I firmly believe that reading is so important to expansion of the mind and for the growth of your knowledge, curiosity, and thought process development. Time to read can be challenging, especially if you are a workaholic or not a naturally-inclined reader once you leave the obligatory reading of the academic world. Trying to stay cognizant of why reading is important, I began to adapt different techniques throughout the years to continue to grow my reading list.
Here are five quick ways to curate the PERFECT reading list for you:
Airports
Who flies the most? Who is on the road the most? The answer to that question is typically people flying for business. More people fly for business than for any other reason, and, therefore, the marketing by companies in airports is designed for minimalism, efficiency, and business.
When a bookstore has a storefront in an airport, they don’t have a lot of real estate to work with, so we also get the added benefit of the cream of the crop. It’s an efficient way to shop for books that align you to the high end business and political machines that are frequenting the airport.
Every time I visit an airport, specifically an international hub like Portland (Ore.), Denver (Colo.), San Fran (Calif.) or LA (Cali.), I try to grab one or two books to add to my stack. Even a collection of essays from the Harvard Business Journal provided to be highly interesting, provoking marketing thoughts that i had never considered when it came to the understanding of socio-economics and the impacts of your marketing schemes.
Ask People
It seems quite simple to make a social media call-to-action asking your friends and followers for their suggestions. Usually the results can be overwhelming and the number of books that you actually put on your “to read list” or into your Amazon shopping cart is closer to zero. When I do a social media book call-to-action, I only select books that seem intriguing or that come referred from a close friend.
My favorite way to ask people, and one that I highly suggest anyone else out there interested in reading, is to simply ask a stranger for one book that they would recommend to anyone that would change their life. This can be the person in the seat next to you on the plane, the one that you had a great conversation with about a work conference. It can be someone at a coffee shop-, the person next to you at a concert, or a random coffee acquaintance that reached out to you via LinkedIn.
While all of the books suggested vary in range, from historical fiction, political, self-help, mythical, fantasy ad biography - they all have a recurring theme. They meant the WORLD to that stranger and, more than any simple coffee conversation could have, they can share a little intimate piece about that person you touched lives with at one point in time.
One such book like that for me is Mindset by Dr. Carol S. Dweck - recommend to me by an elderly man on a beach I was trying to snorkel on in Hawaii. Turns out, he was a retired sports psychologist and that book recommendation, at that time in my life, changed my entire life for the better!
From Your Favorite Podcasts
While reading can be hard to do in this fast-paced world, there is a great opportunity to listen to audio books. I have a friend who HATES to read but loves to listen and that’s what he does! Outpacing me five-to-one, he consumer more book per annum than I ever could. That’s his way of learning while mine is through the physical motions of holding and being held captive by a book.
If you’re the kind of person that like to listen to books, than you are probably a fan of podcasts already. I listen to podcasts on long drives and write down book suggestions from my favorite show hosts and their guests. It’s another way that you can continue to delve deeper into the topics that interest you by utilizing these target audience podcasts to grow your knowledge within a certain sphere.
Conventions & Conferences
Just like in podcasts, you can continue to dive deeper into spheres of influence that intrigue you the most when you are at a convention or conference. Listening to the speakers, some may have published a book or recommend one in their speech or presentation. Write these down so that you can read into them further down the road.
They also provide a great opportunity to reach back out to that presenter via LinkedIn or their email to let them know your thoughts on the book that they heard them mention or recommend. Attention to detail to those particulars could set u a great mentorship or business relationship with a specialist in your field.
Also Written By…
Another, almost obvious way, that you can add more books to your reading list, is by finding other books written by authors that you enjoy. Maybe you really enjoyed the sports psychology book that was recommended to you by the gentleman at the beach - find out what else that author has written or even a book that they have done a review on.
Make a Reading List You Won’t Lose
Now that you know how to start building, how do you keep track of it? Simply use the Notes app on your phone and create a checkable-checklist that you can work your way through. I split my bullets based off the month so that I can try to read 1-2 books per month. You can continue to add to that list at the bottom and, at the end of the year, I copy the remainder of the list to a new note and continue to add on new books to read.
Yes, I am more than aware that there are almost a hundred books on that list, but I enjoy the challenge of working my way through the ever growing list.
With all of that being said, WHAT IS ONE BOOK YOU WOULD RECOMMEND TO ANY STRANGER? Drop it in the comment below so I can add it to my list !I would love to hear your thoughts, your insights and continue to learn more about you!