Recommended Reads

I realized it's been almost a year since I've shared my non-libr* reading with you, so I thought it was high time. Here are some things I've read lately that fall outside library science that I recommend highly.

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The first up is Manage Your Day-to-Day: Build Your Routine, Find Your Focus, and Sharpen Your Creative Mind from 99u. I've written before about how  helpful I find that website and their blog posts, but this is a book with all that super practical advice for putting your ideas into action all in one place (well, not all of it, but a lot). It has short chapters with actionable advice for a variety of situations. I love this book so much I bought a copy for myself so I wouldn't have to steal the copy I borrowed from our library consortium. This is actually the first in a series of similarly practical books from 99u. I've been pushing Manage Your Day-to-Day on others already, and everyone has come back with good things to say.

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The second book is more about emotions than the first but it can help practical decision making. The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are was hard to read in some ways, since the drive for perfection hasn't been an easy thing for me to abandon. On the other hand, letting go is worth it. After reading this book, I'm usually capable of believing that done is better than perfect. Also, playing to and working with my strengths is a much better use of my time than trying to be all things to all people. I know all fields have these issues, but I think embracing our mistakes is particularly hard for librarians. I recommend everyone read this. Really. Everyone. 

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A new to me blog, Just Visiting, has me thinking lots of thinks since I discovered it. The author, John Warner, has the laudable (at least to a librarian) Twitter handle, @biblioracle. I find his observations about navigating academe as a visiting college instructor useful when applied to my own situation, despite the difference in our positions. In fact, there's at least one - if not two - blog posts I'm contemplating writing in response to his. 

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Finally, this is one I'm still reading, but so far it's fabulous. Cooking for Geeks: Real Science, Great Hacks, and Good Food published by O'Reilly Media and written by Jeff Potter is exactly what you'd expect from a book with that title. There are lots of geek jokes - I laughed 4 or 5 times during the preface alone. There's also lots of good science. This book feels like a natural successor to Good Eats. That show taught me to cook by showing me the science of food and this picks up where the show left off. I'm loving this book so far.

How about you? What have you been reading lately that you think everyone should read?