I am not only a writer; I also like to identify as an avid reader. I love reading across several genres of books. And for some time, I have taken it as a personal resolution to ensure that I substitute the time I spend on social media and television for books. Because of that, I spend a lot of my leisure time reading books.

Furthermore, because I am the director of a book club; and because of the time afforded to me as a result of the strike, I have had a lot of time to burrow into books and spend a lot of my time tapping into different sources of information.

Here are the books that I read in this past month of April.

1.     The Productivity Project by Chris Bailey:

This book was written by a man who, after college, decided to reject two job offers in order to pursue his passion for productivity. He then decided to dedicate a year to conducting different productivity projects, which he documented in his blog, once titled ‘A Year of Productivity’ and now called ‘A Life of Productivity’. While he writes on most of the experiments in his blog, in his book, he shares various tips that he learned throughout the time that he spent doing the year-long experiment.

 

Some of his most memorable tips are:

• Take some time off work to meditate and reflect to ensure that you are not working on autopilot.
• Ensure that you build up your attention muscle when working and protect it from external distractions so that you do not end up working longer; just to achieve less at the end.
• Cut down on the amount of time you spend on the internet and your devices.
• Ensure that you engage in single-tasking to build up attention muscles and carve out more attentional space around the task you are tackling at the moment.
• The food you eat plays a huge role in determining the energy that you have for the rest of the day, so ensure that you watch the food you eat daily. Eat more natural healthy foods and avoid stimulants like coffee or alcohol, or sugar.
• Exercise is vital in building up the energy that you have in a day and it also stimulates the brain so, incorporate exercise into your day etc.

The book was an easy and enjoyable read as the author used simple English and vivid illustrations, most from the experiments he carried out, to spice up his book. I found it a very enjoyable read and I would highly recommend the book to anyone who wishes to start his or her productivity journey.

 

2.     The Shallows by Nicholas Carr

In as much as the internet has some undeniable benefits; there has been a rise in authors who completely reject everything that the internet stands for, most basing their arguments on the new wave of internet addiction that seems to have swept through the entire planet and the fact that one of the core components of the internet, i.e. social media, has been one of the main factors that have led to the rise in narcissism and depression amongst the people of the world.

In this award-winning book, Nicholas Carr brings about a new perspective on the effects of the internet. And he argues that the move from the analogical to the digital has not just brought about a change in the way the world functions; it has also altered our brains.

 

According to the author, 

“Over the last few years, I have had an uncomfortable sense that someone or something has been tinkering with my brain, remapping my neural circuitry, reprogramming my memory. My mind isn’t going – so far as I can tell- but it’s changing.”

 

He then tells his stories of how, before the rise of the internet, he used to be able to immerse himself in lengthy books and articles but seems to have lost the ability to do so, and gives examples of several others who have suffered from the same issue as well.

 

He bases his arguments by talking about the rise of other technologies, such as the clock, and the map, and how they altered the way we as humans thought. For instance, with the rise of the clock came the rise of industrialization, as we as humans began to take strict note of the time and began to fashion our lives according to the tickings of the clock. This was unlike before, when we just lived and let the days pass on. 

 

According to the author, just as the rise of the map and now GPS has caused the part of the brain that is meant to be able to take note of spatial locations to shrink, he believes the internet has made us lose our abilities to concentrate and focus our attention, has rid us of our ability to make proper use of our memories, and has generally made us unable to do certain things that our predecessors learned how to do with their brains during the time before the internet. 

 

He knows that this will get worse, as the creators of computers and search engines are continually on the hunt to ensure that everything is made completely easy with the internet. But he warns that the easier way is not necessarily always the best.

 

The author warns that we should not allow the glories of technology to blind our inner watchdog to the possibility that we have numbed an essential part of ourselves.

The book was a very insightful one, but I have to admit that it was quite difficult to read as, unlike the books that I am used to, it was very scientific. Sometimes, the author also talked about things that I was not very interested in; even spent chapters giving historical facts that did not interest me in any way. But I do advise those who wish to read and tap from the vast knowledge contained in the book to do so.

 

3.     The Christian Life is Exciting by Demos Shakarian

I did not begin this book in April, but I read the last part of it and finished it by the end of April.

The book is a Bible course written by the founder of the Full Gospel Business Men Fellowship International, with twelve lessons dealing with topics such as commitment to Christ, the Dynamics of Faith, Prayer, Sharing Christ with the world, God, and His relationship to man, etc. 

It is an amazing book for anyone who wishes to begin the person’s journey with Christ on a solid foundation and I do recommend the book to all Christians, especially those who are looking for books that will aid them in their spiritual growth.

