The Socrates Dilemma: another thoughtful discourse about wise use of technology

Like lots of people who work in and around the business of books, publishing and information, I’m frequently asked about my predictions for the future of the printed word, specifically the book. In this all-connected-all-the-time world, apparently there are plenty of people (not just librarians) who worry that books may go the way of newspapers.

Hamlet’s BlackBerry: A Practical Philosophy for Building a Good Life in the Digital Age is the latest book to salve the worries of bibliophiles everywhere. The author is a Washington Post newspaper reporter whose family declares all weekends “digital sabbaths” –two-day breaks from smart phones, e-mail, and computer screens. Powers and his wife instituted this practice after realizing that the more connected they were with the world, the less present and connected they felt with each other, family, and friends.

Hamlet’s BlackBerry makes a case for balancing our use information technology without overwhelming our minds – a problem that has plagued mankind since the time of Socrates and Shakespeare, according to Powers. As it turns out, Socrates was the ancient equivalent of a Twitter addict who would overindulge in live orations that dragged on forever. His friends often dragged him away for long walks to encourage reflection. His pals evidently knew what every well-balanced person comes to understand—that downtime is actually very productive.

The modern version of Socrates’ dilemma is what Powers calls digital maximalism—the notion that being more connected is better. He predicts that our overstimulated, underfocused minds eventually crave downtime, reflection and the private pleasure of reading a book. This can only be good news for the future and the value of books.

Hamlet’s BlackBerry challenges myths without completely bashing the good things we get from today’s information technology. Here were a few myths I enjoyed hearing him bust:

Younger people are somehow more native lovers of information technology. Powers says the people who most comment on his book are under the age of 35. They totally get the idea that no form of technology trumps human interaction. Many are willing to admit that total immersion in IT has cost their generation something in the way of interpersonal skills. And they are anxious to reclaim those skills. I’ve got a few young friends in the communications profession (and elsewhere) who will vouch for that.

Information technology results in greater productivity. However useful Google is, knowing things because you Googled them does not always generate retained knowledge. When people are constantly inundated with information, they find it more difficult to do work that requires sustained attention and make thoughtful, analytical choices. There’s a cost to employers when attention is excessively fragmented. People are prone to mistakenly identify time in front of a screen as work. Often it is not.

What a great addition to the ever expanding discourse about the intersection between human connections and information technology! This is a great self-help guide for anyone who feels overwhelmed by the role of technology in their daily life.

P.S. Don't forget to enter the drawing for this month's free book, Straight Down the Middle, by Josh Karp. Visit www.leadingreads.com to learn about the book and enter.

Warning: this is your brain on the internet.

My year-long experiment with social media is officially over. I spent all of April and May rethinking the online habits that had just about hijacked my real life. After some honest reflection, I have decided there are only two social networking efforts that matter to me: 1) checking in with friends and 2) writing about personal development and books for anyone who likes that sort of thing. If you want to help me share content/gain readers, that’s great. If not, I’m writing just for you (when you’re interested) and the sheer joy of it. And that’s fine with me.

Oddly, I seemed to have less and less time for these pursuits when my online crusade was at its peak. A disturbing lack of focus was creeping into my work habits, whether I was cleaning the house, writing an article or planning a program. I chalked it up to an excess of divided interests, aided by my online behaviors. As if to underscore the reasons I decided to reclaim my own attention, I have discovered a slug of new books about how our brains can be morphed by internet behaviors.

Nicholas Carr’s new book, The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to our Brains explores the link between our online behaviors and the decline of deep concentration, introspection, contemplative thinking and creativity. Thankfully, the brain is a very plastic organ and Carr argues that it can be adapted away from our online tendency to jump from shiny thing to shiny thing. Carr says this sort of interrupted thinking is actually a more natural state for the human brain and one that has only been circumvented by mankind’s access to (get this) the printed page, which allowed people to become more educated, civilized and capable of sustained concentration. In other words, progress has come at the price of regression. Now there’s food for thought for anyone who has noticed a decline in ability to do sustained reading and thinking.

