Violin Conspiracy. I’m reading it more slowly than I would if I had more time to read but it’s been a busy week for us. Re: your comment about your identity as a reader, just as you think I am a runner, I think you are a reader. You don’t have to read every day or read a ridiculous number of books to be a reader, IMO. I read more now than I did pre-kids but I think it’s because the barrier to entry for reading it so long – it can be done at any time, anywhere. If I could exercise at night, I would read less but it hypes me up too much to workout in the evening after the kids are in bed, so that is why my reading has probably increased – and I am better at going up to bed at 8:30 than I was pre-kids, probably because I am more tired so more drawn to going up to bed early.

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I love that book. better to read it a little each day to absorb all the wisdoms. 🙂

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I LOVE this book. I’ve read it twice. I found it a great read and easy to pick up in small pockets of time. I think about this book a lot, recorded a lot of quotes from it, and it actually spurred me on to make a big life change in some ways. HUGE fan of this book (I don’t listen to his podcast and was only mildly impressed by his other books with 4-Hour-Work Week etc).

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