Did you ever dream of something you’d like to do/be other than who you are?
One of my dreams is that I can lay in my Nicaraguan (huge!) hammock, and swing near my pond, while reading the, oh… 300 books that are sitting and calling out to me that I bought because I love reading and words and ideas and I haven’t yet gotten to because I’m so busy writing the darn things. These book are enticing me: books about how brains work, and how words and ideas create change. Maybe a novel by John Banville (Read the Man Booker Prize-winning The Sea if you want to read one of literature’s great wordsmith’s.The way he uses words will change your life.). Maybe a book by Len Shlain – The Alphabet Versus the Goddess, so I can understand the root of our language. I dream of the time I’m retired so I can take 100 books up to Alaska, and read by day and watch the northern lights. Hmmmmmm.
So Reg has my job – and my life. He lives in beautiful Vancouver, he’s working in marketing (OK. That’s the life I have now…), he’s a contrarian, and is a ballroom dancer (How many of you know I’m a dancer?).
But the real reason I am jealous of Reg is because he gets to read every day. Using the excuse that he’s doing book reviews (Great excuse, Reg), he gets superb books sent to him so he can review them. And what a good job he does: he knows how to get to the meat of the book in simple language, and makes me want to read them – even if i didn’t think I’d have interest.
And he’s not afraid to be nasty – pointing the finger at folks who are harming the earth and people, saying what he believes needs to be said. He’s got a wide range of topics although he specializes in marketing/sales books. When I asked if he’d review my new book The Dirty Little Secret: why buyers can’t buy and sellers can’t sell and what to do about it that is coming out in September, he wanted to make sure he had enough time to really read it, saying (I’m going to brag a bit here…): “I am a speed reader – but your books need savoring, too much good content to speed through them.”
Oh. Forgot: he runs a sales/marketing consulting company in his spare time. And he truly, deeply, cares about people, and the earth, and integrity. And he’s smart.
Check out his stuff. Reg is one of the good guys. And if you have a book you want him to review – if it’s good and worthy of his heart and brain – ask him if he’ll review it. It will give him an excuse to take another afternoon off, reading a good book. And hopefully, soon, I can do the same.