It is said that people don’t read anymore. Anecdotally, I see this. Emails go unread, or not understood, even when they are put in the simplest terms. I have few friends that talk about what they’re reading. I have one friend that doesn’t read books at all.
But I love to read. Books for me have been lifelong companions. They engage, entertain, inform, and distract me. I’d rather lose myself in a good book than a video. And since so many of my podcast guests are also authors, I find myself reading a few books a week.
“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies…
The man who never reads lives only one.”
—George R. R. Martin.
Stories transport me. They can be about history or sci fi. Love or hate. And then there are cookbooks. While I often search on line for a particular recipe, I love curling up with my favorite books, some stained with previous meals, some with their bindings long gone, their pages balancing precariously between the covers. Their disrepair is a sign of love, just as food is a sign of love. And I love it all.
“Food is symbolic of love when words are inadequate.”
—Alan D. Wolfelt
Meals, like the recipes that create them, are timeless. They live on in our minds, in our art, and in our souls.
I think about the books I gave away before I sold my house. Paperback copies of Dune. The Road Less Traveled by Scott Peck. Should I have held onto them? I know they can be replaced, but I often write an inscription on the inner cover, to remind me when and where I purchased a particular volume. In this way, my books transport me to earlier times, to the emotion of the moment, and a point in my past.
And then there are my flying books. One of my favorite quotes of all times comes from Silent On The Wind by Barron Hilton. He writes:
For thousands of years, man could only dream of soaring like an eagle, gliding effortlessly with the wind…Through a careful blend of high-tech aircraft design and instinctive pilot skill, man is able to capture the sensation known only to the birds of the hair. Managing invisible updrafts of air to gain altitude. Gliding at high speed in a gradual descent for hundreds of miles. All in a plane without an engine. A craft fueled only by the mind of the pilot.
A craft fueled only by the mind of the pilot.
A sailplane: Fueled only by the mind of the pilot
Those words were part of my lifeline as I moved from married to single and from the east coast to the west.
Books, books, books.
Now that I am an officially an author (my first book is completed and will be out later this year) I have even more regard for what goes into making a good book. Did I succeed with mine? What might I do better?
My goal in my book is to highlight the traits needed to successfully navigate life. Over almost three years of podcasting, certain themes emerge. Mental resilience, courage, a willingness to step into the unknown and so much more. Can we absorb those admirable qualities through a podcast and a book?
All it takes is one word, one moment, to capture our heart
and soul and open a new door to a new world.
To books.
Coming This Spring/Summer
Bump In The Road
(The Book)
Sign up here to be among the first to know.
Recent Comments