I once asked Edward de Bono whether he still finds time for reading. He replied that he did and that he read broadly and randomly. By randomly he explained that he would ask others what they were reading and then read whatever it was they answered. 'We get stuck in our own kind of patterns' he said. Diverse recommendations can break the patterns. I agree and read eclectically, mixing Fiction and Non-Fiction, poetry and prose, adult books and kids books. Recent recommends include:
Play: How It Shapes the Brain, Opens the Mind and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. A book that adds layers of good reasoning to the philosophy of Neoteny (see Neoteny piece and pieces/song on itunes)
Peter Temple novels including his Jack Irish series. I never read much crime fiction so it was a sideways step to embrace all of Peter Temple's works. Love the Melbourne settings, the nostalgia of how Jack Irish follows the Fitzroy Football club and the fact that when reading the Jack Irish series I picture my mate Keith Geary as Jack Irish - a man who loves horses, woodwork and bucking the establishment. For mainly Non-Fiction readers, reading fiction can expand the imagination.
Any poetry of
The Mersey Poets; Roger McGough, Brian Pattern and Adrian Henri. Had a chat with speaker mate Roy Miller (shalom) and we talked about some of these works. It re-kindled my desire to read the wonderful lines of each of these poets. I still have the copy of T
he Mersey Poets book that travelled in my backpack for many of my hobo years. In fact, for the many years of backpacking (on and off for 7 years in the 1980s) the books that stayed with me all the way were
The Complete Writings and Drawings of Bob Dylan and a book of poetry by William Butler Yeats.
Finally I believe kids' books are not just kids' books. The dementors in Harry Potter books could be a metaphor for the Toxic Environments Dr Stephen Lundin writes of in
Fish or for the Psychic Vampire folk my mate Amanda Gore talks of in her presentations.
Read broadly and randomly and deeply.
