Leaders are readers

Or so goes the perhaps self-serving advice I heard in a recent personal development training video. I've been an avid reader since I was a kid (even Stephen King fiction, believe it or not), and I will own the fact that I have a book addiction.

The same trainer in the video talked about his reading habits. He travels a lot, so he prefers reading books on a Kindle while listening to the audiobook simultaneously (at 1.5X or 2X speed). If he really likes the book, he'll purchase a physical copy to keep it on his bookshelf or gift it to someone. 

I would much prefer to listen to the conversational style of a podcast than a professional narration of an audiobook (especially non-fiction). The only audiobooks I have enjoyed are autobiographies read by the author. I go back and forth between e-books and physical books.

While organizing my office, I found a $50 Barnes & Noble gift card. I like going to the bookstore without any specific titles in mind to see what jumps out at me. That's how I found As A Man Thinketh at the Salt Lake City airport bookstore. 

I wish I had some AI following me around for all my book purchases so that I could follow the timeline of my book journey, which would be a leading indicator of my mindset. 

Here is today's haul:

• The Essential Lw of Attraction Collection by Esther and Jerry Hicks
• The Daily Laws: 366 Meditations on Power, Seduction, Mastery, Strategy, and Human Nature by Robert Greene
• How to Talk to Anyone: 92 Little Tricks for Big Success in Relationships by Leil Lowndes

As I've interrogated many times, "Who has time for fiction?!" A week ago, I came across a list of supposedly great sci-fi books, and I noted a couple: The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe and The Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons. I found both at the bookstore, but after reading the first page of each, I decided to pass. After all, I'm building a business.