Decades after Albert Einstein’s death, his genius is still informing us. As a result of some of the research done on his brain over the past 20 years, the field of neuroscience has exploded with new information about brain function. Doug Fields, a researcher at the National Institute of Health, has written The Other Brain, a new book about some of the most recent discoveries in neuroscience. One of the biggest findings concerns the role of the glia, a part of the brain that was previously considered to be nothing more than glue that held the brain together. Einstein’s brain had an abnormally high number of these astrocytes, which are involved in complex thinking and imagery. The glia in our brains transmit conversations between neurons and rebroadcast them to distant areas of the brain. I haven’t read the book yet, but I look forward to seeing how this neuroscientist/author can make this research accessible to the reading public. (For fun background on this research, check out NPR’s story.)

Here is a title that seems destined for my reading list as I approach my 50th birthday: The Secret Life of the Grown Up Brain, by Barbara Strauch. In the strange brew that is now my brain, I alternate between thinking I’ve lost my mind and that I’m beginning to possess wisdom. (Believe me, the former is more obvious to other people than the latter!) Whether it’s noticeable to anyone else or not, decisions and tasks that were once difficult are much easier. I don’t repeat the same mistakes as often as I once did. Strauch’s book suggests the middle-aged brain is NOT on a steady decline. It actually improves in a number of areas with age. Hurray for experience, life’s greatest teacher! Strauch is a neuroscientist who has done extensive brain research and published a book on the teenage brain, in part because of her fascination with her son’s development. With her own aging, she became increasingly interested in the brain function of grown ups, people she defines as between the ages of 40 and 65.

While no one should dismiss the positive influence information technology has on us, there is a downside and people are beginning to notice, study, and write about it. We may be reaching a saturation point for handling stimuli, according to Maggie Jackson, author of Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age. Researchers at the University of California-San Diego say the average American hears, sees, or reads 34 gigabytes worth of information a day, a figure that’s risen 5 percent each year since 1980.

As we exercise the part of the brain that multi-tasks, rushes and partially listens, the part that manages our ability to focus is languishing, says Edward Hallowell, M.D., author of CrazyBusy: Overstretched, Overbooked, and About to Snap. Another indication of shrinking memory is a tendency to move from one task to another without finishing anything, says Torkel Klingberg, M.D., author of The Overflowing Brain: Information Overload and the Limits of Working Memory.

Challenging the brain requires more active participation than watching TV or surfing the internet. When we are tired, we naturally choose the most passive forms of stimulation we can find, even though we may feel unfulfilled by how we spend our time. Winifred Gallagher, author of Rapt: Attention and the Focused Life, says we need to push ourselves toward more challenging mental work in order to improve brain function.

Here are a few tips from the experts to help manage online behaviors:

1) Notice your habits and whether you are focusing on the right things.
2) Don’t search for inane things on the internet JUST because you can.
3) Practice your sustained attention skills by reading a book, meditating and praying.
4) Make notes about things you’d like to read later to keep yourself on task.
5) Take breaks to recharge and unplug.

For my part, I’ll be taming my inner social media maven and trusting that a few faithful readers is good enough for this endeavor. If you are one of them, I thank you again for reading.

Strategies for success from our friend and handyman, Dave

When we bought our house 12 years ago, it came with an unusual amenity––a handyman. On the day of the closing, the owners handed us a bundle of information about the house, including the name and telephone number for the handyman who had done virtually every repair and modification during the time they owned the house. We may have purchased our way into to this relationship, but since that time, Dave has become far more than a handyman to us. He is our friend and a source of continual inspiration. I can’t begin to tell you the number of household riddles and problems he has helped us solve because he pays attention when we do not. From leaky faucets to remodeling projects, we’ve come to depend on his talent, wisdom, and keen awareness to solve some of our stickiest problems.

One day this winter, I called Dave and asked him to come over and help us hang new drapes. He hadn’t been here an hour when he looked across the creek bank about a quarter of a mile away and asked, “Is that a coyote?” I squinted, but I couldn’t see a thing. I ran upstairs and found our binoculars. After a few minutes, we spotted Mr. Coyote under an evergreen tree, taking a nap. “I’ll bet that’s his favorite napping spot,” Dave observed. For the next few days, I watched the spot and discovered that Dave was right. We walk by that window every day but we had never noticed that the coyote arrives about mid-morning and hunkers down for a nap beneath an evergreen on the opposite bank.

This isn’t the first time I have wondered what Dave might know about us because of his acute powers of observation. We asked Dave to help us install some shelving in the basement two summers ago. After evaluating all the choices at Lowe’s and Menards, he was indecisive about what materials we should use. After some deliberation, he finally came back to the house and asked me to ride with him to see what was available. On the way, he rounded the corner at a busy intersection, slowing down and looking intently over my right shoulder. “I’m sorry Crystal, but I’m going to have to stop and figure something out here. I’ve passed this spot three times this morning and I have to know what that big glob of mess is.”

