Ever Wonder What I’m Reading? No? Well, You’re Going to Find Out Anyways.
Fellow colleague, t-nation contributor, and overall badass, John Romaniello, wrote a blog post last week expounding on some of the things he’s been reading as of late. A self proclaimed nerd, John’s a renaissance man of sorts and you’re just as likely to catch him playing World of Warcraft online on any given night as you are finding him dictating Klingon poems into English for the hell of it. Except in his case, he can also deadlift over 600 lbs and he’s jacked diesel to boot.
Nevertheless, like John, I too am a bookworm and often receive a lot of inquires from people as to what I’m currently reading. As such, I thought I’d steal his idea and take today and briefly discuss a few of things I’m currently reading or am about to read.
We need to break this into a few categories, however. You see, I’d say that at any given point I’m reading 2-3 books simultaneously. Breaking it down, here’s how it generally looks:
Health/Fitness: I’m always reading something related to my field. Whether it’s an ebook on how to be less fat, a manual on postural restoration, a textbook on how to manage/program around lower back issues, or something related to nutrition, I’m usually weeding my way through something.
Currently, I’m still making my way through Gray Cook’s Movement. In a word, this book is dense, and makes me realize just how moronic I am. But there’s a ton (literally a TON) of knowledge bombs in it. I don’t think I’ve highlighted a book so much in my life.
Fiction: To be brutally honest, sometimes I need a break from “thinking” and I just need to read for the sake of reading. To that end, from time to time I’ll pick up a classic novel (think Kurt Vonnegut) or read one of my favorite authors, Robert Ludlum. Moreover it’s not un-common for me to peruse the local Barnes and Nobles paperback section and just pick something up that catches my eye.
In the grand scheme of things, so long as it keeps my attention, I’ll read just about any type of fiction. Hell, I even read The Time Traveler’s Wife not too long ago.
And yes, I saw the movie too. Fail, I know.
Currently, I’m reading a book my girlfriend recommended to me – The Celestine Prophecy. More of a spiritual book, it’s a fictionalized story of some dude who wanders into the Peruvian forest to learn about some secret manuscript that is going to change how the world views itself. Needless to say, when I’m done, I better get a meatloaf.
Up next, though, is A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking.
I guess this book can be considered somewhat “spiritual” in nature as well. Except here, he talks about black-holes and time travel and shit. Cool.
Toilet Reading: Pardon the visual, but this is where I get the majority of my magazine reading done. Men’s Health, Experience Life Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, or books like Brain Candy to name a few.
I don’t know, but there’s just something about trying to solve a puzzle while dropping it likes it hot that’s riveting.
Audible.com: As someone who has a 35-40 minute commute to and from work each and every day, this service has been a life saver. I’m not kidding when I say there are times where I pull into the parking lot, and I don’t leave my car until the chapter is over. This was the case when I recently listened to The Accidental Billionaires – the book that was the basis for the movie, The Social Network.
Alternatively, I’ll also listen to stuff that will make me smarter. 1. I can write it off – so long as it’s pertinent to my career (HA, take that Obama!) and 2. It’s been said that the average person spends 7-10 hours per week in their car. In the span of four years, those hours add up. A lot. It’s not out of the question to say that you could easily get the equivalent of a college education for 1/1000th of the price just by listening to audio books in your car.
Self Improvement/Business: This is a category that I wish I started much earlier than I did. I’d say that for every book on fitness that I read, I try to read one book on either self improvement and/or business. As I noted the other day, currently I’m reading Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior, and I’m loving it. Up next, I’m up for suggestions. Anyone have anything good?
