My Chase for 100 Books in 2017 (September Update)
Another month, another stack of books.
The year is three-quarters complete, and to this point I have finished 68 books. Having read nine this month, I am pleased that I have learned so much this year. However, I need to continue my pace from last month to get to the promised land. A few observations from the last month of reading:
I continue to receive critical feedback from friends and family, including recommendations, suggestions, and improvements. The Richest Man in Babylon and The Glass Menagerie were long-time and last-second recommendations respectively, and I look forward to reading everything by Tennessee Williams. Thanks, Nick and David!
This month’s most popular question remains, “How do you turn your phone to black and white?” On your iPhone, go to: Settings > General > Accessibility > Display Accommodations > Color Filters.
Earlier this month, my reading pace diminished because I had trouble sleeping. Before bed I have started to drink decaf tea with raw honey, which raises liver glycogen levels to promote higher brain function during sleep. Six out of seven times, I have slept at least eight hours straight. Try it for yourself, or learn more from this book (haven’t read it yet, but it sounds interesting).
Moment has helped me track daily and monthly phone usage. I spend way more time on screens than I thought, and I have cut an hour off daily phone time since downloading the app. I am still using the free version, but debating whether to invest in the $3.99 upgrade.
Below are the 9 books added to my year’s list. This month’s reading was split almost evenly between novels and non-fiction. I was delighted to have read perhaps the most fiction I have read in a month this year. Each is linked to Amazon and local bookstores by title and author, and favorites are marked with a hot pepper:
. . .
60. Brave New World — Aldous Huxley 🌶
“But I don’t want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin.”
61. Before the Fall — Noah Hawley
“It’s hard to be sad when you’re being useful.”
62. The Richest Man in Babylon — George S. Clason
“Our acts can be no wiser than our thoughts.”
63. What I Talk About When I Talk About Running — Haruki Murakami
“Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.”
64. The Prince — Niccolo Machiavelli
“The lion cannot protect himself from traps, and the fox cannot defend himself from wolves. One must therefore be a fox to recognize traps, and a lion to frighten wolves.”
65. The Alchemist — Paulo Coelho
“It’s the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting.”
66. Vagabonding — Rolf Potts
“The value of your travels does not hinge on how many stamps you have in your passport when you get home.”
67. Scrum — Jeff Sutherland
“Multitasking Makes You Stupid. Doing more than one thing at a time makes you slower and worse at both tasks. Don’t do it. If you think this doesn’t apply to you, you’re wrong — it does.”
68. The Glass Menagerie — Tennessee Williams 🌶
“Time is the longest distance between two places.”
. . .
I am hoping better sleep this month will help me read more in less time. I will continue to experiment and share new reads and techniques that I test out over the next several weeks.
Your recommendations and questions have fueled this journey, and I thank you all for that.
Once again, I leave you with advice from the last two write-ups: If you read one book a month, you will learn at least twelve new ideas a year. If you finish a book a week, you can read over 50 books a year.