Dave pointed to a golden, abstract object about 20 feet away on my side of the road. In the middle of the street, he turned on his emergency flashers and stopped the truck. He got out and walked downhill toward the object of his curiosity. I saw him tap it gently a few times with the toe of his boot to see if anything about it was alive. Finally, he picked it up and hoisted it up over his head as though it were a hat. He came back to the truck laughing. It was only a can of foam insulation, exploded by the heat of a sunny day, but Dave could not go on with his day until he knew the nature of its origin.

Aside from occasionally wondering how much trouble Dave has gotten into because of his curiosity, I can’t help but marvel at his gift for living in the present moment. Because of that trait, he always seems to have a keen awareness of what’s going on around him and what’s important. When someone in his family has a need, Dave will drop everything to tend that need. Watching how he deals with his family, anyone can see that Dave understands how fleeting life can be. He takes it moment by moment. It seems less as if life is happening to him and more as if he is happening to life. When he is with us, he brings everything he has and everything he knows to that moment. You get the feeling that Dave would die happy if he could just help you resolve your problem. He has nowhere else to go and nothing else to do but help you—unless, of course, one of his kids calls. We’ve grown to admire that trait more with every year that passes.

What a gift! What would happen if all customer service, all business, all jobs or careers, all personal relationships were imbued with this sort of curiosity and awareness? It could be like heaven on earth. Let me share three great titles that could provide similar inspiration for you. I just love all three of these books for the insight they bring to life, business and careers.

How to Achieve A Heaven on Earth: 101 Insightful Essays from the World’s Greatest Thinkers, Leaders, and Writers, edited by John E. Wade

Upstarts: How GenY Entrepreneurs Are Rocking the World of Business and 8 Ways You Can Profit from Their Success, by Donna Fenn

The Risk Takers: 16 Women and Men Share Their Entrepreneurial Strategies for Success, by Renee & Don Martin

Understanding WellPoint: why ginormous rate increases are inevitable in our current health care system

Only one thing shocks me about WellPoint’s 38 percent rate hike to health insurance policyholders: I ’m shocked that people are shocked by it. The fact that WellPoint raised premium rates that much all at once? No, that doesn’t shock me at all. That’s just WellPoint acting like a business. That’s what businesses do. They determine how much profit they want to make, what to charge in order to make those margins, and what their terms are for doing business. As long as people are willing and able to pay, everything is dandy.

In WellPoint’s case, they’ve lost a lot of healthy customers who paid premiums but seldom submitted claims. In a lean economy, some of these consumers decided to roll the dice and go without coverage. My husband calls it “riding bareback.” Paying the mortgage or buying groceries became more important, especially if some or all of the income that supported premiums has been lost.

That leaves WellPoint with lots of customers who can’t be without coverage. Lots of unhealthy people, lots of claims, less profit. Meanwhile, the cost of care itself is rising. Without insurance, people pay for health care at rates that are scary enough to wake the dead. Remember, they don’t have the clout of an insurance company to negotiate rates for services, so they pay at the Mercedes Benz rate for all health care. When they go through all of their assets (homes, cars, savings and retirement accounts) they are finished.

That’s where you and I step in. Their health care costs (now and later) are built into the cost of our care. Hospitals and doctors must charge more to help make up the difference. WellPoint must charge more to make its profit margins. Anyway, that’s our free market system at work. Love it or hate it, but don’t be outraged when it works the way it’s designed to work.

Why can’t we see that everyone has a dog in this hunt? Today’s employers have a struggle that’s comparable to the individual consumer in finding affordable health care coverage for employees. That’s especially true for small businesses. As an employee, you usually pay just a fraction of the premium. A generous employer gets the full brunt of it. Believe me, lots of employers are struggling to offer health insurance coverage at rates that both employee and employer can afford. Who can look at the state of the auto industry in our country and not see the demise of employer-sponsored health care?

Most people are just one job loss or health event away from knowing how the health care system does and doesn’t work in our country. As a self-employed couple, my husband and I have been seeing annual increases of 20 to 25 percent for a long time. These increases no longer shock us. We’re just glad to be covered by group insurance where that’s all they can do—pass on increases they feel they need for our group to remain profitable. If we were in the unhappy individual market for insurance, purchasing without the clout of a group, we might find that no one even wanted to cover us. Yeah.

