Yesterday I was listening to Sonia Simone’s podcast about Brian Clark’s Teaching Sells idea (and website).
Pretty straight forward, but one line totally shocked me. 42 percent of college graduates never read another book after college.
I was totally shocked by that when I heard it, but the more I thought about it, it made sense. 4 hours in front of the television each night pretty much kills that. If you find yourself in that group, ask yourself, “what if I stopped watching television one night each week?” What would you read?
When someone says, “…you read Wikinomics right?”, do you nod and hope they don’t get too specific? When was the last time you said to someone, “You have to read X!”. It’s a good feeling, and your friend or co-worker or boss will appreciate it.
Are you part of the 80 percent of U.S. families that did not buy or read a book last year? I was when I was a teenager. I never remember my mom or dad reading, so why would I?
Now I love reading. I get a lot from the books I choose and I’m always looking for new ones. I only buy about 1 of 10, the rest I get from my local library. When I do buy one, it’s one I know I’ll be loaning out to friends.
You want to read something good? Start with Love Is the Killer App: How to Win Business and Influence Friends by Tim Sanders. After reading it, you’ll wonder why you don’t have a book tucked under your arm all the time.
What book should I add to my list?
That is amazing. I typically have 4-5 books scattered throughout the house that I am reading at the same time. I can not imagine never reading a book. They are like comfort food and good friends. 42% of people don’t pick up a book after graduating college saddens me.
I’m a book junkie. I believe that books can be so powerful and moving. They can provide so much knowledge and insight. They can introduce us to ideas or ways of thinking that we never even considered. We all perceive the world around us so differently, so it’s really insightful to get to see a bit of the world through someone else’s perspective like that. It helps us to relate to other people better. I’ve found some books that have fundamentally changed my way of thinking or made me take a different approach to life. If you’re not a reader, give it a shot – there is something out there for everyone.
And, pick something that you want to have a positive impact on your life or outlook – we are a product of what let in (food, television shows, personal encounters, ideas, books, etc.). What do you want influencing you? There’s only so much time in a day, so decide what is valuable for you to take in and what is junk.
Agreed, how can you learn if you’re not actively seeking knowledge. The knowledge pushers that supplied you through you schooling are no longer around, it’s now up to you.
-I have about 15 boxes of books in the attic and 2 bookshelves filled with books. Always reading.
-I remember watching CRIBS once and Moby was on (the musician, not the whale) and he said, “here is something you’ve never seen on CRIBS before. A bookshelf with books.)
Here’s a post on my blog, a bit dated, that lists some of my recent reads http://www.dan-london.com/2009/books/
I currently read and I’ve been out of college now over 10 years, but it’s usually books related to mystery or sports. 🙂 I have read every book from the Dr. Scarpetta series written by Patricia Cornwell. John Grisham and Nicholas Sparks are good reads as well.
That is crazy and so very sad. I love books. I am constantly trying to read 4 or so at a time and can’t imagine my life or day without them. I agree with Morgan, they can be so powerful and have such an impact on your life. I truly believe I owe a lot of who I am to books- to the ideas, knowledge and experiences they opened up to me.
42%? Wow!
I have 3 college graduate children between the ages of 22 – 26. My husband and I spent every evening reading with them when they were children and we were avid readers ourselves.
My two oldest constantly read. My daughter loves the Oprah book club suggestions. My oldest son enjoys history. My youngest on the other hand reads motocycle manuals! He will also be a new father this summer. When shopping last week with his wife their first purchase was a picture book. So there is hope.
If you like laugh-out-loud funny, read “Pest Control” by Bill Fitzhugh (premise: entrepreneurial NYC exterminator gets mistaken for a professional assassin and things take off from there) . The comic thriller is peppered with random tidbits about insects, so you can impress your friends with new entomology facts: http://www.amazon.com/Pest-Control-Bill-Fitzhugh/dp/0380788683
@Dan – when I was going to school in Boston, I ran across a really old Upton Sinclair book that I grabbed for 25 cents! I love the muckracker era.
@Casey – I loved Grisham and read his first few books but then found myself reading more non-fiction. Sometimes I’ll read a good match book like The Music of the Primes, it’s not as geeky as it sounds 😉
@Meredith – No question that understanding something from a different perspective can change your life. That’s happened to me while reading a few times. When I read about Churchill’s time “in the wilderness” and how he overcame it, it changed how I view work, relationships and compromise. Inspiration can come from anywhere.
@Deb – there’s always hope 🙂
@Karl – I know the perfect person to recommend that book to, Ashley Berman Hale!
What sad statistics. I can’t imagine what my life (or my vocabulary, or grasp of English grammar rules and spelling) would have been like without a constant stream of books to read. I just can’t believe that there are so many literate people out there that choose not to use their ability to escape into or educate themselves with books.
For a reader, I always recommend Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. It’s a favorite, and I’ve read it twice now.
Since Grisham has come up twice now…He’s going to be the commencement speaker at UNC this Spring. May 9 for anyone interested.
@Alison – I read a fair amount and still have terrible grammer 🙁
That’s not a surprising statistic honestly. Most of the time when I mention a book I’m reading or have read people ask, “How do you find time to read?” I sit in front of the television while my wife and two kids are glued to the programming and I read. This terrible habit results in commentary during those times with real-life facts about the content of the shows they’re watching from the books I’m reading. My kids now expect that I will have obscure knowledge about random topics.
I’m still recovering from my college reading load; I’ve only read maybe ten books since I graduated last May. Before I became an English major, I was knocking out a book every other week. I think college just beats people over the head with reading and ruins it for the more casual readers. I also recently discovered a couple of my favorite authors were absolute duds after the first few novels I read, which killed my thirst for books a little bit. Theatre really helps one transition into reading; plays are compact and dialogue- and action-heavy, and only the really good ones usually make it to print.
