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394. Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of NIKE

Rating:  ☆☆☆1/2

Recommended by:   Aubrey Shick

Author:   Phil Knight

Genre:    Nonfiction, Memoir, Business, Sports

400 pages, published April 26, 2016

Reading Format:  Audio Book

Summary

Shoe Dog is the memoir of Phil Knight, founder and still majority shareholder of Nike.  He shares the story of the founding and rise of Nike that went from importer of low cost Japanese athletic shoes to an iconic global company with sales north of $30 billion.

Quotes 

“Don’t tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results.”

 

“The cowards never started and the weak died along the way. That leaves us, ladies and gentlemen. Us.”

 

“I’d tell men and women in their midtwenties not to settle for a job or a profession or even a career. Seek a calling. Even if you don’t know what that means, seek it. If you’re following your calling, the fatigue will be easier to bear, the disappointments will be fuel, the highs will be like nothing you’ve ever felt.”

 

“Life is growth. You grow or you die.”

 

“So that morning in 1962 I told myself: Let everyone else call your idea crazy . . . just keep going. Don’t stop. Don’t even think about stopping until you get there, and don’t give much thought to where “there” is. Whatever comes, just don’t stop.”

 

“Like books, sports give people a sense of having lived other lives, of taking part in other people’s victories. And defeats. When sports are at their best, the spirit of the fan merges with the spirit of the athlete.”

 

“I wanted what everyone wants. To be me, full-time.”

 

“Beating the competition is relatively easy. Beating yourself is a never-ending commitment.”

 

“And those who urge entrepreneurs to never give up? Charlatans. Sometimes you have to give up. Sometimes knowing when to give up, when to try something else, is genius. Giving up doesn’t mean stopping. Don’t ever stop. Luck plays a big role. Yes, I’d like to publicly acknowledge the power of luck. Athletes get lucky, poets get lucky, businesses get lucky. Hard work is critical, a good team is essential, brains and determination are invaluable, but luck may decide the outcome. Some people might not call it luck. They might call it Tao, or Logos, or Jñāna, or Dharma. Or Spirit. Or God.”

 

“What if there were a way, without being an athlete, to feel what athletes feel? To play all the time, instead of working? Or else to enjoy work so much that it becomes essentially the same thing.”

 

“The single easiest way to find out how you feel about someone. Say goodbye.”

 

“He was easy to talk to, and easy not to talk to-equally important qualities in a friend. Essential in a travel companion.”

“Driving back to Portland I’d puzzle over my sudden success at selling. I’d been unable to sell encyclopedias, and I’d despised it to boot. I’d been slightly better at selling mutual funds, but I’d felt dead inside. So why was selling shoes so different? Because, I realized, it wasn’t selling. I believed in running. I believed that if people got out and ran a few miles every day, the world would be a better place, and I believed these shoes were better to run in. People, sensing my belief, wanted some of that belief for themselves. Belief, I decided. Belief is irresistible.”

 

“But that’s the nature of money. Whether you have it or not, whether you want it or not, whether you like it or not, it will try to define your days. Our task as human beings is not to let it.”

 

“It’s never just business. It never will be. If it ever does become just business, that will mean that business is very bad.”

 

“Starting my own business was the only thing that made life’s other risks—marriage, Vegas, alligator wrestling—seem like sure things. But my hope was that when I failed, if I failed, I’d fail quickly, so I’d have enough time, enough years, to implement all the hard-won lessons. I wasn’t much for setting goals, but this goal kept flashing through my mind every day, until it became my internal chant: Fail fast.”

 

My Take

I really enjoyed Shoe Dog and learned a lot about Nike.  Phil Knight is an engaging writer and has a compelling story to tell.  He also imparts some pearls of wisdom about how to live your life, as well as the importance of taking risks and following your passion.  An inspirational and interesting book.

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392. Faithful Place

Rating:  ☆☆☆☆

Recommended by:

Author:   Tana French

Genre:    Mystery, Thriller, Crime, Foreign

416 pages, published July 13, 2010

Reading Format:  Audio Book

Summary

In 1985, 19 year old Frank Mackey was from a dysfunctional family living in a poor part of Dublin in small flat named Faithful Place.  He and his girl, Rosie Daly, were all set to run away to London together, get married, get good jobs, and break away from the despair of their lives in Ireland.  However, on the winter night when they were supposed to leave, Rosie didn’t show.  Frank assumed that she’d given him the brush-off and gone to London on her own.  Frank left Faithful Place and never went home again.  22 years later, Rosie’s suitcase shows up behind a fireplace in a derelict house on Faithful Place.  Frank, now a Detective on Dublin’s Murder Squad is going home again where he must figure out what happened to Rosie and deal with his family demons.

