What’s the Point of a Book? A Book Coach Gets a New Book Shelf

As part of a home office redesign, I bought a new bookshelf — that’s it in the photo. I am copying Mindy Kaling’s office redesign (except for the fact that her office is a 1000-square foot bungalow on the Warner Brothers’ lot with French doors and amazing light) because I love the how peaceful and calming it is, and because it can’t hurt to channel someone who is such a powerhouse creator and entrepreneur.

As a result of this purchase and redesign, I took every book off every shelf in our house and reconsidered whether it should stay or go, and if it gets to stay, where it should live.

I know people who shelf their books alphabetically, and thematically, and by size and by color, and all these schemes make excellent sense to me. But in my re-org, something interesting emerged for me: the impulse to shelf the books according to the purpose they have served in my life. It inspired me to ask, “What is the point of this book? Why should I value it?”

This is very different from asking, “Does this book spark joy?” (The question Marie Kondo would have us ask of every object in our lives.) Some of the books I kept and shelved did not spark joy. Some sparked very mixed feelings — like Lance Armstrong’s It’s Not About the Bike. I adored that book, and when he was stripped of his awards and accolades and revealed to be a fraud, I felt betrayed. I wanted to hurl the book against the wall. But I still consider it to be beautifully wrought — a perfect example of a powerful structure. So I love it despite the fact that I loathe it. I am keeping it despite the fact that joy does not enter into the equation of its estimation.

One section I created was “books that inspired me to become a reader.” In that stack are some yellowed and crumbling books such as Caddie Woodlawn, The Phantom Tollbooth, and The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.

This section inspired another one: “books that inspired my kids to become readers.” This is a powerful grouping because I can touch those books and remember exactly what it was like to curl up with one of my girls and read them stories until our eyes could no longer stay open. I feel immense gratitude toward these books and their authors because they helped me raise adults I am proud of. The books in this section include The Wheel on the School, Laura Ingall’s Wilder books, The Chronicles of Narnia, and the Harry Potter books.

I made a “memoirs that helped me understand myself and other people I love” stack. This includes Desert Solitaire, Growing Up by Russell Baker, and U and I, the brilliant little memoir of Nicholson Baker’s obsession with John Updike. This is a different stack from the “memoirs that helped me learn how to teach memoir” stack, which includes Eat, Pray, Love, Wild, and Andre Agassi’s Open.

I made a “books that were great fun to read” stack — it includes The Devil Wears Prada, The Thornbirds, and Red, White and Royal Blue.

I made a “books everyone tells you that you must read them” stack that includes books from my college years and my kid’s college years and my husband’s college years. I don’t even want to say what’s in that stack because I am conflicted about it. Do we love these books our teachers (and others) made us read? Do they perhaps help us form all the other categories? Should we even keep them? I don’t know the answers, but for now, I’m keeping them, because when in doubt about a book, you keep it!

I made a “books that helped me understand writing” stack. These books carry so much emotion for me, too. I can recall the exact revelation I had with The Creative Habit, for example, when I realized that writing books was a process that could be known and mastered and taught. And I can recall how powerful it was to read about a theory of feedback in Creativity Inc. and knowing I would adopt it as I learned to become a better book coach. These books helped me develop the book coach training courses that are helping raise the bar for book coaches all over the world.

I made a “books that helped me learn how to run a business” stack, and I feel a deep affinity for these books, too. The ability to marry the creative and the entrepreneurial has been a powerful force in my life. It has pushed me to risk new things and pivot and dare to believe I could help other people make that leap too. I used to mistakenly think that business people only cared about making money. Now that I am in business myself, I understand the people who run businesses are in fact just people and that care about a wide variety of things, including teaching, inspiring, empowering, and making money. I know that a business can be a vessel for learning and growth, for self-awareness and for change. These books taught me what I know and helped me hone what I believe and how I want to be in the world. Some of my favorites in this stack include Phil Knight’s Shoe Dog about the history of Nike, The $100 Startup, Start With Why, and Seth Godin’s tiny little Tribes.

I made a “books my clients have written” stack. It’s a mish-mash of all kinds of books — a memoir about Wall Street and bullying; a novel about a girl trying to make sense of her brother’s death; a novel about a woman trying to make sense of her own near-death; a history of crime family trials in New York City; a book about the healing power of baking bread; a book about writing and brain science; a book about summer camp and resilience. Someone looking at these books as a grouping would have no idea what they had in common, but to me, they represent the fact that I have learned how to help writers raise their voice and make their dreams come true.

Asking, “What is the point of this book?” may have been a surprising way to shelve my books, but upon writing this post, I realized that this question is at the root of my book coaching philosophy. It’s what I ask of every writer, at every stage of the process.

What is the point of the book you are writing or coaching? Why will it matter to someone someday? Why will they care about it? Why will they someday keep it and cherish it?

It’s a question that can lead you exactly where you want to go as a writer, a book coach, an entrepreneur, and a curious reader.

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My Inside Outline tool asks, “What is the point of this scene and this story?” so that fiction and memoir writers can marry the point to the plot at every turn. If you would like to see how this tool works, we have a free special event coming up on August 14th that you are welcome to join. I will be doing the first-ever live coaching of an Inside Outline for MEMOIR. It’s hard to get someone willing to put their life out there as a tool for coaching. Suzette Mullen, who is an Author Accelerator certified book coach in fiction and a student in our nonfiction course, submitted an Inside Outline for a memoir when we put out a call for our last Inside Outline live event. I saw that her Inside Outline needed a lot of work, which doesn’t always make for a good live teaching moment, so I suggested some changes to her, and we did some back-and-forth in private, and she’s been working on it. Suzette will bring her revised Inside Outline for a memoir to us for coaching on this working session. I haven’t seen it yet. I will review it just before the event. I’d love for you to join us.