My wife and I have always done a lot of reading and we seem to have successfully passed that on to our children. The place where this sometimes goes off the rails is picking things to read. There are a couple of key times during the year where we find ourselves in the local Chapters looking for reading material, and during those times I seem to loose track of the difference between good and not so good books. In my quest for non-fluff books to balance the fluff books I make questionable choices.
There is a book on my desk (Holding up my monitor) that I started to read and have never been able to get past the first few chapters. I was given the book a couple of years ago as a Christmas present and it wasn’t until today that I realized why I just can’t get into it. It’s worth noting that this is not the only book in my collection that falls into this category.
A large number of authors seem to be able to write books that state the obvious. Malcolm Gladwell is a master of this genre. The interesting thing about this phenomena is the number of people who actually buy these books. Gladwell has become a best selling author by simply pointing out the obvious.
The book on my desk is called “Socialnomics”. It explains why social networks are going to play a large part in how we shop and do business. When I take the time to consider that premise, the word that comes to mind is “Duh”.
What seems obvious to me today, seemed interesting just prior to a period of down time like summer vacation or the Christmas break. I’m sure that says something about the way my brain works, but I think that maybe I should adjust my book buying habits to periods where I have a clearer head.