From the first issue of 7 for Sunday, I’ve always wondered if I’d make it to 100, and I’m glad I stuck with it. Some weeks it was a right struggle to get it done. In a very real sense, knowing there were readers out there gave me a goal to get through some dark days. Yes, external validation is not a great idea. But also, the life preserver that saves you is necessarily thrown by another.
In Issue № 52 I wrote that one year earlier, I had set out to reimagine what my blog‘s email should be. Right from Issue № 1 I was looking forward to seeing how it turned out after a year. If you’d like to know more about how this publication came to be, there’s some history on the About page.
I truly appreciate your time and attention, and I don’t take it for granted.
Thank you for reading.
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NB: Book links in this issue are either to bookshop.org where your purchases earn me (and independent bookstores too) a small commission, or to Library Thing which is a social, library catalog of all books. Do notice that Library Thing includes a “Quick Links” section linking to reputable sources for any book. For each quote below, the author’s name is linked to my blog’s posts related to the author; Each of those links is its own Alice-in-Wonderland rabbit hole.
Thanks to a suggestion from 7 for Sunday reader Wayne, this centennial issue is about books. 7 books, of course.
Each book is presented with bibliofervor (the urge to leap out of one’s chair, race to find a friend, and press a book into their hands, see Issue № 60.)
Why these particular books? Each is a book that I love, or have read multiple times, or which has shifted my foundations, and is—hopefully—one you’ve not heard of. I wanted to share great books, but which also aren’t the usual darlings.
If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.
~ Haruki Murakami
1. Parkour & Art du Déplacement
[Connection] also means that you could be connected to the people who have been practicing this before you. Whether you’ve learned from the Yamakasi or somebody else, you can acknowledge that. You can appreciate what you’ve received from them. And there’s also connection with the people who will come after you. Because—sorry to deliver the news—but you won’t be there forever and you won’t be coaching forever if you’re a coach. And you won’t be moving in the same way forever, and you don’t know when you’re going to see it.
~ Vincent Thibault
Vincent Thibault’s Parkour & Art du Déplacement: Lessons in Practical Wisdom – Leçons de Sagesse Pratique 2015 book contains both the French and English text. Don’t confuse it with the similarly titled, but completely different book, “Parkour and the Art du Déplacement: Strength, Dignity, Community” (notice the sub-titles are different) published in 2014.
If you leap towards only one book in this issue, please make it this one. This book is effectively unknown to the world.
The above quote from Thibault, is from the podcast episode, Communication with Vincent Thibault, recorded for the Movers Mindset podcast. This book, and Vincent, mean a lot to me, and I can’t really do that justice here. (I’m already halfway through my weekly allotment of words!)
2. How to Live on 24 Hours in a Day
The most important preliminary to the task of arranging one’s life so that one may live fully and comfortably within one’s daily budget of twenty-four hours is the calm realization of the extreme difficulty of the task, of the sacrifices and the endless effort which it demands.
~ Arnold Bennett
Arnold Bennett’s, How to Live on 24 Hours in a Day is out of print and out of copyright, so there are several sources with prices from free to highway-robbery. The linked Library Thing page will get you moving in the right direction.
I love a book whose title tells you exactly what’s inside. This book should be considered a classic. This book should be an early chapter in the Human Manual I sometimes complain I did not receive upon arrival on this scene. It’s over a century old, and it stands the test of time.
3. A Guide to the Good Life
I wrote this book with the following question in mind: If the ancient Stoics had taken it upon themselves to write a guidebook for twenty-first-century individuals—a book that would tell us how to have a good life—what might that book have looked like? The pages that follow are my answer to this question.
~ William Irvine
William B. Irvine’s A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy is the best introduction to the ancient art of Stoic joy.
Yes, joy!
It’s unfortunate that the word “stoic” is understood to be about suppressing emotions, because that’s not at all what the ancient Stoics thought one should do. Rather, they and I contend, one should identify one’s values, and pursue virtue—emotions appropriately included.
My “William B. Irvine” tag and “Stoicism” tag are good places to start if you’re still on the fence about this book.
4. InsideOut Coaching
In contrast, a transformational coach realizes the power of the coaching platform to inspire, motivate, and produce positive change in his or her followers. He or she is acutely mindful of the moral, social, emotional, and psychological needs of young people. Transformational coaches offer individual support and encouragement to each player and have a clear vision for the desired impact on their players’ lives. And not surprisingly, a transformational coach, even in organized athletics, allows and encourages young people to simply play.
~ Joe Ehrmann
I stumbled over Joe Ehrmann’s InSideOut Coaching: How Sports Can Transform Lives. I was loitering in a bookstore to warm up in fr-fr-frigid Boston weather, started wandering around, and left with this book. I’m not a coach, maybe it was just the particular point in my life, but this book really resonated with me. Now every time I see a coach I have the urge to press this book into their hands.
5. The Hungry Brain
We live in a society where most of the food is at a level of reward/palatability that our species has never encountered before. We’re surrounded by it, and everywhere we turn, someone is jockeying for our attention, trying to get us to purchase their food. We’re used to it– and for the most part, we like it. This professionally engineered food drives our behavior in a way that is only loosely under our conscious control, with a small percentage of the population succumbing to frank addiction. So I can understand why some people are resistant to change.
~ Stephan Guyenet, from Simple Food: Thoughts on Practicality
Stephane Guyenet’s book, The Hungry Brain: Outsmarting the Instincts That Make Us Overeat is a clear explanation of some amazing features of our amazing bodies. And yes, the end of the book actually tells you the strategies.
He has an old-school blog, Whole Health Source which is absolutely jammed with amazing health information. As of 2017, he’s been publishing on his newer web site, stephanguyenet.com
6. You Are Not a Gadget
I don’t believe our species can survive unless we fix this. We cannot have a society, in which, if two people wish to communicate, the only way that can happen is if it’s financed by a third person who wishes to manipulate them.
~ Jaron Lanier, from How we need to remake the Internet
Jaron Lanier’s You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto is exactly what it says: A manifesto against our being used by technology and against people using technology to take advantage of us. Lanier is well-known in technology circles. He’s outspoken, sometimes derided (by those who oppose his ideas) and we need him to be known more widely by the very people being manipulated.
Including this book is partly me getting on my soapbox about “social” networks.
7. Show Your Work
In fact, now I’m wondering if that’s one way you know something is great? When you say: “How does this even exist?”
~ Austin Kleon, from The making of Lilo & Stitch
Austin Kleon is, by far, the most well-known author in this list. But his Show Your Work!: 10 Ways to Share Your Creativity and Get Discovered is simply so good that I can’t ignore it. I wish this had been pressed into my hands earlier in my life. I’m a huge proponent of showing one’s work, and this book is definitely another chapter in that missing Human Manual I mentioned above.
Until next time, thanks for reading.
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