WHERE USSSA MEMBERS SHARE THEIR LATEST OR ALL-TIME FAVORITE READS AND WHY! “ I am a Reader. Yes, a Reader with a capital “R”. ” BY BOB HUBBARD OWNER HUBBARD FAMILY SWIM SCHOOL
My preference is to read books, magazines, and newspapers. Things I can hold in my hands. I do read the NY Times and various news feeds online (Huffington Post, Slate, Politico, Yahoo, ESPN, etc.) I respect my friends and relatives who prefer audio versions of all of the above. I do have an Audible account but do not access it or podcasts very often. Why in the USSSA’s section on books do I go through all of those disclaimers? My encouragement to you today is not to read a book that I might recommend. It is to encourage you to read (or listen) voraciously. That means to read “a lot”. A little bit every day. There are currently seven (7) books on my bedside table: Two mysteries, Bruce Springsteen’s biography, Bill Gates on Climate Change, Origin Story, A Big History of Everything by David Christian, a book of poetry by Leonard Cohen, and a thought provoking book on the bible. I am struggling with the new information about Mr. Gates. It has impacted my enthusiasm for his new book. I am also working my way through an amazing history of the US These Truths by Jill Lepore, on Audible. My bookshelves have to be purged two or three times a year. The ladies at our local neighborhood bookstore know my name and that of our swim school. The local library and high schools welcome my bags of used books. Do I read every book that I buy? No! My rule is that if I get 30% into a book and am not enjoying it I put it down. As my family knows, I am reading multiple books, all at the same time. Sometimes I need a mindless mystery or a soothing passage from a book on meditation or some hard core new knowledge from a business writer or a historian.
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