18 Minutes: Find Your Focus, Master Distraction, and Get the Right Things Done by Peter Bregman

Time management is kind of like dieting.  Everyone is always talking about doing it, thinking about doing it or trying to do it, but few people are satisfied with the results.  Peter Bregman approaches time management in a slightly different way than a lot of other consultants.

He views time as a commodity that once lost can't be retrieved.  Through short chapters he describes how to make sure that you're spending time doing what you want to do with your life.  The simple tips that he gives could have major significance in changing our dysfunctional patterns.

Like many other self-help authors he encourages individuals to embrace what is including their weaknesses.  Of course he also encourages people to pursue their passions.  The combination of embracing weaknesses, leveraging strengths, asserting your difference, and pursuing your passion combines to effectively push you in the direction you want to go.

Even though a lot of what he goes over I've heard before, he puts it together in a simple, straight forward, easy-to-follow format.  He's not about overachieving or working hard all the time, but emphasizes putting your energy where it really matters.  After all life is short and we don't want to spend a lot of time spinning our wheels.

Still basking in that after-Olympics glow and proud of the immense athletic skills of your fellow sportsmen? Don't gloat too much just yet: here's a book to knock you down to size! McAllister has looked at all of our greatest physical achievements and then shown how dismal they really are compared to our ancient ancestors. For instance, he compares amounts lifted by modern world champion weightlifters and finds none who could manage the 1,058 lb. boulder from the 6th century BC bearing the inscription "Eumastus, the son of Critobulus, lifted me from the ground"(!)

Comparing 20,000 year old footprints racing across the Australian outback, McAllister concludes the ancient runner would have beaten our fastest sprinter, Usain Bolt, as well!

"I discovered, to my horror," writes McAllister, that "there's nothing we can do that ancient men, and sometimes women, haven't already done better, faster, stronger, and usually smarter." 

And if you enjoyed this, you'd probably also appreciate another title with a made-up/

portmanteau word: Mathletics by John D. Barrow.

 Barrow is British so may dwell too much on strange activities like cricket, rugby and English premiere league soccer but he also covers more mainstream topics such as baseball and basketball. And he covers an even 100 of these topics, with only a page or two devoted to each one. Such as: 

* Why have world records in women's track remained static [unbroken] for decades?

* How did Michael Jordan hang in the air so long during his famous leaps to the basket?

* How a new rule in soccer led to the "most bizarre match ever played" where the teams started trying to kick the ball into their own goals!

* How drag-car racing is 'the most extreme sport of all'

*  How if you want to break a weight-lifting record then you should head for a high altitude spot near the equator! 

* A comparison of the four Olympic sports that use goals (soccer, water polo, field hockey & handball).

...& many more!

 Perhaps there's a bit too much arcane math but you can just skip those parts! (OR if you ARE a math buff, there's even more complicated formulas in the note section at the end!)

I love dogs.  I love all of them; big or little, sleek or scruffy, frantic or mellow.  So of course I had to check out this new book of dog photographs, and boy, it's a hoot!  The premise is simple: position yourself and your camera in a pool, chuck in a ball, and start snapping photos when the happy pup hits the water.  That's it; hilarious, adorable, beautiful, and eye opening.  It's well worth a look.

Seth Casteel mainly photographs pets, although he does showcase wild animals, too.  His photos have been shown in National Geographic , the New York Times, and others, and he's appeared on TV in Good Morning America, Duck Dynasty, and more.  He also takes pictures of homeless pets to help them find families; a worthy cause if ever there was one. 

Before attempting another vegetable garden, it's best to be prepared for potential disaster.  In What's Wrong With My Vegetable Garden? I may have found the weapons I need to fight off pests and disease.  David Deardorff and Kathryn Wadsworth, local gardening experts, have produced a visual guide to help identify common problems plaguing vegetable gardens. They offer 100% organic solutions to solve these problems and eliminate pests and diseases, from deer to fungi.  The solution is to create gardens that replicate the natural environment and take advantage of nature's resources to make our plantings healthy and vibrant.

Up-close photos of plant diseases (rot, wilting, mold, spots) and pests (cutworms, aphids, stink bugs, etc.) provide a handy guide to figuring out what's wrong, and what to do about each of these.  Temperature, soil, light, and water are the key ingedients that must be addressed in the overall success of your garden.  Safe, nontoxic solutions recommended include soil modification, pest barriers, plant rotation, mulch, beneficial insects, and many others. Also consider mixing flowers and vegetables together in a "polyculture garden" which discourages pests by making it more difficult for dieases to jump from plant to plant.

Keeping these tips and solutions in mind, it's that time of year again - time to dig in, plant, and nurture those seeds into that bountiful garden you know you can produce! 

Oh, you lovers of words AND travel, have we got the book for you! You may have enjoyed past blog entries for logophiles and globetrotters but now here's a book to combine the two passions!

Sacher has collected curses & threats in at least a dozen a different languages, both foul and colorful -- including phonetic pronunciation so you can make sure you're saying it correctly!