 

4.     Eat That Frog by Brian Tracy

This book deals with the issue of procrastination and the author says that the best way to effectively get rid of it and get things done is to ensure that every day, a person does the biggest and most important task(frog) first. According to him, if the first thing you do in a day is to eat a live frog, you can spend the rest of the day knowing that that is probably the worst thing that is going to happen to you all day long.

 

He offers other useful tips such as:

• Planning the day the night before so that your subconscious mind can work on the list all night long while you sleep.
• Think long-term when working and setting goals.
• There are only three core tasks that you do that contain most of the value you have to offer. Identify them and ensure that the bulk of your time goes into achieving them.
• Ensure you ask yourself three questions regularly to ensure that you focus on your biggest frog at all times

What are my highest value activities?

What can I and only I do that if done well, will make a real difference?

What is the most valuable use of my time right now?

• If you choose to procrastinate, ensure that you procrastinate on small tasks or low-value activities. Decide to either procrastinate on or delegate the activities that don’t make that much of a contribution to your life in favour of those that make more of a contribution to your life.

All in all, it was a simple and quite interesting book to read. If procrastination is something you have been battling for some time and you wish to overcome it, I would highly recommend this book.

 

5.     How Successful People Think by John Maxwell

This was the book that was reviewed by the book club that I manage. It was written by an American pastor whose main focus is on leadership and self-growth. 

According to the author of this book, the main thing that differentiates successful from unsuccessful people is the way they think and we have to work towards developing the sort of mindset and thinking the way that successful people think. He lists out some of the ways that successful people think. They think big, can focus and concentrate for a considerable period of time, are creative, are realistic when setting their goals, make use of strategies and plans to achieve the goals that they have set for themselves, understand the importance of having a community of thinkers, are generous, and do not flow in line with the popular thought patterns of others, etc.

It is a different book from the kinds that I usually prefer reading in that it does not do much to offer practical steps to take in my opinion. But it is a concise book and hence, was a good read for me.

 

6.     Amongst Ourselves by Tracy Alderman and Karen Marshall

If I were not studying law, I believe that I would have studied psychology and gone on to be a therapist. Right from time, I have always been interested in mental illnesses and what goes on in the minds of those who have the worst of the mental illnesses, the most absurd of them. 

Over the years, I have carried out my research to understand certain mental disorders like bipolar disorder, chronic depression, borderline personality disorder, etc, and one of my favourite ways of conducting research is reading books on the disorders.

This month, I decided to research Dissociative Identity Disorder which used to be known as Multiple Personality Disorder, a disorder that occurs when a person has two or more identities or personalities, each with its way of being. It is a response to trauma which usually occurs when a person is a child. More specifically, it occurs in individuals that have suffered from an extended period of abuse, such as ritual or cult abuse.

When a person dissociates, they leave their bodies to get away from the pain and trauma. When this defense is not strong enough to protect the person, different personalities emerge to handle the experience. These personalities allow the child to survive; in the sense that when the child is being harmed or experiencing traumatic episodes, the other personalities take the pain. This allows the child to return to their body after the bad things have happened without any awareness of what has occurred.

Now, DID is such a rare disorder that I have read that there are certain therapists and mental health professionals who do not even believe that such an illness exists. There are even others who believe that it is demon possession as I once used to think that it was.

It is a strange disorder and I am still trying to grasp how the human brain can go so far as to enable a person to create distinct fragmented personalities as a response to trauma. But I have to say; it has been interesting studying the disorder. 

The book was more of a manual written by two people on how both people with the disorder and those around them can handle it and while I would have preferred a novel as there were some parts of the book that I did not read because they were not for me, I have to say that I learnt a lot from the book. I still am not satisfied with the knowledge that I have gotten, so I am still going to read other books.

 

7.     The Selection Series by Kiera Cass

I did not want to add this here but oh well. This book series was somewhat of a guilty pleasure for me, enjoyable to read, but just a simple story written in simple writing with no true insights hidden in the wordings of the book. It definitely cannot be put within the ranks of Kafka’s works or those of Achebe but it was really exciting to read.

It has a Disneyesque storyline, written the simple way that Disney stories are written. The series follows a 17-year-old girl who is part of the 35 girls that have been chosen to participate in some sort of game that can be said to be similar to The Bachelor, in which the prince gets to select one of the girls to be the queen of the land.

As I said earlier, it is the sort of book that you know offers no real value but is so interesting, that you ignore some of the plot holes and just keep reading

The series has more than four books, about eight or so if you include the novellas, but I stopped after reading the first three books and a novella in the series.

 

As someone who is very interested in growing as an individual, I have found that reading books that expand over multiple genres is a great way to open my eyes and stimulate my brain. As a result, I would encourage anyone that wishes to grow to read vast and wide, expand your knowledge base, and make yourself a well rounded individual. I hope to squeeze out the time to read even more books by the end of this month.