TED Talks: The Official TED Guide to Public Speaking

Many people love TED Talks, so I thought it would be great if I wrote a post that focused on TED Talks About Reading and Books. For those of you who read The Invisible Mentor Blog, you will notice that I started off 2019 with a bang writing about reading and books. Most of the blog posts so far are about reading more of the right book in 2019.

The traffic on my blog went down substantially because I did not blog regularly in 2018. This year, my goal is to read more of the right books. But a goal that is more pressing, is to solve problems that my reading have about reading and books, and the books they need to read to accelerate their careers.

I doubt if I wrote 10 original posts in 2018. What I did was update older posts. To get my blogging groove back, I am taking Sarah Arrow’s 30-Day Blogging Challenge. This is about the fifth time I am doing this challenge. Over the years, I have written a lot about reading books and I have created a lot of book reviews and summaries. One of the ways to develop professionally is to read intelligently, and read the right books.

I want you to succeed personally and professionally, so I want to share differing points of view on reading and books. Please take the time to watch the TED Talks listed below. Perhaps you can listen to one each day. That’s not too overwhelming. I recently read in a book that the best TED Talk speakers have mastered the art of storytelling. They start off their presentation with a story to hook the audience within 30 seconds.

Have you read?

Learning from the Masters: Using Stories to Engage Your Readers

Lisa Bu – How books can open your mind: In this TED Talk, Lisu Bu briefly shares her experience growing up in China and then she delves into how reading can open up your mind. She mentions comparative reading, and how she read books in pairs to compare and contrast. This is also known as syntopical reading.

Ann Morgan – My year reading a book from every country in the world: Ann Morgan talks about the year she spent reading a book written by an author from every UN recognized country in the world. I started reading the world before knowing about her. For those who do not know, I started a reading challenge to read the world when my mom died unexpectedly from a heart attack on October 3rd in 2012. I read 80 books written by authors from 29 Countries.

Jordan Harry – How to Read a Book a Day, TEDx Bath University https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2-ahs905MQ:  This TED Talk covers speed reading and reading habits. He offers tips on how to read faster and more effectively. You have to be curious and have good questions to understand the world around you. Jordan Harry covers many of the tips that others speed reading experts cover, but some of his explanations are different. Finally, he covers tips on how you can read a book every day.

Rita Carter – Why reading matters, TEDx Cluj: In This TED Talk Rita Carter focuses on fiction reading. Go inside the character’s head to understand emotion. You step outside of your head and see the world through another person’s eyes. Your brain needs a workout and good fiction does that for you. Fiction also teaches you empathy.

Ricardo Lieuw On – How to triple your memory by using this trick, TEDx Haarlem: The typical person forgets most of what he or she learns within the hour. The TED Talk starts off with a memory test. Do you know the best technique for memorizing anything. You need to learn how to learn. Be aware of what you are doing, what kind of experience are you having, and how do you apply what you learned? Experiment and learn something new.

Alvin Irby – How to inspire every child to be a lifelong reader: This TED Talk focuses on things to do to get black boys reading more. When Alvin Irby was in school, out of rebellion he decided it was his choice to choose which books to read. Black boys are trapped in illiteracy and many of the books around do not have characters that the black children can relate to. They also do not have black men as models reading books. Irby created Barber Shop Books where kids are exposed to books that deal with the black experience.

Here are a couple of e-book that I created for sale:

From Reluctant Reader to Superstar Reader

I Hate Reading: Learn How to Love Reading

Michael Bierut – How to design a library that makes kids want to read: This TED Talk doesn’t have anything to do with books. But, I thought it was interesting how you can design an inviting space so children want to read.

Elif Shafak – The politics of fiction: I really enjoyed this TED Talk that Elif Shafak gave. I loved many of the points that she emphasized. People need connections beyond their circles. You cannot surround yourself only with people who are mirror images of you. You can use storytelling to expand your reality. Novels allow you to go out of your small space to experience a world or different culture. “Celebrate fiction for what is is…Fiction is flowing water.”

Your mega summer reading list: 200 books recommended by TEDsters: This TED Talk list of book recommendations is a few years old now, but it is an impressive reading list. Some of them are definitely the right books to read. There are several classics on the list. This will get you started on your learning journey.

Jane Eyre (Bantam Classics)Cheaper by the Dozen (Perennial Classics)The Good Earth (Oprah’s Book Club)The Power of MythThe Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of LifeThe Way of Chuang Tzu (Second Edition)Tao: The Watercourse WayThe Griffin & Sabine Trilogy: Griffen & Sabine/Sabine’s Notebook/the Golden Mean (3 Volumes – No Slipcase, 1, 2, 3)The Company: A Novel of the CIA by Robert Littell (2002-04-22)

I am surprised that there were not more interesting TED Talks about books and reading. Some of the ones that I watched, I decided not to include them here, but I wished there were a lot more to choose from.

Next Steps: TED Talks About Reading and Books

I hope that there are a few of the TED Talks that you enjoy watching. Some of them are quite enjoyable and pleasantly surprising. Here are the next steps for you to take.

• Watch one of the TED Talks every day until you have watched all of them.
• Start reading more books.

This article contains Amazon affiliate links, which means if you click on a link and buy any of the books from Amazon, the company will pay me a small commission.

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