{"id":903,"date":"2009-10-13T01:43:36","date_gmt":"2009-10-13T05:43:36","guid":{"rendered":"\/news_blogs\/john\/?p=903"},"modified":"2024-11-26T15:41:03","modified_gmt":"2024-11-26T20:41:03","slug":"an-excessive-devotion-to-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cccc.org\/news_blogs\/john\/2009\/10\/13\/an-excessive-devotion-to-books\/","title":{"rendered":"An Excessive Devotion to Books"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I’ve had a book on my bedside table since July and I still haven’t read it. This is highly unusual since I purchased it myself. I only buy books that I want to read, but I just can’t get into this one. No kidding, the title is Procrastination: Why You Do It, What to Do About It Now<\/a>\"\". It’s the book on the bottom of the pile of books in the picture above.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I saw it in the Harvard bookstore when I was on a course and thought, “Someday I should read that.” I returned a week later with my family to sight-see and I of course went back to the bookstore because that is what I do – I buy books, lots of them. And I saw it again. And I thought, “Well, if I don’t buy it now I guess that proves I am a procrastinator.” And since that conflicts with my self-image (although not necessarily with my experience), I bought it and I felt great.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But now it’s the last thing I see before I climb into bed every night, and every night I feel a little more guilty about not reading it. I even turned  it over so I couldn’t see the title anymore. But then I finally felt so abysmally guilty that I read the first chapter, Understanding Procrastination<\/em>. And then I put it down. And there it sits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Need to Be Selective<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This got me thinking about how I choose whether or not to read a book<\/strong>, and I thought my evaluation criteria<\/strong> might be helpful for you. Now, it is true that sometimes I choose to read or not read a book just because I feel like it. But most often, when it comes to reading for my work or for self-development, I use my criteria. I have to. Reading is a key source of fresh ideas that are critical to providing good leadership, yet there are so many books, far more than I could possibly read in several lifetimes just on leadership alone! Amazon has 90,239 leadership books including 11,864 in the business leadership category and another 8,997 in the Christianity category. That’s way too many! And I want to read far more widely than just leadership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Solomon was a wise man, and he said “…My son, be warned: the writing of many books is endless, and excessive devotion to books is wearying to the body.”<\/a> I might add “And to the mind too!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, I’ve become very selective over the years as to which books I will read. I thought I would share with you how I evaluate<\/strong> whether or not to read a book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But first, for help finding good books read my post<\/a> that contains a paragraph on how I find books. One thing that I didn’t mention there is that when I visit leaders in their offices, I always scan their bookshelves to see what they have read, and I also ask them what they are reading. I love getting recommendations from people because they’ve already vetted the books and they usually find authors I might not have found on my own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Book Selection Criteria<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Now, here’s how I consider whether to read a book or not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n