4/23/15

Next week we’ll find ourselves stepping into the month of May. I mention this because it is just about this time each year when I start thinking about my summer reading.

Now, I read fairly voraciously all year long but there is something about summer reading that stirs a kind of bookish romance in me. Perhaps it is the memory of summers past filled with poolside adventure stories. It might also be that summer travels have a way of setting words on the page aflame for me.

Of course, it could just be part of an ongoing rebellion. In my youth, summers always meant I could read whatever I wanted rather than what teachers assigned. It is silly that I still carry a sense of that insurrection in my soul all these years later.

Now, I want to challenge you in the same way I’m challenging myself. I usually read two books a month outside of my work reading but I have a lot of writing and travel this summer so I’ve settled on six books between May and the end of August. Can you take that challenge? Six books in four months. This will be light for some of you. For others, it will mean a new high.

Here’s what I’m going to read in the next four months. Amity Shlaes’ The Forgotten Man, Edmund Morris’  The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, The Book that Made Your World: How the Bible Created the Soul of Western Civilization by Vishal Mangalwadi, The Kill Artist by Daniel Silva, The Management Myth by Matthew Stewart, and, just for fun, Lies They Teach in School by Herb Reich.

Now, what about you? I challenge you to put together a list of six books. Mix it up and make it fun. Put that novel in the list you’ve been eager to read. Yet be sure to add a few titles that will make you better at what you do and better at making a difference in the world.

Read to explore other worlds, real and imaginary. Read to understand your world. Always, read to lead. May a glorious summer unfold for you now, graced by balmy days of reading.

Have a good weekend.

Stephen