Quotes 

“My father told me once that the most important thing every man should know is what he would die for.”

 

“I’ve always loved strong women, which is lucky for me because once you’re over about twenty-five there is no other kind. Women blow my mind. The stuff that routinely gets done to them would make most men curl up and die, but women turn to steel and keep on coming. Any man who claims he’s not into strong women is fooling himself mindless; he’s into strong women who know how to pout prettily and put on baby voices, and who will end up keeping his balls in her makeup bags.”

 

“Her forehead was a maze of anxious little grooves, from a lifetime of wondering about whether everyone within range was OK.”

 

“I listen to the things people want out of love these days and they blow my mind. I go to the pub with the boys from the squad and listen while they explain, with minute precision, exactly what shape a woman should be, what bits she should shave how, what acts she should perform on which date and what she should always or never do or say or want; I eavesdrop on women in cafes while they reel off lists of which jobs a man is allowed, which cars, which labels, which flowers and restaurants and gemstones get the stamp of approval, and I want to shout, Are you people out of your tiny minds?”

 

“We had no one else to learn this from- none of our parents were shining examples of relationship success- so we learned this from each other: when someone you love needs you to, you can get a hold of your five-alarm temper, get a hold of the shapeless things that scare you senseless, act like an adult instead of the Cro-Magnon teenager you are, you can do a million things you never saw coming.”

 

“You can be a rich scumbag just as easily as a poor scumbag, or you can be a decent human being either way. Money’s got nothing to do with it. It’s nice to have, but it’s not what makes you who you are.”

 

“Privately, I consider religion to be a load of bollocks, but when you have a sobbing five year old wanting to know what happened to her hamster, you develop an instant belief in anything that dissolves some of the heartbreak off her face.”

 

My Take

Having previously read and thoroughly enjoyed The Witch Elm, In the Woods, and The Likeness by the brilliant Irish writer Tana French, I was highly anticipating Faithful Place (the third book in Dublin Murder Squad series).  It did not disappoint.  French brings you into the time, place and motivations of her characters so completely that I felt like I was right there with them.  Additionally, her insight into the human condition adds a depth and richness that keep her books in your psyche long after you are finished reading them.

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388. American Wolf

Rating:  ☆☆☆

Recommended by:   Lisa Goldberg

Author:   Nate Blakeslee

Genre:    Nonfiction, Animals, Nature, Science, History, Environment

320 pages, published August, 2018

Reading Format:  Audio Book

Summary

American Wolf follows the story of Rick McIntyre, a park ranger in the Lamar Valley of Yellowstone National Park, who spends all of his time studying and teaching about wolves.  We also learn a great deal about the different wolf packs that inhabit Yellowstone and the legal fight to protect them.

Quotes 

“Rick’s dream, though he seldom described it as such, was to someday tell a story so good that the people who heard it simply wouldn’t want to kill wolves anymore.”

 

“Can a wolf in the wild experience what we know as joy and happiness?” Rick said, his voice breaking noticeably. “And my answer is yes.”

 

“What we normally mean by ‘education,’ ” he once told a crowd of wolf advocates, is, “I want someone else to know what I know so they will have my values.” In his experience, it didn’t work that way.”

 

“But wolves, Rick felt, were more like humans than they were given credit for, in their tribal ways and territoriality; in their tendency to mate for life; and in the way male wolves provided food and care for their offspring, so unusual in the animal world. He loved to quote the early-twentieth-century English philosopher Carveth Read: “Man, in character, is more like a wolf… than he is any other animal.”

 

“By the 1920’s, the wolves had been all but eliminated from the continental United States, except for a small population in northern Minnesota and Michigan’s upper peninsula. It was a campaign unprecedented in its scope and thoroughness. One species almost completely whipped out another. The impetus for the killing was clear enough, but as Barry Lopez asked in “Of Wolves and Men”, his seminal meditation on the fraught relationship between the two species, why did the pogrom continue, even after the threat to the westerner’s way of life was essentially gone? Why did our ancestors feel they had to rout out every last wolf, and why were hunters still so eager to shoot them in the few places they remained?

