Renaissance Minds Bookblog

You’ve GOT to Read This Book!

55 People Tell the Story of the Book That Changed Their Life

Jack Canfield and Gay Hendricks

As an avid, compulsive, and addicted reader, I’ve always been a sucker for books on books. It’s crazy! Why can’t I just eliminate the middleman, and just read the book itself, instead of reading a book ABOUT other books? Well, I’ll tell you why. Because books on books also give you stories, stories about how books and writings have impacted other readers. And it’s a well-known fact that human beings love stories. I’m only human. Therefore deductive logic (or is it inductive? I’m so confused!) leads to the conclusion that I love books on books.

The great thing about this book is that most of the people who submitted stories on books that profoundly impacted their lives, are also writers. So it’s almost a double-whammy - when you read a story in this one that speaks to your soul, not only do you want to read the book suggested - you also want to seek out everything written by the author, and read THEIR stuff too. Yes, this book can get a compulsive reader into very deep “TBR List” trouble, if you know what I mean! 

That being said, let me share a technique with you for “HOW” to read this book.  I read it as I usually do - marking passages or book titles I wanted to read, with little post-it flags, and going through from cover-to-cover. Also making a “mental note” of the authors (of the stories in the book) I really liked and wanted to sample, too.

Who am I kidding? I had to be mental in the first place, to think a “mental note” would ever work for me!! So I’m gonna have to go through this one again, almost cover-to-cover to get what I want out of it. I’d like to prevent that from happening to you. So to save you that additional step, here’s what to do. Grab a notebook when you start this book. You don’t have to read it in a linear fashion, you can easily skip around because there is no continuity between the stories. So either start at the beginning, or pick a chapter to start with. Put the title of that chapter (the author’s name) at the top of a sheet of paper. As you read their bio and then the story about the book that influenced them, jot down any titles you might want to read (or reread). I also would put a couple memory-trigger words there, if there’s something about the book that especially piques your interest.  THEN - as you finish the chapter by that author, and this is important, do not skip this step!! - rate in the top right-hand corner, on a scale of 1 to 10, how much you want to read the suggested books.

Believe me, even if the first few are 8 or 9 or even 10, you’ll realize very quickly that this book is chock-full of awesome suggestions.  So by the time I was done, even with making my “mental” notes and all, I had no idea where to begin. What recommendation did I want to start first?  There were so many good ones! I remember thinking (as I made my “mental notes,” har har), “Oooh this one sounds really good, I’d like to read that one very soon. It would really be applicable to where I am right now…”

 And you got it - my mental notebook is blank. So, I’m stuck. I reread books more and more as I age, so I have no doubt that I’m going to read this one again. (And do it right, the next time.)  However, there’s already a tottering stack of “To Be Read” books on my desk, right now, and many of them are library books thus they have “expiration” dates that I have to read them by!  So back this one goes to the library, to await patiently the time when I can give it the attention and tlc it needs.

And I’m throwing away my mental notebook right now…

Writing Without The Muse

50 Beginning Exercises for the Creative Writer

by Beth Baruch Joselow

If you’re a writer and would like some creative thinking exercises, or if you’re just trying to add a little creativity to your life, this is a great little book. With 50 one- or two-page exercises, you can either read it front to back and do the writing exercises that appeal to you, or trust fate to guide you to just the exercise you need, flip the book open, and do the one it opens to.

The exercises are all very brief, which is great for me. When I procrastinate on my writing, reading is one of my favorite diversions!  So I will pick up a book on writing, and then I’m “working on writing,” right?  (Correct answer: Wrong.) Having this book in my possession means I can no longer use that excuse - I pick it up, take just a few minutes to select a writing exercise, and get going. 

In fact, it helps far beyond doing the simple writing exercise in the book. Usually this exercise is enough to “prime the pump,” and after doing the selected exercise for a very short time, I can suddenly focus on the writing that I was putting off, in the first place!

An sample of one of the exercises is called “Every Day for a Week.” The instructions are simple - every day for a week, write about a very simple experience you have every day (such as waking up or eating breakfast). After you’ve done it for a week, you compare the articles and observe and reflect whether your descriptions have changed, whether you notice anything about the activity you hadn’t noticed before, or even,  whether you do things differently now that your awareness and perception has shifted! 

Joselow’s book is quick, inspiring, and has definitely helped bump me right over my writer’s block on occasion. A great little addition to any writer’s library.