For the past four years I’ve made “read one non-fiction book per month” a yearly goal in the hope that in the future it will become a habit and I won’t need to make a formal goal out of it.

It has been an iterative process. The first year I ended with reading around 6 books. The next year it was closer to 12.  On the last day of January I had 120 pages left in book #2. The good news was that that I had already finished 650 pages combined of book #1 and book #2.

The purpose of the goal isn’t to just churn out pages read, but to do something with the knowledge in those books. Here are three reasons this goal is important to me:

“Work for the job you want, not the job you have.”

In your current job or life phase you may not yet be in a leadership position, or have several employees reporting to you, or direct a large annual budget. One day you will be promoted to positions of greater responsibility and now is the time to start building the foundation of wisdom that will help you when you’re called upon to do something great.

I haven’t been in the position to sell my business, but reading John Warrillow’s “Built to Sell” allowed me to follow along with an allegorical story of a man burnt out with his current business model and the process he took to reinvent it in a way that he was able to sell it. It also challenged me by making me rethink how I run Grow Development.

Technology Moves Fast
In my industry things change fast. Each month new development techniques are invented and new technologies replace the old way of doing things.

I need to have the ability to digest information quickly and make judgements on what is useful and what is not.

A year ago the term “responsive design” didn’t register on the radar of many people in my industry. Reading Ethan Marcotte’s “Responsive Web Design” allowed me to understand the development methodology and strategy for this movement and how it applies to my business

Getting Social

On the Myers-Briggs scale I’m an ENTJ. Very extrovert. I get energy from being around others. This is difficult to balance with being a sole proprietor and having an office with little iteration with others. As an extension of the book goal, and in combination with a goal of building strong friendships, I decided to start a mens book club.

A motivation for this was watching Amanda run a women’s book club for over two years. The ladies involved have forged a strong group that enjoys getting together and having focused discussion about the monthly book selection.

The first book selection was a no-brainer.  Several of the guys that I invited received the Steve Jobs biography so I chose it as the first month selection.

I’m looking forward to seeing how my book list for the year evolves and to how the book club grows.

Do you have any book-related goals for this year?  How do you find new and interesting books to read?

“Ready Player One” by Ernest Cline

I heard about Ready Player One on a TWIT episode referencing the Sword and Laser podcast so I added it to my To Read bookshelf.  Then Amanda grabbed it from the library for me a few weeks ago!

The book is packed with 80′s pop culture references, video game sub plots, and sci-fi goodness.  Looking forward to it.

I had heard Dave Ramsey mention this book when he listed out recommended reading for his employees and leadership team.  Then this past Christmas I received it in the mail as a gift for being a Financial Peace University coordinator.  (Thanks FPU team!)

In one story two Earth Men are discussing the Mars Martians. Spencer explains his view of the Martians to his Captain.

Captain: “It sounds as if the Martians were quite naive.”

Spencer: “Only when it paid to be naive. They quit trying too hard to destroy everything, to humble everything. They blended religion and art and science because, at base, science is no more than an investigation of a miracle we can never explain, and art is an interpretation of that miracle. They never let science crush the aesthetic and the beautiful. It’s all simply a matter of degree. An Earth Man thinks: ‘In that picture, color does not exist, really. A scientist can prove that color is the way the cells are placed in a certain material to reflect light. Therefore, color is not really an actual part of things I happen to see.’ A Martian, far cleverer, would say: ‘This is a fine picture. It came from the hand and the mind of a man inspired. Its idea and color are from life. This thing is good.’ ”

I love that explanation of how religion, science, and art can all co-exist. Science is an investigation of God’s miracle and art is an interpretation of God’s miracle.

I also lead a book club every month. Anyone is welcome to come. The next meeting is on Jan. 7th. We are reading “A Christmas Passage” by David Saperstein and George Samerjan this month. Please leave me a comment if you would like more details about the book club.

Some other books that looked interesting this month:

- The Christmas List, by Richard Paul Evans - This author puts out a Christmas book every year. This book is a story of redemption and a new twist on the classic tale of A Christmas Carol. The book club couldn’t decide between this book and the one we did choose.

- Home In Time for Christmas by Heather Graham – A cheesy Christmas romantic book about a woman who picks up a man who thinks he is from the Revolutionary War on the way to her parents house on Christmas Eve. They have this one at the library and I am totally going to read it.