It is hard to quote much from this book without getting too obscene, but simply listing some of the chapter titles gives some hint of what's in store:

* The Motherlode

* The World's Best Idiomatic Insults and Oaths

* Animals Around the World

* Curses and Maledictions

* Fighting Words

* Global Scatology 101 and Naughty Bits

So, for instance -- to choose from some of the less profane examples -- if you were in Portugal and you wanted someone to stop bothering you, instead of "Get lost!" you might say "Go comb a monkey's hair!"

And if you have a useless, impossible task in Russia, you might refer to it as "like throwing peas against the wall!" 

And if you think your Norwegian friend is acting crazy, you could say, "Have you been smoking your socks?!"

Or, one way to insult an Arabic speaker is by saying, "He deserves to be hit by 60 shoes!"

Fortunately, the book contains a final chapter, or Epilogue, with parting words: all the ways to say "I am sorry" in many different languages! 

Now, enough of this: go wash your mouth out with soap!

1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die.

Are there days when you are looking for a good book and just can't find anything?  Or are you looking for a fantastic book to suggest to your book group that illustrates how erudite you are?  Well, 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die is a book you will want to peruse.  One really wouldn't sit down and read it straight through, I didn't.  I have enjoyed 1001 Books...by just letting the book fall open to a page and then read what's there.  I mentioned this title in an earlier blog when I was having trouble deciding what to choose and the book fell open to one of my favorite books A Town Like Alice; I considered it a sign.

1001 Books...is arranged by centuries, starting with pre-1700. The first was Aesop's Fables (first edition, 4 BCE) and the last book was published in 2005, Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro.  The books were chosen because someone thought they were worth mentioning.  Each 300 word criticism is initialed by one of the 107 international critics (mainly British).  The editor states that the 300 word limit makes an intense entreaty as to why each title is a compelling read.  He also states that like the Arabic tales of A Thousand and One Nights, there is an urgency to get everything read before it is too late and at the same time a reader realizes that he/she will never have everything read.

The format is very attractive; there are many pictures of the authors, book covers and pictures from the movies.

As for myself I have only read 45 of the titles in this book! What I have I been reading?  Check my other entries in this Book Blog or come into the library and ask me.

You're no doubt familiar with those 'who-done-it' mysteries -- call this a 'where-done-it' -- with big glossy photos of 100 classic sites around the globe. You need no passport: just sit down and become engrossed by all these amazing places around the planet.

All the obvious choices are here, from Egypt's pyramids to Easter Island, Shakespeare's Globe theatre & China's Forbidden City, Angkor Wat to Gettysburg. But there are more unusual choices too, because, think about it: these choices are not made according to the prettiest or most amazing sites, but simply civilization's MOST Important! What sites would YOU choose?

Time magazine has, thus, picked such non-obvious sites as Jefferson's Virginia, Antarctica's McMurdo Station, the Bauhaus school in Germany and the Svalbard Global Seed Vault on the far northern Norwegian island of Spitsbergen, which shelters samples of seeds from plants around the world!

And these are broken down into distinctive categories, such as: Cultures, Religion, Politics, Battles, Inquiry, Innovation and Arts.

Oh, and what is the latest and last on this global list of 100?!

Why, how about Nevada's annual gathering of crazies at Burning Man?! 

Georgette Heyer is my absolute favorite author--I own all 55 of her books. I even have hardbacks and paperbacks of the same title.  (For reading at home and for travelling).  I have my favorites of course; in fact my first blog review in November 2008 was my absolute favorite Georgette Heyer book, The Talisman Ring.

So...I was very pleased to find a biography of my absolute favorite author. I read it all in one sitting and discovered Georgette Heyer and I would not have been friends.  That was a big shock to me.  How could anyone who writes such sparkling repartee between her characters and makes the most ignoble characters funny or even likeable, be so unfriendly and anti-fan?  She would not grant interviews and responded rarely to fan letters.  Guess I should know that authors are not their creations.  Jennifer Kloester said that Georgette could be emotionally unaware.  To me that is pretty damning.  One needs to be aware of the feelings and emotions of the people you love.  And I didn't see that unawareness in her writing.   Still the biography Georgette Heyer is a fascinating, in depth, I could even say in a couple of places nit-picking (although Georgette would never use that term), study of one of the best-loved and bestselling authors.  I can say bestselling because all of her books are still in print and the first one was printed in 1921.  And she is credited with being the originator of the genre Regency romances, obviously another favorite read of mine.  If you enjoy regency novels and have an interest in that era, plus have an interest in the Edwardian Era (a heads up to Downton Abbey fans) you could very well enjoy reading about the life and times of Georgette Heyer.  I did although I am disappointed that she probably wouldn't have laughed at my jokes.