Here’s why: insurance is, by definition, designed to cover unknown risks—not known risks. By the time a person reaches 50, they are bound to have at least a few health issues. When you buy individual coverage, you get to share your entire medical history with the prospective insurer. The insurance provider gets to decide if they’d like to have you as a customer, what to charge and what to cover based on that medical history. Unlike group coverage, the insurer also decides when they no longer deem you a worthwhile customer. They can send you packing. Nifty, huh? Good luck finding coverage after that happens. Personally, we’ve never been brave enough to play ball in this arena, although we're savvy enough to know that we might have to one of these days.

Whether we’re talking about group or individual health care coverage, we must remember one thing: insurance is a for-profit business. When we decide that we don’t want government involved in our health care, then we give ourselves over to a for-profit system. Health care choices get made by people who make or lose money based on their business decisions. It puzzles me that we are unperturbed about for-profit organizations deciding what health care we can have, but we are outraged about pooling our money in a not-for-profit or government-run health care system.

In any system, someone has to make choices about what’s covered. It’s the only way to make the math work because no system can cover the world and everything adjacent to it. Don’t hate WellPoint for doing what businesses do. Just think about whether you are okay with that method of handling health care for you and your neighbor, in sickness and in health.

Here are five books for understanding the very complicated question of what to do about health care.

The Tyranny of Dead Ideas: Letting Go of the Old Ways of Thinking to Unleash a New Prosperity, by Matt Miller http://www.mattmilleronline.com/tyranny.php

Health Care Reform Now!: A Prescription for Change, by George Halvorson and John J. Nance

How Reform Went Wrong: Health Care Reform in the U.S., Past and Present, by Michael E. Porter and Elizabeth Olmsted Teisberg

Health Care Reform that Makes Sense: A Detailed Plan to Improve the Health Care System by America's Leading Health Care CEO, by Alan B. Miller

When the Good Pensions Go Away: Why Americans Need a New Deal for Pension and Health Care Reform, by Thomas Mackel

This Valentine's Day, take a lesson in self-care from your heart

Sacred scriptures tell us to love our neighbor as ourselves. But how can we do a good job of loving our neighbors, when we really don’t love ourselves very well? Taking care of our minds, our bodies and our spirits isn’t vain or selfish. The reality is that we can’t serve others from an empty cart. When we truly love ourselves, we find it more difficult to hurt other people, and easier to help others. Love for self is ultimately love for all.

In Nischala Joy Devi’s book, The Secret Power of Yoga, Devi says the best lesson on self-care is taken directly from the body and its heart. The heart pumps and distributes oxygenated blood faithfully, day in, day out, all through the body. Part of the body’s built-in wisdom is that the heart is always the first beneficiary of the newest, freshest oxygenated blood. That’s because the heart knows that it must care for itself first in order to fulfill its purpose to the body. It is sort of like the safety instructions we get from airlines when we fly: in an emergency, put on your own oxygen mask before attempting to help children or other dependents.

When we don’t care for ourselves lovingly, sometimes our bodies, minds and spirits send us an urgent memo. Yoga encourages better care of all our essential parts because it allows us to develop the habit of noticing what is going on long before our bodies, minds or spirits declare a state of emergency. When we feel tension, anxiety, physical pain, confusion, or lack of clarity, we can combine our faith with a regular yoga practice to meet these symptoms at their source and bring whatever ails us into better balance.

Here are a few great affirmations to encourage more love in your life.

I build my life on a foundation of love.

Love sets my priorities and helps order my steps.

When in doubt, I always choose the path that leads to love.

The tide of my love is unstoppable. It flows in and out without fail.

The Preface: appetizer or entrée?

I hesitate to suggest this, but have you ever considered reading the preface in lieu of the whole book? Once upon a time, I viewed a preface as nothing more than a dull obstacle that kept me from diving into a book right away. I knew in my heart that they were supposed to be like an appetizer to a great meal, whetting the appetite for more. But with limited time to read, who had time for it? Just take me straight to the meat and potatoes.

Today, I think just the opposite. With limited time to read and a very broad appetite for books, a well-written preface or foreword may serve as a gourmet meal unto itself. As proof, this week I polished off three prefaces for books I have no intention of reading—at least not entirely.