There was hate, Lopez decided, but there was something else, too. Something more akin to envy. Here is an animal capable of killing a man, an animal of legendary endurance and spirit, an animal that embodies marvelous integration within its environment. This is exactly what the frustrated modern hunter would like, the noble qualities imagined, a sense of fitting into the world. The hunter wants to be the wolf.”

 

My Take

Well, I learned a lot about wolves after reading this book.  If you have an interest in them, then I highly recommend this book.  If you don’t, you still might like it.

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387. Quichotte

Rating:  ☆☆☆

Recommended by:   Steve Atlee

Author:  Salman Rushdie

Genre:   Fiction, Fantasy

416 pages, published September 3, 2019

Reading Format:  Audio Book

Summary

Quichotte is a modern day take on Don Quixote.  In it, spy thriller writer Sam DuChamp creates the character of Quichotte, a befuddled salesman obsessed with television, who falls impossibly in love with a reality TV star.  Along with his imaginary son Sancho, Quichotte sets off on a quest across America to prove worthy of her hand.  Interspersed with Quichotte’s story, DuChamp deals with issues all his own.

Quotes 

“BE A LAWYER in a lawless time was like being a clown among the humorless: which was to say, either completely redundant or absolutely essential.”

 

“Men on the road together have three choices. They separate, they kill one another, or they work things out.”

 

“AS I PLAN MY QUEST,” Quichotte said, drinking from a can of ginger ale, “I ponder the contemporary period as well as the classical. And by the contemporary I mean, of course, The Bachelorette.”

 

“Every quest takes places in both the sphere of the actual, which is what maps reveal to us, and in the sphere of the symbolic, for which the only maps are the unseen ones in our heads.”

 

“He devoured morning shows, daytime shows, late-night talk shows, soaps, situation comedies, Lifetime Movies, hospital dramas, police series, vampire and zombie serials, the dramas of housewives from Atlanta, New Jersey, Beverly Hills and New York, the romances and quarrels of hotel-fortune princesses and self-styled shahs, the cavortings of individuals made famous by happy nudities, the fifteen minutes of fame accorded to young persons with large social media followings on account of their plastic-surgery acquisition of a third breast or their post-rib-removal figures that mimicked the impossible shape of the Mattel company’s Barbie doll, or even, more simply, their ability to catch giant carp in picturesque settings while wearing only the tiniest of string bikinis; as well as singing competitions, cooking competitions, competitions for business propositions, competitions for business apprenticeships, competitions between remote-controlled monster vehicles, fashion competitions, competitions for the affections of both bachelors and bachelorettes, baseball games, basketball games, football games, wrestling bouts, kickboxing bouts, extreme sports programming and, of course, beauty contests.”

 

“When a writer is born into a family, the family is finished,’ Czesław Miłosz once said.)”

 

“Other hurdles were ideological. ‘I’m not fucking fighting to defend women’s right to wear the veil, the hijab, the niqab, whatever,’ she declaimed. ‘All these young women these days who describe the veil as a signifier of their identity. I tell them they are suffering from what that presently unfashionable philosopher Karl Marx would have called false consciousness. In most of the world the veil is not a free choice. Women are forced into invisibility by men. These girls in the West making their quote- unquote free choices are legitimising the oppression of their sisters in the parts of the world where the choice is not free. That’s what I tell them, and they are very shocked. They tell me they find my remarks offensive. I tell them I feel the same way about the veil. It’s exhausting. I’ve become embittered. I just needed to stop.”

 

My Take

This is the first Salman Rushdie book that I have read and it was a pretty good, not great, experience.  Rushdie writes from a deep vein of creativity and has some unique insights into the human condition.  I also liked his use of Don Quixote quest as the theme of his book.  I myself am on a quest to read 1000 books during my 50’s and can relate to Quichotte’s quest on a certain level.