 
Nowadays we don't think about what we drink apart from deciding if we'd rather have tea or coffee after dinner, or the best wine to serve with salmon.  We're surrounded by an embarrassment of beverage choices and the chance to try them all if so inclined, but this plethora of riches has been built up slowly over the centuries and you'd be surprised to discover the long arc of drink history as well as some of the controversies from the past.  Water was, of course, the first liquid of import and is still causing some consternation, but author Tom Standage has chosen to focus on six drinks that revolutionized their time and changed our societies.

Beer - Its exact origin is unknown, but beer has been known to humans since at least 4000 BCE and likely much earlier.  Because it was brewed from the same grains used in bread, in many early cultures the written symbols for beer and bread were the same.  Both were considered necessary for life and health and beer was often used as a form of payment.  It was brewed in big tubs and stored in large vessels and became important as a social drink; pictograms often showed two people sitting together and using straws to drink from the same vessel.

Wine - Like beer, wine has been around since before 4000 BCE in ancient Persia and coincided with the invention of pottery.  It's consumption spread quickly through Mediterranean cultures, although it was mainly available only to the wealthy, and reached a pinnacle in Greek society with the creation of formal drinking parties, called symposia, in which attendees attempted to outdo each other in wit, poetry, or rhetoric. 

Spirits - Distillation of spirits was first perfected in the Arab world and quickly spread through Europe, and then to the New World as trade crossed the Atlantic Ocean.  Spirits transported better because more could be packed into a smaller space and it contained a higher alcohol content, which resisted spoilage.  Rum soon became the spirit of choice in the Caribbean, and then America, because it could be made from the leftovers of sugar production, molasses.   

Coffee - Coffee took Europe by storm in the late 17th century.  As an alternative to beer or wine it created a populace that was alert and stimulated, rather than slightly inebriated.  Plus, since it was made with boiled water people's health vastly improved, which quickly led to increased innovation and production.  Coffeehouses became hotbeds of gossip, business, politics, and scientific exploration.

Tea - The discovery of tea is lost in antiquity, although it is believed prehistoric people chewed the leaves for their stimulating properties and rubbed them on wounds for their healing effect.  Tea had a huge impact on Chinese culture for many centuries, even to the point of being used for currency in the form of bricks.  The ceremony of taking tea became vastly elaborate throughout China, but reached its pinnacle in Japan with rules governing everything from the placement of the utensils to appropriate conversational topics.  Great Britain embraced tea in the 18th century and has not let go, and tea has become a well-known symbol of British life.

Coca-Cola - In 1767 an English clergyman and scientist named Joseph Priestly discovered how to use "fixed air" to create fizzy water, and thus carbonation was born.  Coca-Cola itself was invented in Atlanta, Georgia, in May 1886 and quickly became a hit, partly due to the excellent timing of an alcohol prohibition.  Its rise has been meteoric and global ever since.  During the Cold War Eastern Bloc communists denounced Coca-Cola as an evil icon of capitalism, consumerism, and American culture.

These are just a few fascinating tidbits to get you started, but the book is full of many more fun and interesting details.  I enjoyed listening to the audio version, read by Audiofile Earphones Award winner Sean Runnette, but I also checked out the book to have a gander at the quotations and pictures.

Happy Valentine's Day! Ah, but you may think that romance and libraries don't mix well at all yet here is whole book about the phenomenon! Begun as a website (now seemingly dormant) the many true stories gathered online were easily converted into this handy volume.

And Madeleine has organized these tales into a wide range of categories, with chapters of little vignettes by real people (though often using pseudonyms).

You can read about love blooming:

*  at the reference desk

* in library school

* at library conferences

* in public libraries (of course!)

and even on bookmobiles [blush!] and something called "Interlibrary Romance"!

Now, everyone sing along with that classic Jimmy Buffett number:

"Love in the library, quiet and cool

Love in the library, there are no rules

Surrounded by stories surreal and sublime

 I fell in love in the library once upon a time.

 
I was the pirate and she was the queen

Sir Francis and Elizabeth the best there's ever been

Then she strolled past my table and stopped at the stairs

 Then sent me a smile as she reached for Flaubert..."

Are you a trivia buff? If so, then you will no doubt get a kick out of this clever volume full of all the answers to questions you thought were easy and obvious (but are actually wrong!) Like, for instance:

What is the tallest mountain in the world?¹

How many nostrils do you have?²

How much of the earth is water?³

How many U.S. states are there?⁴

What is the longest animal?⁵

Where were the first modern Olympics held?⁶

PLUS, in addition to a conventional foreword (by actor and author Stephen Fry) there is also

"Four Words" by Alan Davies, which consists in its entirety of -- and I hope I'm not spoiling this for anyone -- "Will this do, Stephen?" 

!

And once you're done with that book, then check out the sequel, titled, amazingly enough: The Second book of General ignorance: everything you think you know is (still) wrong.

  Oh, and the answers to those queries above?:

¹ Not Mt. Everest but Hawaii's Mauna Kea which begins some 20,000 feet below the ocean's surface (to add to its 13,799 feet above the sea)!