The Three Book Diet – Can I Make It Work In 2013?

My desk with Take Me To Truth on it!As usual for a Sunday morning, Chris Brogan has gotten me thinking. Thinking about Indigo Girl and what the business and I need to focus in on for 2013. Today he’s challenged us to a Thee Book Diet (#3DB). The concept revolves around the fact that we are in an age of information overwhelm. We read vast amounts of material. We skim it, rush through it and rarely revisit it. So, how much of that information do we actually absorb and put into practice?

It’s a good point well made. The challenge is to pick three important books to read between November 2012 and November 2013, and read only those. Read them, reread them, absorb what they are trying to teach and adapt that learning to our daily lives.

This will be a difficult challenge for me as I always have multiple books on the go for business and for pleasure, but it struck me today that the books that I have in various stages of reading are contributing to the clutter in my mind. It’s something that I need to address. So, I’m going to take up the challenge and this blog is going to keep me honest!

It’s taken quite a bit of thought this morning but after a great deal of soul searching here are the three books on my shortlist. They won’t be final until 1st November – I’m open to suggestions – feel free to poke holes in my choices 🙂

These aren’t affiliate links, so feel free to click through for more info about the books!

Steven Pressfield writes brilliant books in the self-help genre – Do the work and The War of Art have probably been the most useful books to me during my career as a professional writer. I haven’t read anything along these lines recently, and I am pretty sure that my process and attitude could do with a little readjustment. It’s a lifelong learning process, and I could do with being taken out of my comfort zone.

I’ve been trying to read this book by Nouk Sanchez and Tomas Viera since 2008. I’ve gotten to page 40 on several occasions! It’s a challenging book that delves deeply into our belief systems and helps you unravel and release the ego. A dear friend, Ron Rink, who passed away this year, recommended the book to me. I dearly miss his wisdom and counsel. It’s time to put the work in on this particular subject. Ron was an inspiration and a good man – his writings can be found here, here and here.

This is a bit of a no brainer. It doesn’t come out until 25th October. It’s Chris Brogan and Julien Smith’s latest book. Content creation and digital marketing are a big part of my business these days so this seems like a good fit.

The thing that worries me is whether these books are varied enough.  I might switch out The Impact Equation for Ctrl Alt Delete – by Mitch Joel that comes out in May. It might align better with what I am going to focus on in 2013 – the Indigo Girl business model and ongoing expansion.

What do you think of the Three Book Diet concept and which three books would you chose? I’d love your thoughts and advice why not share them in the comments section.

 

Kittie Walker

Born and bred in London, I have a decades-long background in business management working for an international investment bank. In 2007, I left the corporate sector and founded my own company, wanting to provide the kind of services that I’d always felt small business really needed; someone on their own level who’s been there themselves and faced the problems. I love seeing the people I work with succeed in their endeavours. That’s my favourite reward of all.

11 Comments

  1. Sherry Nouraini on October 16, 2012 at 4:05 am

    Interesting list of books Kittie! Isn’t it amazing that we keep having to reset our habits to get back on track? Thanks to great books that help us do that! I am going to keep an eye on the publication of the new books you mentioned, they sound intriguing.

    • Kittie Walker on October 16, 2012 at 7:55 am

      Hey Sherry! Thanks for stopping by. What are you reading at the moment anything good?

  2. Keri on October 16, 2012 at 3:42 pm

    Kittie,

    I’m so excited about about this for you! You seem to be making great strides, and your focus is something I hope rubs off…..but most importantly, continues to work for you.

    These books all look perfect for you. I’m curious how you’ll choose in May.

    You rock,

    ~Keri

    • Kittie Walker on October 18, 2012 at 10:34 am

      Keri

      It is all about focusing and de-cluttering for me at the moment. I’m not sure how I am going to make that decision come next May lol!

      Kittie

  3. Mallie Hart on October 17, 2012 at 9:34 pm

    While I’ll be cheering you on in your endeavor, I won’t be joining in. I don’t feel overwhelmed or overloaded when I read, and I don’t skim, though I read quickly (books…of course I skim articles while working and content curating). Reading is part of who I am, business books to works of fiction, they shape my thoughts, my vocabulary and fine tune my focus often, rather then for the long haul.

    • Kittie Walker on October 18, 2012 at 10:47 am

      Hey Mallie

      Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to comment. I don’t feel overwhelmed or overloaded when I read either!

      I tend to have six or seven books on the go at a time. Like you I read for business purposes and for pleasure, but what this challenge has made me realise is that I have become far less discerning about what I read. Because of that I think I am diluting my potential learning possibilities. Overconsumption of anything is not generally a good thing.

      I’m not convinced that I can strip it down to just the three books, my work simply won’t allow it, but what I aim to do is take those three books and read them thoroughly, reflect on them and then read them a couple more times.

      I’m interested to see how this experiment pans out and whether or not there are any benefits to changing my current habits. I shan’t know until I try!

      Kittie

  4. Barbara on October 18, 2012 at 8:11 am

    Hi Kittie!

    What a challenge, this is like a vow of chastity! I love to read from rather frivolous fiction over self-help to cook books but I can understand that you want to reduce the clutter in your mind and focus on what’s important and vital. But maybe this is a catch 22?

    • Kittie Walker on October 18, 2012 at 10:50 am

      Hey Barbara!

      It is a bit like a vow of chastity, I hadn’t thought of it that way! It is definitely catch 22… not sure where this journey is going to take me. It might not work it might be a total failure, but I’m a firm believer in challenging the way in which I do things so that I can constantly improve. We learn such a lot even in failure.

      /hugs

      Kittie

  5. Klaudia on October 18, 2012 at 7:02 pm

    Kittie,

    Interesting post, thank you for sharing. I like that the Three Book Diet concept for 2013 by Chris Brogan.
    Interesting set of book you choose. I thought of joining that idea and then….I still have a question: why not more books, every month there is new/old (but new for us) book available. So my list for 2013 is bigger than 3 but as an example of book that I read again every year (since 2005) is “The art of war” by Sun Tzu.

    • Kittie Walker on October 18, 2012 at 7:49 pm

      Hey Klaudia!

      It’s true, I agree that three seems a very low number. I already had more than that on my list to read! But I’ll give it a go and see if it focuses my mind. What have you got on your list for 2013?

      Gosh I haven’t read “The art of war” for years and years. It is one that is certainly worth reading again.

      Thanks for sharing your thoughts 🙂

  6. […] audience to read just three books from November 2012 until the end of October 2013. I’ve chosen three books to concentrate on; you can check them out if you’re […]

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