I’m gonna go ahead and hype up anything by Denis Johnson. He wrote the screenplay to my favorite movie, Jesus’s Son, and the book it came from, which is incredibly hilarious and very poignant, a sort of uplifting answer to the beat-culture drug literature. I also loved his book Already Dead. It’s heavy, it’s deep, it’s surreal, and it’s definitely not for kids. Right now, I’m re-re-re-reading Copenhagen by Michael Frayn. It’s part theatre, part physics lesson, and it takes place entirely in the minds of Neils Bohr and Werner Heisenberg in the afterlife. My finest work in college, I think, was an analysis of this play.
@Rob – that’s why we kick their ass in Trivial Pursuit
@Joshua – I agree that sometimes school makes reading such a chore that you can’t ever imagine it being pleasurable. I can point at the book that cured me of that thought – Nice Guys Finish Last by Leo Durocher. My brother had it and I started reading it when I was about 12. It had swears in it! It was awesome, and it was about baseball. Still one of my favorite books of all time. Durocher spent 6 decades in professional baseball and saw everything from Babe Ruth to managing Jackie Robinson and the modern era, and he was a sonofabitch to top it off. You’ll love him by the last chapter.
Yo Phil,
Thanks for sharing the love (recommending Love Is The Killer App, my first book). I believe that readers are leaders because they can better balance reality versus hope.
For others who aren’t familiar with Love Is the Killer App, here’s an excerpt in Fast Company:
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/55/love.html
@Tim – thanks for chiming in. I’ve recommended your book to a bunch of people, always get interesting feedback. Some give up 1/2 way and say it’s bullshit, others embrace the core message and change the way the operate.
I just started reading Stephen King’s latest, “Under the Dome.” I’m only about 70 pages in, but I love the sheer insanity of the scenario and reading the reactions of all the different characters to being trapped instantly in a giant dome over their entire town.
I love the pure imagination involved in fiction. Sure, you can learn a lot from nonfiction, but where else do you have to create a world entirely in your head?
@Jay – the best part of Stephen King is that he’s a rabid Red Sox fan!
I would love to comment but I stopped reading in 2009.
@Jay let me know what you think. I’m not a huge fan of King, but that book seemed interesting. I’m afraid he goes all “evil clowns” at the end of it…
OK I read your post. I think watching TV can be reading at times with all those scrolling news bars with type going across the bottom of our screens, that’s reading right?
You are correct that we don’t read as much as we used to. A few years ago I started riding TTA bus to my job at RTP and started reading again. First book was “A Man in Full” by Tom Wolfe which a friend had bought me several years back. It’s a great book and I enjoyed the heck out of it. Reading allows us to create the characters and see what their personality is versus a movie director.
My 7 year old daughter was scared of reading a few years ago. She preferred me reading her stories. I knew I had to teach her that it’s OK to be scared of new things but at the same time reading would open up her creative world. Now she reads like crazy and tells me how much she loves it.
Growing up we HAD to spend time reading after homework. Kids now don’t read at all. All my nieces and nephews do is watch Yo Gabba Gabba!
I tend to read stuff by authors like Robert Greene. Not really into fiction.
@Mike – I just threw up a little bit when I read “Yo Gabba Gabba”. I so don’t get that show.
I’ll jump on the bandwagon and reply as well 🙂
It wasn’t until college that I developed a love of reading. NC State, being the fine institution that it is, and it’s great English department opened my eyes to Nick Hornby (before the High Fidelity movie came out, btw) and to the fact that literature didn’t have to mean works by old, dead English guys. Never had I ever actually read MORE than what was assigned.
I regret that I don’t get to read that much anymore. Most of what I read on a daily basis comes in the form of blog posts. What I’m looking forward to reading in the coming weeks is Engage and a little dirty gossip in Game Change.
@Catherine – as long as you read “the right blogs”, you’re fine 😉
Reading David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest and would recommend it. It’s a lengthy piece of work (I’m on page 640 of 900-something), but totally worth it. Written in the mid-90s, it’s set in the future (about now-ish) and takes a look at the entertainment we choose – TV, film, drugs, sports, etc. – and its hold on us.
I joined Goodreads (@goodreads) a few months ago, and that’s been an awesome way to get/give book recommendations and keep track of what I want to read next (by adding books to my online “shelf.”) Plus, they recently sent me a free book — an advance copy of Yann Martel’s new book Beatrice & Virgil — just for requesting it. Pretty awesome.
@Hannah – It always creeps me out to read science-fiction which is set in the time I am now living in. Where’s my hover-craft damnit!
I’ve heard a lot of good things about Goodreads, I’ll have to check it out.
Hannah – I 2nd your recommendation of Goodreads! Love that site!
@Dan Will do. It’s quite a read, but I’ll let you know how it goes. I really liked King’s Duma Key when I got around to it.
Grammar learning aside, I count two recommendations in these comments for Infinite Jest. I guess you are pretty much required to read it now!
@Alison – do I sound like a big pansy if I say the whole premise of the book kind of scares me 😉
Great post, Phil. I’m a huge Sanders fan. Met him when he was speaking at SAS and was as impressed in person as I was on page.
My additions to the list…
Half the Sky by Nicholas Kristof and Cheryl WuDunn
All things Godin and Gladwell.
Arianna Huffington’s, On Becoming Fearless…in love, work and life
Keith Ferrazzi’s, Never Eat Alone
Patrick Lencioni, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team (Patrick is another solid dude.)
Paulo Coelho when I need to fall back in love with the simple lessons of life.
@Somer – thanks for the suggestions, they’ve been added to my list!