GOOD BOOKS ARE LOYAL FRIENDS AND THEY NEVER BORROW MONEY

Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend. Inside of a dog it’s too dark to read.

Groucho Marx

I don’t plan to get much done this week. I’m hopelessly involved in 3 good reads. And with immediate gratification being my strong suit, most everything else will be kicked to the curb.

Visiting Helen Keller’s home while on vacation last week whetted my appetite for more knowledge about this remarkable woman. And I found just the right book: Helen’s Eyes A photobiography of Annie Sullivan  (Helen Keller’s Teacher) by Marfe Ferguson Delano. The book should have be been titled When Geniuses Collide – the story of two brilliant women who needed each other to be complete and to achieve their potential. Together they made history. Illness left Helen deaf, dumb and blind as an infant. With Annie’s tutelage, she enrolled at Radcliffe (Harvard’s college for women) at the age of 16 and graduated with honors and gained world prominence traveling, learning foreign languages, writing books and being an advocate for the deaf and blind. Annie also had a horrific childhood; she  grew up poor and abandoned, spending much of her childhood in a state poorhouse but overcame adversity and revolutionized the way the deaf and blind were taught. It’s a short book but beautifully written and incredibly inspiring.

I enjoy reading state-of-the-art business books. My philosophy is that good principles/tactics that work in business can also be applicable to learning how to live life more effectively. I am reading The Lean Startup by Eric Ries. It’s a real paradigm shifter for me and has made me cognizant of some ideas (i.e. defining objectives and testing approaches/strategies and measuring results) for improving my blog. I want to write a good blog that’s successful by my standards.

The third book is being read just for sheer unadulterated pleasure. These are the kind of books I just can’t put down and will stay up way past my bedtime reading. The book is called The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson. I have weird tastes. Psychopaths fascinates me.

Being immersed in three good reads is like winning the trifecta for me.

When I discover a really enjoyable book, it’s pleasant to anticipate reading  other books by the same author. Here is a website     http://newbookalerts.com/  that you might find useful. It allows you to keep track of your favorite authors and when they publish a new book you are notified via email.