The first is Otto Penzler’s witty set-up for The Lineup: The World’s Greatest Crime Writers Tell the Inside Story of Their Greatest Detectives. In it, Penzler offers the complete story on the concept for this book, originally conceived as a tourniquet for his hemorrhaging New York City bookstore, The Mysterious Bookshop. As the title implies, each novelist gives readers an account of what makes a character tick. It should come as no surprise that the world’s greatest crime novelists approach this task in their own distinct ways.

I have absolutely no interest in crime novels, but this book was a fascination to my husband, who thrives on the likes of Robert Parker and Michael Connelly. To his credit, my darling spouse has a keen eye on the sort of writing that does interest me. If it weren’t for his recommendation, I might have missed this treat. What makes Penzler’s preface main-course reading is his apt and humorous analysis of the current condition of reading and the publishing industry in the United States. Read it and weep. Read it and laugh. Pathetic and funny all at the same time.

The second and third (yes, a book that required not one, but TWO forewords) were written for Elena Kostioukovitch’s tomb, Why Italians Love to Talk About Food. Foreword writers Carol Field and Umberto Eco each explain how Italian food, culture, and history intersect in ways that are esoteric to most Americans. They introduce the author as our ideal guide to Italian culture—one who is up to the task of explaining the unusual connection between Italians and their food due to her rare blend of objectivity and immersion.

I’m not sure I will be up for fully digesting Kostioukovitch’s complete journey, but the ruminations of these two writers have given me more appreciation than I had. While it’s not as much as I’d get from the whole book, it’s probably more than I would have had if I’d never picked up the book and snacked on it. So, read those forewords and prefaces. Let them serve as whatever course you most enjoy, appetizer, entrée or dessert.

Five things to love about yoga

It’s amazing how your view of things can change over time. When I was first introduced to yoga in 1996, all I could see was a pud form of exercise. I was attracted to it and  enjoyed it, but I didn’t really appreciate its potential, probably because I  wasn’t completely ready for it. I wish I had been. Life could have been better a lot sooner. This realization has made me feel obligated to share what little I know about yoga with others, in hopes they’ll discover its potential, too. Here’s what I’ve come to love about the yoga practice I’ve developed over the past few years.

1)Yoga makes you taller.
I feel a good two inches taller after practicing yoga. The reality is probably something far less than that, but all the work we do extending the spine and opening the body has a lengthening effect. It’s one of the first things a beginning student will notice after leaving their first class. After rounding the shoulders all day over computers, desks, steering wheels, and meals, it feels wonderful to counteract that.
 
2) All things are made clear through yoga.
Addictions, bad habits, unhealthy relationships, and imbalances are all laid bare in a faithful yoga practice. We come face to face with reality in a neutral way that somehow makes change more compelling. We are more drawn to studying sacred texts like the Bible and we see the world and ourselves through the lens of this timeless wisdom. Scary events and people have less power over us because we see them for what they are: delusions and distortions. Since we’re dealing more with reality, we’re less subject to lies—ours and other people’s. We don’t invest energy in things that aren’t real and true. That said, we respect the fact that our reality isn’t the only reality. We are less susceptible to work on changing other people, although we find that other people are often changed when we deal with reality. Since our egos are checked more rigorously, we know that we don’t have all the answers and we have no right to judge. That’s very liberating.
 
3) Yoga helps you connect with the protective power of God. 
I used to meet God with fear and trepidation. No wonder I found it difficult to develop some discipline around prayer and meditation. My yoga practice has encouraged me to spend more time with God. After I pour out my heart, we spend a little time just hanging out together—and I don’t mean that in an irreverent way. Afterwards, I feel cloaked by His love. When I leave those meetings, I feel more prepared to face the trials of life. I’ve come to see them as a necessary part of my development. I resist them less. Less resistance, less stress.
 
4) Practicing yoga surrounds you with other people who want to be well and whole. 
For the past six months, I’ve spent four hours a week studying yoga in a teachers’ training program with a dozen people. I’ve never felt more comfortable and safe in a group than I have with these people. Because we’re all striving toward similar goals, we’ve grown close, supporting each other through the burdens of life in the same way that my church family does. We pray for each other. Our study is intense so we move to the heart of most matters with clarity, speed and economy. This group has become like a force field in my life which I know will be with me well beyond the end of our class next February. Whether you intend to teach yoga or not, the deep connections you make with others are reason enough to enroll in a teachers’ training program. Yoga attracts people who are interested in being their best and being a positive force for good in the world. I’m not saying we have the market cornered on the pursuit of excellence, but when you join forces with that kind of energy, don’t be surprised at the improvements you can make.

