Some Favorite Books So Far

2019

I've been known to tell the lie that the best book I've ever read is the one I'm reading now. Actually the best books gave me some direction, or insight, or joy, or sadness, or made me richer and I don’t mean just in experience. Here’s a bit about some. 

The Asiatics by Frederic Prokosch was the first adult novel I read. I was 12. Set in the 1920s it's about a young man who traveled on the cheap across Asia with adventures and entanglements all the way. He went with the flow to see where it was going and had a novel's worth of excitement. 

I think The Asiatics subconsciously motivated me in 1971 to vagabond on the road from Lisbon to Kathmandu. Went with the flow every day. Had a few adventures and entanglements. And have written six short stories about the trip so far. 

I first read Burmese Days by George Orwell while I was travelling across Asia. It's a story that emerged from his time as a military policeman in Burma in the 1920s. He shone a light on the disparate lives of the colonial British and the native population. Two competing cultures and hierarchies. More so, he saw the horror of people in a ruling class addicted to power. A theme he replayed in Animal Farm. Burmese Days gave me a sensitivity to class differences and their consequences.

Confessions of an Advertising Man is a David Ogilvy's memoir dressed up as a primer on how to run a business. I worked for him from 1975 to 1980 with many layers between his ownership plateau and my worker bee role. This slight volume has many lessons important to a working life and how to run an advertising agency. For example, his focus on writing well was a rallying cry intended to contrast his employees with those unlucky to be working elsewhere. Confessions is my go to thank you gift. 

I've just reread James Michener's The Novel. It’s four people's stories; a writer, his editor, an English professor and a literary benefactor. The book probes the difference between popular novels like those by Maeve Binchy and great  literature like Moby Dick. The notion is that big sellers are like donuts, enjoyable in the moment but ultimately empty, while the really good books inform the thinking of thought leaders, business mandarins and serious politicians to advance our civilization. A big difference.  

I read Atlas Shrugged around age 16 just when I was beginning to drive, a time I to had to deal extensively with government employees around a driver's license and car registration. You know the picture; long lines  disinterested, over managed bureaucrats who don't acknowledge your humanity, slavish adherence to rules and eternal wait times. At the same time I had a part time job in retail where I had to be nice to keep my job. I saw the difference. When, in Atlas Shrugged, I came across John Galt's impassioned soliloquy about his distaste for government run medicine with doctors who are employees of bureaucrats who in turn report to politicians his ideas resonated with me. And still do. 

In a cute little independent bookstore in Portland, Oregon near the beginning of my professional career in 1977 I picked up a thin volume of short essays by Richard Sloma called No-Nonsense Management. These 70 kernels of managing advice were helpful to me in my ad agency life and more helpful in my later work as an executive coach. Good examples. 1] Never tolerate mediocrity. 2] Your true adversary is time. Not competition, not legislation, not the economy - but time. One consistent aspect of all the tips is that when something is Important but Not Urgent it’s best to get cracking and do it soon no matter how difficult. 

Evening Class is the first of many novels I read by Maeve Binchy, a successful Irish author of popular books. 40 million copies sold in 37 languages. Evening Class is a sweet and rollicking tale about the fortune and misfortune that besets a cast of characters taking Italian Lessons at night school. The book is more meaningful to me now, twenty years after I read it, because of all the characters I've gotten to know in my Leaving a Legacy classes at Ryerson. 

I'm still at it. Right now I'm reading a memoir by Judith Miller, a world class reporter for the New York Times for 28 years. Best book I've ever read.