- Return to the Center by Bede Griffiths
- This helped me become better aware of a connect ion with spirituality. Stepping back from the world allows us to see it anew in all its beauty.
- Year in Provence by Peter Mayle
- Learning to live in rural Provence (France), Mayle takes the reader on a series of adventures. I love how the home renovation project becomes a running theme throughout the book. What most of us think are straightforward tasks are anything but in this book. However, Mayle takes it all in stride with great humor. One can read it multiple times and still enjoy every word.
- Essentialism by Greg McKeown
- This is going to be a classic for the 8020 librarian blog. Learning how to reign in over-commitment and focusing on only the most important things that yield the biggest positive results. It will be getting its own blog post in the near future here.
- This book has inspired me to develop a new mantra for the 8020 librarian blog which is comprised of the 4 points cited below.
- Everything is not important.
- Only a few things truly have major importance.
- Find out what those few things are.
- Focus on doing just those few things very well.
- Rest by Alex Soojung-Kim Pang
- This book debunks the workaholic culture and offers us an antidote to burnout. If Winston Churchill found the time to take naps during World War II, then we can all find ways to rest and refresh. At times the breaks we take are just as important as the work we do.
- Crucible Leadership by Steven Bell
- This is going to be one of the most important books of all time in the library industry. Bell has 15 different library leaders each writing their own chapter on leadership. I did not read every single chapter. Rather I skimmed to find the leaders that most interested me and spoke to where I feel I am at professionally right now. Then I just read those chapters that those library leaders wrote. The book definitely deserves to get its own blog post here on the 8020 librarian.
- The most interesting leader for me was Kenley Neufeld who is currently Dean of Educational Programs at Santa Barbara City College and a mindfulness teacher in the Plum Village tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh. I am coming to believe in the power of meditative practices and Neufled does a good job of articulating how mindfulness has helped him in this personal and professional life.
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