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384. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Rating:  ☆☆☆☆

Recommended by:

Author:   J.K. Rowling

Genre:  Fiction, Fantasy, Young Adult

435 pages, published May 1, 2004

Reading Format:  Audio Book

Summary

Harry Potter is a third year student at Hogwarts and faces a new round of danger.  Chief among his worries is the escape of Sirius Black from Azkaban prison.  Black, who was convicted of murderering Harry’s parents, now seems to be after Harry.  To protect Hogwarts, the dementors, the Azkaban guards who are hunting Sirius, are called in and they seem to also be after Harry.  To combat the dementors, Harry learns how to summon his own patronus from Professor Lupin, the new Defense of the Dark Arts teacher, who was a childhood friend of his father.  With the help of the Mauraders Map and the invisibility cloak, Harry, Ron and Hermione set to make things right again at Hogwarts.

Quotes 

“I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.”

 

“Mr. Moony presents his compliments to Professor Snape, and begs him to keep his abnormally large nose out of other people’s business.

Mr. Prongs agrees with Mr. Moony, and would like to add that Professor Snape is an ugly git.

Mr. Padfoot would like to register his astonishment that an idiot like that ever became a professor.

Mr. Wormtail bids Professor Snape good day, and advises him to wash his hair, the slimeball.”

 

“What’s that?” he snarled, staring at the envelope Harry was still clutching in his hand. “If it’s another form for me to sign, you’ve got another -“

“It’s not,” said Harry cheerfully. “It’s a letter from my godfather.”

“Godfather?” sputtered Uncle Vernon. “You haven’t got a godfather!”

“Yes, I have,” said Harry brightly. “He was my mum and dad’s best friend. He’s a convicted murderer, but he’s broken out of wizard prison and he’s on the run. He likes to keep in touch with me, though…keep up with my news…check if I’m happy….”

 

“Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.”

 

“You think the dead we loved truly ever leave us? You think that we don’t recall them more clearly in times of great trouble?”

 

“I want to commit the murder I was imprisoned for.”

 

“Why, dear boy, we don’t send wizards to Azkaban just for blowing up their aunts.”

 

“If you made a better rat than a human, it’s not much to boast about, Peter.”

 

“Professor Kettleburn, our Care of Magical Creatures teacher, retired at the end of last year in order to enjoy more time with his remaining limbs.”

 

“I’ll fix it up with Mum and Dad, then I’ll call you. I know how to use a fellytone now—”

“A telephone, Ron,” said Hermione. “Honestly, you should take Muggle Studies next year…”

 

“The consequences of our actions are always so complicated, so diverse, that predicting the future is a very difficult business indeed.”

 

“Don’t let the muggles get you down.”

 

“How’re we getting to King’s Cross tomorrow, Dad?” asked Fred as they dug into a sumptuous pudding. “The Ministry’s providing a couple of cars,” said Mr. Weasley.  Everyone looked up at him.  “Why?” said Percy curiously.  “It’s because of you, Perce,” said George seriously. “And there’ll be little flags on the hoods, with HB on them-”  “-for Humongous Bighead,” said Fred.”

 

My Take

I am thoroughly enjoying my repeat romp through all of the Harry Potter books, especially the amazing voice work of narrator Jim Dale who seamlessly transitions between characters and brings The Prisoner of Azkaban to life.  J.K. Rowling again delivers a compelling, intricate, creative and fun tour de force in this book and it is a pleasure to re-read it.

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382. All the Bright Places

Rating:  ☆☆☆

Recommended by:

Author:  Jennifer Niven

Genre:   Fiction, Young Adult, Romance

378 pages, published January 6, 2015

Reading Format:  Audio Book

Summary

All the Bright Places begins when two teenagers, Theodore Finch and Violet Markey, meet on the ledge of the bell tower at their school where one or both of them is contemplating jumping.  It’s unclear who saves whom.  They are paired to work together on a school project to discover the “natural wonders” of their state.  They end up discovering each other.

Quotes 

“You are all the colors in one, at full brightness.”

 

“We do not remember days, we remember moments.”        

 

“The problem with people is they forget that most of the time it’s the small things that count.”

 

“I know life well enough to know you can’t count on things staying around or standing still, no matter how much you want them to. You can’t stop people from dying. You can’t stop them from going away. You can’t stop yourself from going away either. I know myself well enough to know that no one else can keep you awake or keep you from sleeping.”

 

“The great thing about this life of ours is that you can be someone different to everybody.”

