Introduction: Report Card: Self-Education Reading List

How do rate yourself keeping the promises you make to yourself? For me, it is a mixed bag. I am not as focused as  I used to be, so I am working towards getting back my focus. In May, I wrote the blog post, Self-Education Reading List: Books I Plan to Read Next. I started working my way through my self-education reading list and then I stopped. Life got in the way, and I have been under a lot of stress. The good news is that I read a lot of books, but I read what I wanted to read.

I decided not to follow a fixed plan. There are times in your life when you have to give your mind and body what it needs. A good friend works for a publisher, and she often gives me a lot of books. This year, she gave me a lot of Advanced Reader Editions and uncorrected proofs, along with some recently published books (most published in 2017 and a couple from 2015 and 2016). I had a great time reading the books she gave me, and I still have many to work my way through. I have often said that you can learn from any book that you read. I learned something from each of the books that I read.

I must admit that a few of the books upset me and I became very emotional. I am an active reader, who gets into the story. The Feed by Nick Clark Windo upset me the most, and I plan to write a post about it. The book is science fiction and it scared me to think what would happen if such a world existed. In the book, when you have the Feed on, you have access to information at your virtual fingertips. Information streams through your mind and you can see what others are thinking and vice versa. When you go to a restaurant, the waiter can tell what you want to order without you having to tell him or her. There is no reason for you to read because any information you need can be streamed. Is that not scary? Imagine the implications of such a technology.

The thing with science fiction, is that oftentimes, the imagined becomes the reality. The other book I found bothersome was the Black Painting. At the end of the book, I could not make up my mind about whether I liked it. There are many people who do not like to read fiction because they think it is a waste of time. But for me, I have learned countless lessons from reading fiction. I also learn about different types of people. Below you will find the books I read from my self-education list, and the list of books that I actually read during the summer. During the fall, I will continue reading books from the original list because I think they are worth reading.

Have you read?

Self-Education Reading List: Books I Plan to Read Next

Books I Read from the Self-Education Reading List

Gamestorming: A Playbook for Innovators, Rulebreakers, and Changemakers

Enterprise Games: Using Game Mechanics to Build a Better Business

Linked: How Everything Is Connected to Everything Else and What It Means for Business, Science, and Everyday Life

I carefully chose the books on my self-education reading list because they can teach me important skills and lessons. I also believe that they are ideal books for me to summarize for sale. I have been talking about providing books summaries for a while now. And perhaps in the eyes of some, I have lost credibility. But there are many book summaries that are already on the market, so it does not make sense to offer something that’s already available. I have been working behind the scenes to create something worth selling that you will find valuable.

In Zero to One, Peter Thiel says that what you are offering has to be at least 10 times better than what is available. I did not think that what I had to offer was 10 times better. But now I do because of all the changes that I have made to the book summary template that I created.

Have you read?

Zero to One by Peter Thiel, Book Review

In the article, Jobs-to-be-Done Framework, I learned some important information that can make the book summaries more than 10 times better than what is offered. So I am glad I took the time to do things right. In a nutshell, every product or service has a job that it has to do. A customer hires the product to do a job it has. The question for the book summary is, what job does it have to do, that a customer will hire it? That is an interesting question.

Summer 2017 Reading List

Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation, Steven Johnson

The Multiplayer Classroom: Designing Coursework as a Game, Lee Sheldon

Reading Magic, Mem Fox

Chaos, Patricia Cornwell

The Night is Alive, Heather Graham

Dark Rites, Heather Graham

You’ll Think of Me, Robin Lee Hatcher

Wait, What? And Life’s Other Essential Questions, James E Ryan

The Last Chance Matinee, Mariah Stewart

No One But You, Brenda Novak

Until You Loved Me, Brenda Novak

Serenity Harbor, RaeAnne Thayne

What We Find, Robyn Carr

Any Day Now, Robyn, Carr

The Inn at Ocean’s Edge, Colleen Coble

Because You’re Mine, Colleen Coble

Sunday Silence, Nicci French

Swept Away, Robyn Carr

The Black Painting, Neil Olson

The Feed, Nick Clark Windo

The Ones We Trust, Kimberly Belle

The Ultimatum, Karen Robards

Final Thoughts: Report Card: Self-Education Reading List

For most of the books that I read during the summer, I was reading them for pleasure, so I did not take notes. If something struck me as profound, I would jot it down. I was paying close attention to the characters and how they behave. And it was a pleasure to read so many books that are coming out in 2018. I learned a lot of practical information from reading the Multiplayer Classroom, Where Good Ideas Come From, Reading Magic and Wait What?

Which books did you read this summer? Would any of those books make it on a self-education reading list?

Have you read?

Reading Magic by Mem Fox, a Book Review
Wait, What by James E Ryan, a Book Review

 Gamestorming: A Playbook for Innovators, Rulebreakers, and Changemakers Linked: How Everything Is Connected to Everything Else and What It Means for Business, Science, and Everyday Life Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation Reading Magic: Why Reading Aloud to Our Children Will Change Their Lives Forever Wait, What?: And Life’s Other Essential Questions The Last Chance Matinee (The Hudson Sisters Series) The Feed: A Novel The Inn at Ocean’s Edge (A Sunset Cove Novel) The Black Painting: A Novel The Ultimatum (The Guardian Book 1)

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