My first readathon (book 15–18)
Back in October I joined my first readathon (Dewey’s 24hs readathon). A couple of friends of mine had been doing it for years and I wanted to experience the thrill of reading non stop for 24hs (or as close as to that as I could get).
I had a pres-election of books (in the picture) but despite good intentions I was only able to read 4 (and half, as I was finishing Invested) of them.
Permanent Record — Edward Snowden: it was the first book of the day (or of the middle of the night) and I found it harder to get into that I had imagined. I was familiar with the story from the news, and I had watched the documentary, but I was still keen to read the full story and learn more about what drove him to expose the US government secrets. The book was interesting, it provided insights on how young Ed became a hacker, how he started wanting to serve his country, and how his initial quest for information was mainly driven by curiosity. It slowly progresses through his jobs as contractor for NSA, and how he became suspicious of government activity and decided to research it and expose it. Considering how outraged I was when it first came out that the US government was collecting citizen’s data, I expected to get more emotionally invested in the story. The writing left me unmoved. As it was the first book of the readathon, it could have been fatigue, but I felt like the writer was trying to establish moral superiority with a cynical undertone.
Smarter Faster Better — Charles Duhigg: I confess, this was a re-read. I had read Smarter Faster Better when it first came out, but I felt I needed to brush up on it, in light of my own personal leadership development. I was happy to realize that the guiding principles were as valid as always, and I had kept most of them ‘active’ in the past 3 years, while shifting the focus on my overall well-being. For example I still use the ‘big picture reminder’ technique whenever I have to tackle something that I do not like (e.g. meditating), but instead of reminding myself how working on yet more additional tasks will help achieve the latest business goal, I tie back my breaks, my ‘no’s and meditation break to the main goal that doing this will help me gain energy for myself. I still use SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable and Realistic) Goals, but I also realized that I struggle more to stay focused (which prompted me to dive into ‘Make Time’ and ‘Indistractable’). I also realized that even just 3 years, had changed my view on the creativity portion. While before I considered it ‘not for me’ (engineers and finance people are ,I thought, not creative), I have now realized how much energy I gain by being free to explore how I feel about certain situations, express myself creatively (in my case with writing), and spark ideas for new applications. If you haven’t read it yet, I encourage you to pick up a copy of the book. It has aged extremely well.
How to be a smart woman in STEM — Gabriela Mueller Mendoza: I was lucky to have met Gabriela (or ‘coach’ Gabriela) at one of her events in Zurich. Her energy is contagious, and she will shake even the most ‘jaded’ (I have been to tons of these speeches about women leadership ….) woman. She shook me. Her book is a fair representation of her personality. Practical tips (from mindset, to how to present yourself, voice and body language) for women at different stages in their careers that want to advance in leadership. I started my career in STEM, and the book is targeted for women in the field, but if you come across a copy, or you have a chance to go see Gabriela speak, and you are not in STEM, I still recommend it.
How to understand Israel in 60 days or less - Sarah Glidden: my very first graphic book, and what a discovery this was! I had high ambitions for my readathon, hoping to reach at least 7 books, and book twitter recommended non fiction graphic novels. I was not familiar with graphic novels in general. I have always been reading fiction or non fiction, and being a fast reader, graphic novels often are over in a few hours and were too expensive to purchase (time / money). I am glad I followed the recommendations and discovered Sarah Glidden. Her story is very touching and the art made it very easy for me to empathize with the character, even thou I am not Jewish, nor I am discovering my heritage while having conflicting feelings. The struggle of the author trying to understand her culture separating from what she knows about Israel in western media, is very relatable, and I learnt a lot about the history and local culture in an unbiased way.
This is it for October (thou just about 2 months later). Next up — reviews of the books I read in December, and what I have been starting the year with (influencing, negotiations and manipulations).