 

“Sorry wastes time. You have to live your life like you’ll never be sorry. It’s easier just to do the right thing from the start so there’s nothing to apologize for.”

 

“You make me lovely, and it’s so lovely to be lovely to the one I love.…”

 

“We are all alone, trapped in these bodies and our own minds, and whatever company we have in this life is only fleeting and superficial.”

 

My Take

A sweet, sad teenage romance.  I’m a bit old for it, but I think youngsters would enjoy it.

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374. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Rating:  ☆☆☆☆

Recommended by:

Author:   J.K. Rowling

Genre:  Fiction, Fantasy, Young Adult

341 pages, published July 2, 1999

Reading Format:  Audio Book

Summary

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is book two in the classic Harry Potter series.  Once again escaping his mean muggle relatives, Harry is delighted to be back at Hogwarts with besties Ron and Hermione.  However, his happiness is soon interrupted when students begin turning to stone and the school is ominously put on notice that the Chamber of Secrets has been opened.

Quotes 

“It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.”

 

“When in doubt, go to the library.”

 

“Honestly, if you were any slower, you’d be going backward.”

 

“Ginny!” said Mr. Weasley, flabbergasted. “Haven’t I taught you anything? What have I always told you? Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can’t see where it keeps its brain?”

 

“Your aunt and uncle will be proud, though, won’t they?” said Hermione as they got off the train and joined the crowd thronging toward the enchanted barrier. “When they hear what you did this year?”  “Proud?” said Harry. “Are you crazy? All those times I could’ve died, and I didn’t manage it? They’ll be furious…”

 

“Do I look stupid?” snarled Uncle Vernon, a bit of fried egg dangling from his bushy mustache.”

 

“Hang on . . .” Harry muttered to Ron. “There’s an empty chair at the staff table. . . . Where’s Snape?”

“Maybe he’s ill!” said Ron hopefully.

“Maybe he’s left,” said Harry, “because he missed out on the Defense Against the Dark Arts job again!”

“Or he might have been sacked!” said Ron enthusiastically. “I mean, everyone hates him —”

“Or maybe,” said a very cold voice right behind them, “he’s waiting to hear why you two didn’t arrive on the school train.”

Harry spun around. There, his black robes rippling in a cold breeze, stood Severus Snape.”

 

“Gotta bone ter pick with yeh. I’ve heard you’ve bin givin’ out signed photos. How come I haven’t got one?”

 

“Ron: Why spiders? Why couldn’t it be “follow the butterflies?”

 

“Voldemort,” said Riddle softly, “is my past, present, and future, Harry Potter. . . .”

He pulled Harry’s wand from his pocket and began to trace it through the air, writing three shimmering words:

TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE

Then he waved the wand once, and the letters of his name rearranged themselves:

I AM LORD VOLDEMORT” 

My Take

I am having so much fun re-reading the Harry Potter series.  Or, rather, listening to them with the delightful audio version narrated by the incomparable Jim Dale who brings the story to life with his imaginative voice work.  J.K. Rowling is a marvel, crafting a richly drawn fantasy world replete with an incredible level of detail while still managing to create completely relatable characters.  A pleasure for readers of any age!

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371. The Last Black Unicorn

Rating:  ☆☆☆

Recommended by:

Author:   Tiffany Haddish

Genre:  Non Fiction, Memoir, Humor

288 pages, published December 5, 2017

Reading Format:  Audio Book

Summary

The Last Black Unicorn is the memoir of comedian Tiffany Haddish.  Known as a stand-up comedian, actress, and star of Girls Trip, Haddish shares the ups and downs of her life from a poverty stricken, abusive childhood to Hollywood stardom.

Quotes 

“He’s ashamed of himself, because he left you when you were three, did nothing for you, and you ended up being very successful without him, and then you buy him stuff. You are not only a better person than he is, but you are kind and responsible where he is not, and you’re providing where he did not. Not just as his child, but as a woman, providing for him. Your goodness holds up a mirror to his ugliness, and that is too painful for him, so he has to project this onto you, by saying you make him feel less about himself. It’s nothing you did. It’s guilt.”

 

“So I ended up getting out of pimping, because I didn’t make much money. It’s just not a lucrative business, selling dick. Dick ain’t really all that hard to come by.”

