For some reason, we often don’t think of reading as productive.
“Anyone who says it’s easy to self-publish a book is either lying or doing a shitty job.”
— Nan McCarthy
Category: Books
Categories
The Best Books I Read in 2017
For the past four years, I have sent out a monthly newsletter in which I summarize and review each book I read that month.
For decades, fans and critics begged for Harper Lee, author of To Kill a Mockingbird, to write another a novel.
In 2015, they finally got their wish. Kind of.
And, as always, you should be careful what you wish for.
To call It a box office success would be an enormous understatement. The film shattered records upon its release and has grossed over $650 million worldwide — $320 million of which came domestically — against a very modest $35 million budget.
“I’ve never tried to be some kind of serious literary artist.”
I know what you’re thinking.
“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.”
— Stephen King
Everyone, it seems, wants to be a writer these days (present company included).
The advances in technology over the past two decades has flattened the publishing world to the point that anyone can share their thoughts on a blog, microblog, whatever. You can even publish an entire book – either paperback or ebook – for free.
But just because you can do something doesn’t necessarily mean that you should do it. And not everyone should write a book. There are plenty of people who I’d put into that category, but there is one group I’d place at the top of the list above all others: those that do not read.
In order to be successful in any field or endeavor, it is imperative to know what you’re doing. You can’t teach a physics class if you don’t understand physics and you can’t be an accountant if you’ve never studied accounting. Similarly, you can’t realistically expect to write a book if you don’t read books, but it seems like people really want to skip this vital step.
While it is impossible to overstate the power of reading, in my experience there are four distinct ways in which reading helps writing. After all, if you don’t read books, why would you be so conceited to believe that others should read yours?
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Every Book I Read In 2016
When I graduated from business school in 2010, I finally had a bit more free time and I decided that I would dedicate much of that time to reading and writing.
Categories
The Best Books I Read in 2016
Every month, I send out a monthly reading newsletter and every December, I send out my best of the year list. Here are my selections:
The Passion of Christopher Pierznik 