5) Yoga helps you move through life more easily both physically and mentally.
The first and only time I swung a golf club this year, I was amazed at the fullness of my swing. I could move in a complete sphere. After a year of dedicated practice, I’m stronger and more flexible than ever—and not just physically. Noticing what’s going on in your body gives you a greater capacity to notice where you are tight and rigid in your life. As you learn how to turn loose physically, there’s a direct correlation to your ability to become more open and flexible in life. You bounce back from things easier. You greet challenges with more confidence. Conversely, you also know how and when to accept your own boundaries, understanding when you simply can’t go further safely.

I realize that I have been long on claims and short on explanations, but everyone has to discover the transformative power of yoga for themselves. I hope that my story will motivate someone out there to step onto a yoga mat and give it a try.

Good resources for beginning yoga students
Yoga Basics: The Essential Beginner’s Guide to Yoga for a Lifetime of Health and Fitness, by Mara Carrico; 30 Essential Yoga Poses, by Judith Lasater; and The Pure Heart of Yoga: Ten Essential Steps for Personal Transformation by Robert Butera.

Reading strategies for time-pressed grownups

One night over dinner, one of our friends confided that he had been reading A Tale of Two Cities since last spring. He is determined to slug his way through this classic and others he believes will be more meaningful to him as an adult. Keep in mind, this man has four young children and a demanding job that keeps him at the office much longer than he would like. I admire his tenacity, but another part of me feels nothing but compassion for him. As much as I like Dickens—how could he do that to himself? He deserves to read such works when he is not so tired. Heaven knows Dickens deserves to be read with a mind that’s ready and alert. Classics aren’t always that ponderous, but there are more nourishing reading options for time-pressed adults who want books to be part of their lives.

Here are four strategies for remaining well-read throughout a busy, responsible life.

1. Snack on non-fiction. Who says you have to read the whole book? You’ve been listening to your Mama too long if you think that’s a must. Here’s a good rule of thumb: fiction needs to be read entirely; non-fiction does not. When I review any book, I always read the whole thing. The rest of the time, I move through non-fiction books like I consume news, picking and choosing what I want from each book. I read the introduction and preface for context, followed by the table of contents and index. From that, I choose chapters to read based on the topics that sound most interesting. The number of books published today (fiction and non-fiction) is staggering. So many books, so little time. How many things can you find to be interested in and learn something about? Find ways to snack at the buffet. An interested person is an interesting person.

2. Read children’s literature. You probably think I am saying this because I’m a children’s librarian. Not so. I say it because children’s literature isn’t just for kids. And because children’s books are shorter. The average juvenile fiction book is roughly 250 pages. The market is broader than ever before, covering topics that are both meaningful and entertaining. Children’s books aren’t what they used to be—in a good way. Of course, not every book is for grownups. But you’ll be surprised how many books will resonate with you. I have been totally blown away by serious children’s books like Stargirl, by Jerry Spinelli or Home of the Brave, by Katherine Applegate. Richard Peck makes me laugh out loud. (My husband, too.) I haven’t even begun to speak of picture books, which are now published as collaborations between the most brilliant artists and authors in the world. They are treats for the eyes, heart, and mind. Go to the new book section in the children’s department of your library. You’ll see what I mean. Once again, I say: it’s okay. No one will think you are a simpleton just because you are reading a children’s book. Besides, who cares what someone else thinks? Picture books and juvenile fiction can be just the right tonic for very weary people who really need what’s inside. I’m very, very serious about this. You just don’t know what you are missing.

3. Read poetry. The very word is an affront to some people. I sincerely hope and pray that some English teacher in your past hasn’t ruined this art form for you. Poetry is made for time-pressed people. A whole book in a few lines. What’s not to like? Don’t approach poetry like you did when you were in school. You don’t have to get every metaphor and simile to appreciate it and have it improve your life. Liberate yourself. What do you think the poem is about? Pick up a poetry collection. If you don’t like your first choice, keep searching. Spend some time with one poem every night. Make it part of an evening ritual when you are slowing down, taking time to reflect on your life. You might even decide to memorize a line or two.

