Book Nook Cafe discussion

Delightful idea.

"Improvements are only temporary until they become part of who you are.

The goal is not to read a book, the goal is to become a reader.
The goal is not to run a marathon, the goal is to become a runner.
The goal is not to learn an instrument, the goal is to become a musician.
Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become. No single instance will transform your beliefs, but as the votes build up, so does the evidence of your new identity.

This year, focus on the identity you want to build."

Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones---James Clear

Clever thinking.

LOL!

“Libraries tell the story of who we were and who we hoped to become.”
- Madeleine Blais

"You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it."
~ To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee

To Kill a Mocking Bird--Harper Lee

"Happiness is in the quiet, ordinary things. A table, a chair, a book with a paper-knife stuck between the pages. And the petal falling from the rose, and the light flickering as we sit silent."
— Virginia Woolf, The Waves

The Waves----Virginia Woolf

Alias Reader wrote: ""Happiness is in the quiet, ordinary things. A table, a chair, a book with a paper-knife stuck between the pages. And the petal falling from the rose, and the light flickering as we sit silent."
—..."

I always say, "Money can't buy happiness or health, but poverty ensures misery." And I believe that's true. But many times the things we remember best are free: the vibrant leaves of autumn, the first blossoms of spring (looking forward to that myself), a hike with a person we love, a picnic on a summer's day, lying under the willows reading a good book, etc. It's like editing photos. I only save the good ones.

Alias Reader wrote: ""You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it."
~ To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee..."

Yup, i fully agree. When we think we know how others feel, odds are we don't have a real sense.

:-)

Ahhhh…

Powerful truth, from Baldwin.

Thanks for sharing that quote, Alias. I am not familiar with it.

“The only way out of the labyrinth of suffering is to forgive.”

Looking for Alaska by John Green

True.

"The only productive way to engage in rational discussion is to begin with the acceptance of an outcome where the other party is correct, so that all enter from a neutral space." From Rone Isa by Robin Murarka

Grace wrote: ""The only productive way to engage in rational discussion is to begin with the acceptance of an outcome where the other party is correct, so that all enter from a neutral space." From [book:Rone Is..."

I love that, Grace ! Thanks for sharing.

“I walked a mile with Pleasure;
She chatted all the way;
But left me none the wiser
For all she had to say.

I walked a mile with Sorrow;
And ne’er a word said she;
But, oh! The things I learned from her,
When Sorrow walked with me.”
― Robert Browning Hamilton

"When you lose a game, the score doesn't transfer to the next contest but your habits certainly will.

Circumstances are temporary. Sometimes you're winning, sometimes you're losing. Hot, cold. Lucky, unlucky. But your habits travel with you. This is why you want to execute the same way whether the score is 10-0 or 0-10. Not because the score doesn't matter, but because the score isn't what you're actually building.

It's not about winning or losing any given round. It's about doing things the right way. If you have a chance to practice your craft, you want to do it as well as you can (even if you end up losing that day). Your previous reps can save you or betray you. The habits always translate to the next round."

James Clear
Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones

Ingvar Kamprad, entrepreneur and founder of IKEA, on making mistakes:

"Only while sleeping one makes no mistakes. Making mistakes is the privilege of the active — of those who can correct their mistakes and put them right."

Source: The Testament of a Furniture Dealer (1976).

From the James Clear Newsletter

Thanks to all who shared quotes while i was away. The last, from Buddha, rings the loudest with me.

"If you choose not to find joy in the snow, you will have less joy in your life but still the same amount of snow."

~~~ From the James Clear free newsletter.

Philosopher and author Richard David Precht offers two secrets to a fulfilling life:

"Learning and enjoyment are the secret to a fulfilled life. Learning without enjoyment wears you down, enjoyment without learning dulls you."

Source: Who Am I? And If So, How Many?
Who Am I?: And If So, How Many?--Richard David Precht


~~~ From the James Clear free newsletter.

