Training For The Mind

Hi All,

I wanted to share with all of you some amazing books I have read over the past few years that I think many of you would enjoy. I decided to start keeping a log of my reading list when I began in earnest to write my book near the end of 2012. I read everything I could get my hands on about How to be a Writer, and one tip that kept coming up again and again was that writers read A LOT! Well, I take training seriously, so if I wanted to be a writer, I had to read more.

 

I read fifteen books in 2013, and thirty-nine last year, but I decided to up the ante for 2015 and set a new reading challenge. The challenge was to read fifty books in one year. One of the minimal perks to our neighborhood is that we live a few blocks away from a public library. I have enjoyed many an afternoon trolling the aisles of our local Biblioteca searching for as many free reads as my arms could carry. Therefore, I knew with some fortitude and diligence I could accomplish this goal with out bleeding our bank account. I kicked off my challenge on the first Monday of the year, January 5th. Guess what? I read my first fifty by the middle of July.

Moreover, I know that reading has in fact done wonders for my writing, even though it has obliterated my television knowledge. Oh, well. I will take words on a page over a screen blaring at my eyeballs any day of the week. 

As promised, following is a list of my favorite recent reads organized in categories.

 

 

Motivational:

 

The Secret Race: Inside The Hidden World of the Tour de France: Doping, Cover-Ups, and Winning at All Costs.

Authors: Tyler Hamilton and Daniel Coyle

Run Or Die

Author: Kilian Jornet

David and Goliath

Author: Malcolm Gladwell

Drive

Author: Daniel Pink

Talk Like TED: The 9 Public Speaking Secrets of the World’s Top Minds

Author: Carmine Gallo

Turning Pro:

Author: Steven Pressman

Relentless: From Good to Great to Unstoppable

Author: Tim Grover

Mile Markers

Author: Kristen Armstrong

Finding Ultra

Author: Rich Roll

Running And Being

Author: George Sheehan

 

Memoir:

What Remains: A Memoir of Fate, Friendship and Love

Author: Carole Radziwill

Running On Empty: An Ultramarathoner’s Story of love, Loss and a Record-Setting Run Across America

Author: Marshall Ulrich

The Summit Seeker

Author: Vanessa Runs

Going Off Script

Author: Giuliana Rancic

True Love

Author: Jennifer Lopez

A Bloody Valentine

Author: Anthony Bourdain

Restaurant Man

Author: Joe Bastianich

My Foot Is Too Big For the Glass Slipper

Author: Gabrielle Reece

This Is A Story of a Happy Marriage

Author: Ann Patchett

The Big Tiny: A Built It myself Memoir

Author: Dee Williams

 

Humor:

 

Why Not Me?

Author: mindy Kaling

I Can Barely Take Care of Myself

Author: Jen kirkman

Uganda to be Kidding Me

Author: Chelsea Handler (All of her books are hysterical!)

Yes, Please

Author: Amy Poehler

The Andy Cohen Diaries

Author: Andy Cohen

Me Talk Pretty One Day

Author: David Sedaris

Man Made: In Which a Dad Learns To Be A Man For His Son

Author: Joel Stein

How To Succeed In Business Without Really Crying

Author: Carol Leifer

I Such At Relations So You Don’t Have To

Author: Bethany Frankel

Bossypants

Author: Tina Fey

If this feature is a hit, I will follow up with more of my top picks.

Enjoy!!