4. Know when to put a book down. I belong to a book discussion group. What I love about reading with a group is exposure to unlikely or difficult books. I like learning from the insight other people bring. Being part of the group also pushes me to finish one way or another. Even so, I don’t hesitate to lay one down after I’ve given it a good effort. If it doesn’t grab me in the first 100 pages, it is a goner. Sometimes I decide that a book’s negative messages aren’t good for me. That’s my prerogative. It’s yours, too. On the other hand, some authors make it worthwhile to press beyond your threshold to the end. The journey is worth it. Set your limit and don’t let some arbitrary need to finish make reading a chore. Nothing good can come from that.

5. Include audio books. I don’t care who you are, if you’ve got a job, you’ve only got so much time to sit and read. Think of all the time you spend in traffic or running errands, frustrated and captive. You can recapture some of that time with audio books. My 45-minute commute to work two days a week is like a ride on a magic carpet when I’m listening to an audio book. If you’ve ever felt wistful about all the books you are missing because you are too busy to read, audio books can help you live more and read more.

For a beautiful little treatise on the pleasures and benefits of reading, try The Little Guide to Your Well-Read Life: How to Get More Books in Your Life and More Life from Your Books, by Steve Leveen, co-founder of Levenger, a catalog of gadgets for serious readers. This gem of a book is definitely not an infomercial. I keep several copies to give recent graduates as an inspiring reminder that learning isn’t over when school ends.

Books for mining more out of life

I spent a whole week with my mother and father recently. Studying them that long gave me a lot to think about. In my mind, the three of us are approximately the same age—48 and holding. Of course, I know that’s a ridiculous mental proposition. Now in their 70s, Mom and Dad have covered some ground. Yet things that happened decades ago seem like yesterday to them.

Just last week, Dad said he dreamed about me and my three brothers exactly as we were when the youngest of us was a toddler. In the dream we appeared to him just as we were, in vivid detail. It is almost as though we are etched deeply in his memory at every age we have ever been. It must be an odd feeling, waking up and realizing that your toddler is actually in his forties. Odder still, I can easily put myself in their place, wondering how life could have zoomed by me so quickly. Seventy doesn't seem all that far away.

If this is how it’s to be, why not grab hold of life and live it all-out? Why not ditch all the fears and doubts now? Don’t wait for December 31 to write your New Year’s resolutions. Start planning 2009 today. Make a promise to live a life of few regrets.

Here are four great books to change your attitude, get you off your duff, and inspire your own quest. All four are full of practical exercises, new thinking, and unknown resources that can help you mine what you really want out of life. Beware: they may revise what seems possible to you.

The Passion Test, by Janet Bray Attwood and Chris Attwood
(Figure out what’s important to you, get past the excuses, and DO it.)
http://www.thepassiontest.com/TPT/Home/index.cfm

Steering by Starlight: Find Your Right Life, No Matter What!, by Martha Beck
(Especially good for people who are stuck somehow and can’t imagine a way out.)
http://marthabeck.com/

The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9 to 5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich, by Timothy Ferriss. (Talk about throwing out all the rules!)
http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/

The Secret, by Rhonda Byrne. (The wisdom of the ages packed into one book.)
http://thesecret.tv/

Every time I attend an ALA conference, there's always at least one "blow my wig off" experience--one that makes me think, "Girl, you've got to overcome your introverted ways and get OUT there more, because there's LOTS going on that you don't have a clue about. If you're of the same ilk--an introvert who carefully manages stimulation from the outside world because you are so easily overwhelmed--you understand what I'm talking about.

Here's the session that rearranged a few molecules for me in 2007: Reader's Advisory for Exploding Genres. The speakers were David Wright, a librarian for the Seattle Public Library; Kelly Link and Zane––both authors and owners of their own small publishing companies. This dynamic trio discussed a whole category of fiction I hadn't previously known about, a category so broad, offbeat, and edgy that it defies categorization. For people who seem born to categorize (read: librarians) this is at once scary and thrilling: scary because some of us in midlife don't even know how to FIND this fiction; thrilling because this is what young adults are interested in reading. Don't look for these reviews in mainstream publications like Booklist, Library Journal, or the New York Times because you won't find them there. To locate what attracts Generation Y readers, explore the flourishing online literary culture, nourished and revealed in part by music and alternative media. Don't worry--you don't have to LOVE this stuff once you find it. But if you're a librarian (and maybe if you're a writer, too), you certainly need to KNOW about it! A few sources I gleaned from the session were:

The Believer, a free magazine that features essays, book reviews, interviews.
http://www.believermag.com/

McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, a quarterly journal that reports on groundbreaking fiction.
http://store.mcsweeneys.net/

The editor of McSweeney's, Dave Eggers, also publishes The Best American Nonrequired Reading, an annual which highlights the realm of America's best new writers. Another similar publication is Best New American Voices, edited by Jane Smiley.