Alias Reader wrote: ""If you choose not to find joy in the snow, you will have less joy in your life but still the same amount of snow."

~~~ From the James Clear free newsletter."

True, very true.

Thanks for both the quotes, Alias.

Nice.

In this internet, cellphone, TV, and attention grabbing headlines era, I found this quote to be quite true. Maybe it's one reason why I like to read books and newspapers like the NY Times. They dive deep.
---------------

A Nobel laureate saw this coming back in 1971. In an essay published by Johns Hopkins Press, the economist Herbert Simon put it in a line that's only aged into the truth:

"A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention."

"Information isn't free, he argued. It costs the one thing you can't manufacture more of: your attention. The more sources fighting for it, the less any single one gets.

Decades of learning research have found the same thing: rereading and highlighting feel productive but barely improve retention, while what actually works is to close the book and pull the ideas back out of your own head. Researchers call it retrieval practice, or the testing effect.

... So after the next chapter or episode, or even this newsletter: give it two minutes. Write down, in your own words and without peeking, the two or three things worth keeping. If you can't recall it, you never really had it. That one habit will do more for you than just continuing to add more information into your brain. "

--- Quoted from the Arnold Schwarzenegger FREE newsletter.

Interesting quote. I take it a different way, i think, from what was written after the quote. Doesn't this mean that we have moved on? That is, when i accumulate enough information on a topic of interest, i move on. For instance, as a teen i was obsessed by psychic phenomena. Once i sated that interest (& it took around 4 years), i move on, seldom reading another book on the topic.

Same with other things, i believe. While i liked learning about the settling of the US west by families (homesteading), i don't often read another book or even news item about it.

It's not that i cannot see what i think he means but i suspect this happened to an extent long before our era. Maybe it's just that it happens to more people. Of course they can control that, imo. Not easily for many, but possible.

Actually, now that consider the quote more, (What a pain in the butt i can be) this could almost be a way to discourage education. LOL! I wonder if slave owners thought of this ruse?

#35
madrano wrote: "Interesting quote. I take it a different way, i think, from what was written after the quote. Doesn't this mean that we have moved on? That is, when i accumulate enough information on a topic of in..."

As noted the quote is from 1971. I also only shared a small part from the newsletter on the topic.

I've know people who say they don't read books because the info is outdated by the time it's published. I don't agree. Some say they are informed because they get info online. I also disagree with that.

If I am only getting headlines from Facebook or other online sources, I can 100% guarantee that I don't have a full understanding of the topic. Also many online sources are sketchy, IMO.

I also think the tip to read a chapter or two than see if you can write a few sentences about it to be excellent advice and one I've heard others mention. It's especially useful if you are trying to learn about a topic by yourself.

If you write in your books, like I do, this is easy to do at the end of a chapter. Though now I mostly read eBooks, so I have to use a notebook.

If I am reading a nonfiction book that I am writing notes on, I've found it very useful to not wait until I finish and go back over my highlights but to stop and write up notes every couple of chapters.

I'm with you on about reading books, even if the info may be outdated. I.E., the recent book i read about Amazon. It gives one a frame of reference, such as what problems were already addressed (if you know).

As you could tell, i was all over the place with that quote. I seldom feel as though reading is a waste of my time, both to read & take notes. I'm pleasantly surprised to see how often i look at my notes, even years later.

Thank you for the fast reply!

#37
madrano wrote:

I seldom feel as though reading is a waste of my time, both to read & take notes. I'm pleasantly surprised to see how often i look at my notes, even years later.."

What I find the most profitable is creating the notes. I'll often supplement them with additional info I gather from online. What is the most helpful is when I make the notes it becomes clear to me what I didn't understand and need to review or maybe google for more info.

Now that I've started recently to create notes on non fiction books and organize them in a 3 ring binder by decade it will afford me a greater historical understanding.

Bright idea about the decades folders. I was wondering how that is going. Thanks.

Good point about the notes making clear what i did or did not understand well enough as i read.

Given the recent preponderance of eReaders, maybe we need to stretch the definition of "library"? I wonder who will come up with that quote?

I’m not sure about that. Last night I started a book written by a bookshop owner lamenting e- readers because they cut into his business.

I've wondered about that, Denise. The first time i read an author/bookshop owner mention this it was in The Diary of a Bookseller--Shaun Bythell. His book was published in '17, so was too early to factor in the increase of eBooks, due to COVID.

I often wonder about this but when i visit bookstores, they seem to have made place for eBooks.

madrano wrote: "I've wondered about that, Denise. The first time i read an author/bookshop owner mention this it was in The Diary of a Bookseller--Shaun Bythell. His book was publ..."

That's the exact guy I was referring to, except it's Confessions of a Bookseller from 2019

LOL! So, he went from one extreme to another in his next book, it seems. Funny.

"in the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through but rather how many can get through to you".

How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading
Mortimer J. Adler

It would be so very nice if we knew that in advance. :-)

madrano wrote: "It would be so very nice if we knew that in advance. :-)"

True. Though some just focus on the number. Which unless you are just looking for mindless entertainment, is kind of pointless, IMO.

Agree.

“ The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph,”
Thomas Paine

In honor of the everyday common man that became a soldier with their blood, sweat, and tears to enable us to be a free nation. Thank you for your sacrifice and lest we not forget it on this 250th Fourth of July. 🇺🇸