THE BOOK REPORT 1
I love exchanging book recommendations with friends. Learning about the books someone loves tells me so much about that person. It shares how their mind thinks, what makes them happy, what intrigues them, and ultimately, how we can connect. A person's preference in books and the ones they would recommend to me ultimately tell me what kind of friends we will be. So in that spirit, I'm writing some quick book reports about the books I read in 2015. I'd love to share what kind of books I read and which ones I loved. Maybe you'll see a different side of me or maybe you'll see just how similar we are. Whatever it is, be sure to check out some of these books because a lot of them are winners.
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo
This book is amazing. It was so good I bought another copy when I left my first at a Starbucks. I forget where I first heard of this book, but I think I read an article about it. But this book is now everywhere in the blogosphere. I started reading this book right before I got married and made the great move to Alabama from California. Such perfect timing!
This is the kind of book you read over and over. Marie describes her journey of learning how to tidy and teaches how anyone can easily integrate her method into their life. At my house in California I began to purge and clean and pack according to some of her principles. She's frank about the reality of clutter. We have so much and yet we don't need most of it. Oddly enough, this was revolutionary for me. Now I saw all these useless things I'd spent money on that I had to pack and cram into a small U-Haul box and fit in our tiny apartment. Whoa was that a reality check.
By incorporating her principles into my daily life I've learned the feasibility of living minimally. I definitely have hoarding tendencies, so to be able to cut myself off from the attachment to these objects changed how I viewed everything. I really can live off a limited number of clothes and items. Most of my belongings live in storage containers and hidden away boxes anyway, so it's become easier for me to purge and rid myself of excess. Her teaching in accumulating and buying also changed my life. Now I'm much more selective in the things I bring into my home and keep.
I'd recommend this to anyone who owns anything or lives somewhere. This book is life-changing.
Hector and the Search for Happiness by Francois Lelord
After watching this movie (Simon Pegg, you're the best!), I decided to buy this book. Francois Lelord is a psychiatrist and writes this book as a way to communicate a self-help message through storytelling. Hector goes on a journey in search of happiness and how to obtain it. He meets several characters along the way and gleans rules from his many experiences. Like the movie, Hector and the Search for Happiness is a lighthearted, silly and profound at times.
I'd recommend this to anyone in the search of their own happiness.
This book also made the rounds in the blogosphere. I was seduced by it's pretty cover, so I thought, "Why not?" This book took me forever to read. Forever. Like a couple of months. Creative Confidence is not about what I thought it was about. I thought it was creativity strictly in the context of creatives and artists… how to make art. The real topic is about cultivating a mindset and culture of creative thinking in terms of problem solving and goal reaching. AHHHmazing. yes. It took me so long to read this book because it was so good. I caught myself often taking notes and writing down quotes. Tom & David Kelley are brilliant. Their writing style is upbeat and easy to devour.
I'd recommend this to anyone running a business or employed by a business or employed by themselves and wants to bring change into their lives and/or the world.
Read my other book reports and check out all the books I've read over the years here.