The Author Who Burglarized My Heart

I attended this year's ALA conference in Washington D.C. last week with only one thing in mind: inspiration. From start to finish, that's exactly what I got, partly because I was willing to buck up for the paid events that allow you to listen to and keep a little company with the best writers of our day. The next time you find yourself coughing over the expense of an event like the $45 Gala Author Tea, presented by Friends of Libraries USA, I hope this story will help you decide to forgo a few lattes in exchange for a more thrilling and lasting form of stimulation.

The line-up for this event included Joyce Carol Oates, Eileen Goudge, Frank Delaney, Susan Vreeland, and Markus Zusak, appearing in that order. For nearly two hours, we were regaled, enchanted, and entertained in delicious variations. A wispy, ethereal figure, Joyce Carol Oates explained how often her work is criticized for dwelling on violence, a misunderstanding of her intention to show how people live through it without becoming victims. Her latest book, The Gravedigger's Daughter, is based on the imagined life of Oates' real-life grandmother.

Eileen Goudge provided a stark picture of her beginnings as a writer, a single mother living on welfare who could hardly pay her bills, much less afford to frame the first check she received for a published work. She now receives six figure advances for novels such as her latest, Woman in Red.

"My brother used to say to me, 'We can only take you anywhere twice--the second time to apologize,' " said Frank Delaney, who suggests his latest book, Tipperary, will be appropriate for a girl of 10 or a woman of 19. Delaney said he uses story as a means of sharing intimacy, smuggling whatever ideas he can from life.

Susan Vreeland described writing as a creative endeavor that kept her alive through a lengthy battle with lymphoma when she was often housebound. While she was ill, Vreeland walked to her neighborhood public library to collect research materials, despite doctor's orders not to go out. "You just don't know how important your work is," Vreeland said, crediting librarians for sustaining her during a difficult time. Vreeland's latest book lifts characters from a Renoir painting, Luncheon of the Boating Party, as the inspiration for her latest novel by the same name.

By the time the final author reached the podium, I was so blown away that I must admit to feeling a little sorry for the 32-year-old Australian who would close the afternoon event. Even Delaney, a former judge of the Man Booker Prize with a long, prestigious career in broadcasting, conceded that sharing the stage with Joyce Carol Oates was among the most thrilling experiences of his life. How could Zusak top the likes of these authors?

I needn't have given it a thought. Markus Zusak stole the stage. Zusak's publisher has taken him to task for being so self-deprecating and uncommunicative about his work at promotional events. After regaling us with hysterical stories about family, Zusak delivered a modest and heartfelt summary of the nature of his latest novel, The Book Thief. "We Australians aren't very good about talking about our work," he said. "I just wanted to write a book that might become someone's favorite." I knew that Zusak had done that, but not because I had read the book. Like a groupie, I rushed the stage afterwards to tell him how I knew. I had no other motive. Promotional copies of his book had been mysteriously lost (or stolen) before the event, so there was no chance to have a book signed by Kusak. We both knew that.

"I just have to tell you one thing," I said. "I haven't read your book yet, but it's at the very top of my must-read list and I think you may be too modest. A good friend of mine from a book discussion group is a retired English teacher in her 80s. Her sight is failing, but she still loves to read and her appetite for books is enormous. The day after she finished, The Book Thief, she told me she had just completed one the best books she'd ever read. If she says it's really good and one of her favorites, I think you've really accomplished something big."

He grinned at me and looked down at the reading copy in front of him, brought in case someone asked him to read aloud. "What is your friend's name?" he asked. "I'll sign this one for her." This is what he wrote: "Dee, *Here is a small fact: you can thank Crystal for this!* Here's to life, death, love, and all the colours in between." I slipped out of the room quietly and returned the book to my hotel room, hoping no one would notice the treasure I carried.