Last night we had our first CFKI Book Club meeting in about 6 months, and it was great to get back into it! The Book Club was born as an accountability structure for me, to hold me to my goal of reading one book per month, BACK IN THE DAY in mid-2022. What started as a personal “mental mountain” training goal turned into an awesome way to connect with CFKI members on subjects outside of the perfect kipping pull-up technique. We talk about the book we just read, sure, but we also explore all the tangential conversations that inevitably happen on the book’s application to our lives, and society as a whole. We basically solve the world’s problems, in one-hour chunks every month. We recently took a break from Book Club for what was supposed to be the busy winter holiday season and it turned out to be 6 months – and look what happened in the world!! Ex-presidents getting locked up, dead whales being pulled from the ocean, Bay Bridge traffic. I apologize for the longer break, but we’re back on it now!
The other great thing about getting back into reading right now is it’s one more great activity to take outside! I think at least half of my reading this past month was done sitting on my back patio with a hot cup of coffee or a cold beer, feeling the warmth of the sun instantly improve my mood as I dove further into the next plot twist of my book. If you’re trying to read more, and trying to spend more time outside – both worthy pursuits – here are a few pointers:
- Don’t read in a hot tub or submerged in any other body of water. If not for my cat-like reflexes I might have had to purchase a second emergency copy of The Food Explorer on June 10th.
- Don’t read while sitting in the stands at a baseball practice, unless you are certain you are out of harm’s way. But if you don’t heed this advice, if someone yells “heads up!”, you can use your book to shield your head.
- Go ahead and grab that bookmark to save your place. The wind off the Chesapeake Bay and nosy dogs will conspire to aggressively turn the pages the moment you walk away.
- If someone walks by and asks “whatcha readin’?”, they don’t want the whole synopsis and your opinion on the author’s intention and political lean. They just want to know the title, if that.
- Quitters never win, and winners never quit. Except on books. If you really don’t like it, and you’re a third of the way in, just drop that book and pick up another. Show up to the Book Club meeting anyway and say that you hated it. That’s a great conversation starter!!
Our next book, to be discussed in mid-July, is Breathe: The New Science of a Lost Art, by James Nestor. It was given to me by my father-in-law, who has given it to just about everyone he knows. I’m looking forward to making a little time each day in my schedule to get outside and get into it. I hope you will too!
Ryan