Tag Archives: TV

600 Books

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booksA recent vacation enabled me to exceed my January reading goal of 22 books, to get me to 600 books in seven years and one month.

It was an ambitious goal spawned by one of my long-term goals, to read 1000 books in ten years. I realized I would be wise to plan for “reading spurts” in the next three years whenever I have a block of time that I can devote to reading. (I can’t help but wonder if I’m crazy: 400 books in three years!)

Vacations are good for reading spurts because airports require early arrival and flights themselves are rather boring apart from takeoff and landing. I often have completed my first vacation book before I get off the plane. I used to dread the whole flying process. Now I look forward to it.

Just because I’m on vacation doesn’t mean I can sleep in. I often have hours of reading before my hubby rises. To him, sleeping in is the definition of vacation.

And just because we’re on vacation doesn’t mean he’ll watch less television. With him engaged by the tube, I often have several hours of reading at the end of the day too.

People ask me about the best books I’ve read. At 600 it’s a good time to reflect and share some of the great moments.

I’ve read several series. My all-time favourite is the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon. I enjoyed Jean M Auel’s Clan of the Cave Bear series, which I knew about long before I read. Harry Potter, Twilight and Hunger Games were other series I read, just so I could stay culturally current with the children and young adults in my life.

Yan Martel’s Life of Pi and Garth Stein’s The Art of Racing in the Rain are two of my favourite novels. I also enjoy reading anything by Mitch Albom. Steig Larsson’s Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series grabbed my interest.

I read a lot of business books. I like Tom Peter’s and Malcolm Gladwell’s books as well as Roy H Williams’, Wizard of Ads books. Last year I read many books on professional speaking and found Paid to Speak by various NSA members very valuable.

My favourite self-help books are by Neale Donald Walsch, his Conversations with God series. The first book was life-changing for me and my daughter, coming to us months before a year of nine funerals among our family and friends.

My Book Club keeps me reading all the latest and greatest and I’ve read many of the classics in the last seven years. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the Tarzan of the Apes series by Edgar Rice Burroughs. It was also interesting to read a number of Ian Fleming’s James Bond books.

I have posted my reading list for each year on this site. I am always glad to talk about books. Contact me if you want to start a conversation about your favourite author or book. Happy reading.

My tips for reading more:

1)   Make reading a priority and seek ways to incorporate reading into your day.

2)   Carry a book in your purse or car or electronically on your favourite device. Read whenever you have to wait.

3)   Skip watching one TV program everyday. Read instead.

4)   Read first thing in the morning and last thing before bed.

Black Friday Blues

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Black Friday Blues

Black Friday Blues

We interrupt today’s mindless worship of consumption with this burning question:

What did you create today?

In the frenzy of Black Friday I am struck by an overwhelming feeling of hopelessness.

I like a good deal as much as anyone and Black Friday is reportedly The Day of the Year for Best Deals.

And not just in the USA. Black Friday has sneaked into the Canadian shopper’s lexicon.

How many of us actually need more stuff?

I realize retailers count on this next month to flush them out of the red and into the black. Our countries’ GDPs rely on strong retail markets. The goal is always growth.

But what is all that growth doing to us? Consider this:

  • Canadians carry record consumer debt; our southern neighbors are similarly burdened.
  • Our governments both struggle to service massive debt.
  • North Americans continue to consume a disproportionate share of the world’s resources.  As developing countries strive to our standard of living the earth is straining under the pressure.
  • I’ll wager that a significant portion of the crap that is purchased this month will be in landfills by spring, likely before the credit card bills are even paid!

How long can this go on? When will we grow ourselves right off the face of the earth?

What would happen if we turned around our thinking?

What if, instead of consuming, we created something to give back to the world?

We don’t need another set of dishes or a TV for the bathroom or more “collections” to dust.

The world needs solutions to its problems, especially solutions unfettered by entities whose sole reason for being is making money at any cost: human rights, pollution, lying.

Some of the best solutions will change the world without making their creators rich. That doesn’t make those solutions any less valuable to the earth. Or any less satisfying to the creator.

A recent news story touted a cancer cure discovered here in Alberta. Sadly, money to conduct solid scientific research is not available. Big Pharma isn’t interested because the promising material cannot be patented. Most of the money raised for research goes to pharmaceutical companies. It’s likely that cure will be buried along with the thousands of patients that die from chemotherapy and radiation poisoning every year.

If more of us keep our credit cards in our wallets during this seasonal consumer free-for-all and if we channel those resources into something to improve the world, we all win. Maybe we should crowd-source (raising money online) the cancer cure and claim ownership of it for the people. We could give it away and save money (on cancer poisons) and save lives.

If we continue in our wasteful indulgences, the world will perish and all the money Obama can print and all the junk you can buy with it won’t make a speck of difference.

To review: creation not consumption.

At least consider it.