Did you know that August 9th is Book Lovers Day! I’m not sure there has been any point in my life where I haven’t been reading a book! (Perhaps when my children were babies and I was horribly sleep deprived?) With us firmly in holiday season it’s certainly a good time to pick up a book.
This month: What books have impacted your life/career?
My tastes have veered wildly over the years from horror to epics, classics to comedy and real life to fantasy – anything that captures the imagination!
‘Self help’ is a cliché sounding genre but the books I read I would definitely call more ‘life skills’ or ‘human skills’ and have been really impactful on how I work, live and balance my time.
A couple of books this year that have really stood out for me are: ‘The Myth of Normal’ and ‘The Antidote’.
The Myth of Normal by Gabor Maté with Daniel Maté is a comprehensive study into the concept of ‘normality’ in all parts of our lives, culture and society and what it means in truth. It covers ground on medical, environmental, race and gender ‘normals’ and so much more. With such wide scope it is impossible to summarise here but each chapter was illuminating, thought provoking and not to be missed! One stand out is that we treat all ‘illnesses’ as something we have ‘caught’ rather than being on a scale of things that our body is capable of handling in the right circumstances. If we are too far from our optimum performance our body simply stops doing the ‘tidy up’ and things build up into an ‘illness’. That applies for everything from burnout to life threatening illnesses.
‘The Antidote – Happiness for People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking’ is the full title and Oliver Burkeman couldn’t be more British in his approach to the topic and his exploration of everyone from evangelical positive thinkers of America, to stoic thinkers who embrace the negative pathway. One thing that stuck in my mind was that in day of the dead celebrations in South America it would be considered a good joke to buy cigarettes as a gift for a family who had lost someone to smoking! Which shows just how far cultural ideas around issues vary. This book definitely gives a sense of calm by letting go of the things we are ‘meant’ to strive for, even changing our definition perhaps of ‘happiness’.
I would highly recommend both! And as part of our Book Lovers day celebrations we have a copy of each to give away, simply like our posts on this topic on social media, comment or share and we will pick two people at random to receive a copy during August for some summertime reading!
If you have read either or both already, let me know what your takeaway insight was. Or, if you have any other ‘must reads’ for the summer holidays then drop me a line, always happy to receive new recommendations.
Enjoy your summer break if you are lucky enough to get one, and feel free to reach out if you want to discuss any of the roles below or the market in general.