On Becoming a Superhero - Part 12: A Top 12 Reading List
March 15, 2020

    My favorite form of self-education is still through books – though, as I've said before, these days I do almost all of my "reading" through the Audible.com app on my phone, which is to say I listen to books rather than read them with my eyes.  (These days, I reserve my eyes for professional reading and research only.)  But this new delivery system has not, in my estimation, changed the value of reading for me – that is, its capacity to draw me forward on my wisdom-seeking journey. 

    It has changed my experience of reading somewhat.  I had always been a very visual learner before my first baby came along.  And let's just say the switch to a listening mode, with the necessary ramping up of my latent audio-processing skills, was a bit of a rocky adjustment.  But I got there eventually.  I will also note here that I personally find I listen differently – and my mind wanders differently – when I'm listening to fiction versus non-fiction, or more broadly, to narrative (fiction or no) versus explanation and analysis.  I suspect it has something to do with the fact that our human brains are wired for narrative at a far deeper level than for analytic thought – a phenomenon discussed at length in Danial Kahneman's Thinking, Fast and Slow (2011), recommended below.  And the difference is this, for me: I sometimes find it harder to crack into a narrative, especially one that begins with descriptive scene-setting, because I know the details of the scene are important keys to the narrative, and it's easy to miss those when I'm "only" listening.  But once I'm "in" the world of the narrative, the story – if it's a good one, and well done – sweeps me along, with little effort on my part.  Non-narrative nonfiction is easier to get in and out of, in my experience.  But this means I end up having to back it up and listen to sections several times, if my mind wanders or I'm just not grasping the discussion.  I use the 30-second re-wind button on the Audible app a lot. 

    So that's just a friendly tip for fellow travelers.  But if you've not yet set out on your superhero's journey – or you'd like to be more purposeful or focused about the journey you're on –  I offer the following list of books as a place to start.  

    A word about this list.  Well, actually, first a word about my earlier lists or book references:  I have previously noted some of the most important, influential, and enjoyable books that I read in my "inter-degree" years, the six years between undergrad and law school when I was teaching in high school settings.  Those were not exhaustive lists, but rather a sort of "greatest hits" compilation, although not given in any particular rank or chronological order.  

    I take the same approach here, but I'm limiting myself to the best books I have read in the ten years since I graduated from law school.  These are not all self-help books – in fact, most of them are not explicitly so.  Recall that I try to take in a balanced diet of social science, economics, biography, fiction, social criticism, and philosophy, as well as books in the inspirational, spiritual, or "self-help" genre.  So this list runs that gamut.  It is also highly idiosyncratic.  These are books that have called out to me for one reason or another: sometimes it was on the recommendation of a friend, sometimes it was just the topic that interested me, sometimes it was a book review I heard on NPR, saw in my social media feed, or otherwise just found floating around in the buzzy air we bookish types breathe.  In one case, the author was, and is, a personal friend and mentor.  Because I'm extraordinarily picky about my reading selections, I usually wait for at least three signals from the universe directing me toward a particular book before it makes my queue of upcoming books.  I make exceptions for books given or recommended to me by friends whose judgment about books I believe mirrors mine.  Approximately five such people exist, which probably makes me a straight-up book snob.  Please forgive me. 

    All of this is to say, this list is necessarily partial and quirky – but well curated.  So if you just need a jump start on your journey of self-education, a few of these might be of interest to you (as well as some of those previously listed in earlier entries).  I will list my Top 12 here – again, there's no particular rank order among these twelve.  Then I will give a brief synopsis of each one, in batches over the next two or three entries.  Then, I will provide my "B List" – really quality books I've read in the last 10 years that didn't quite make the Top 12.  Here you go:

    Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman (2011)

    Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty (2014)

    The Guernsy Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows (2008)

    All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr (2014)

    The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (1938)

    Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson (2011)

    Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power by Jon Meacham (2012)

    The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture by Wendell Berry (1977)

    Family Planting: A Farm-Fed Philosophy of Human Relations by Kimerer L. LaMothe (2011)

    The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan (2006)

    Rising Strong: How the Ability to Reset Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead by              Brene Brown (2015)

    12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos by Jordan B. Peterson (2018)