 

“I believe my purpose is to bring joy to people, to make them laugh, and to share my story to help them. To show people that no matter what, they matter, and they can succeed. No matter how bad things go, no matter how dark your life is, there is a reason for it. You can find beauty in it, and you can get better. I know, because I’ve done it. That’s why my comedy so often comes from my pain. In my life, and I hope in yours, I want us to grow roses out of the poop.”

 

“You know how white people do, they just encourage and cheer anybody who lets it all hang out and just don’t give a fuck.”

 

“The only downside to the Bar Mitzvahs was that I killed a man once.”

 

“That man hadn’t wanted to dance at first, and I made him, and then I booty popped him . . . and now he’s dead! I just felt like a booty assassin.”

 

“DJ Timbo: “Tiffany, your ass is not deadly.” Tiffany: “No, my ass is deadly. That man is dead.”

 

“Everyone has their own personal pain and their own demons, and no one will talk about it, and that’s why they never get better. They’re all afraid to talk about it.”

 

“That’s why I think my life turned out as good as it has. Because all the time, I’m just trying to have fun.”

 

“In stand-up, you do need to be having fun up there like Richard Pryor said, but you have to know yourself well, too. You have to know when you make different faces, or do different things, you get certain reactions. You start learning and it’s like playing a piano. You just know exactly what keys to stroke, ’cause really with comedy, you’re like fiddling with people’s souls. You resonate on the same frequency as them, trying to get them to relate.”

 

“I’m a survivor, and all this struggle I went through—while it sucked at the time—is really helping me now. It has helped me get to where I am, and it will help me continue to improve and do better. It didn’t always feel like it at times, but I truly believe I am blessed.”

 

“all my wins are lessons and all my failures are lessons that will one day become wins.” 

My Take

Reading The Last Black Unicorn was a window into a culture that I know little about it and have a hard time relating to.  I haven’t seen Tiffany Haddish’s work, but found her memoir to be both humorous and poignant.  She is a survivor and writes about her past with love rather than bitterness.  If you are a fan, then you are likely to enjoy this book.

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367. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

Rating:  ☆☆☆☆1/2

Recommended by:

Author:   J.K. Rowling

Genre:  Fiction, Young Adult, Fantasy

357 pages, published June 26, 1997

Reading Format:  Audio Book

Summary

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone is the first book in the classic Harry Potter series.  The book opens with orphaned Harry living a miserable life with his uncaring Aunt and Uncle.  Harry sleeps in a closet under the stairs while they spoil Dudley, their only child who is the same age as Harry.   Things soon change when Harry discovers that he is a Wizard and is sent off to the Hogwart’s School of Witchcraft and Wizardry to learn about magic.  There he meets new friends, discovers his own magical powers, has many adventures and confronts the evil Voldemort.

Quotes 

“A breeze ruffled the neat hedges of Privet Drive, which lay silent and tidy under the inky sky, the very last place you would expect astonishing things to happen. Harry Potter rolled over inside his blankets without waking up. One small hand closed on the letter beside him and he slept on, not knowing he was special, not knowing he was famous, not knowing he would be woken in a few hours’ time by Mrs. Dursley’s scream as she opened the front door to put out the milk bottles, nor that he would spend the next few weeks being prodded and pinched by his cousin Dudley…He couldn’t know that at this very moment, people meeting in secret all over the country were holding up their glasses and saying in hushed voices: “To Harry Potter – the boy who lived!”

 

“It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.”

 

“The truth.” Dumbledore sighed. “It is a beautiful and terrible thing, and should therefore be treated with great caution.”

 

“It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our

 

“Your mother died to save you. If there is one thing Voldemort cannot understand, it is love. Love as powerful as your mother’s for you leaves it’s own mark. To have been loved so deeply, even though the person who loved us is gone, will give us some protection forever.”

 

“Fear of a name increases fear of the thing itself.”

 

“There is no good and evil, there is only power and those too weak to seek it.”

 

“To the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure.”

 

“As much money and life as you could want! The two things most human beings would choose above all – the trouble is, humans do have a knack of choosing precisely those things that are worst for them.”

 

“Now, you two – this year, you behave yourselves. If I get one more owl telling me you’ve – you’ve blown up a toilet or –”

“Blown up a toilet? We’ve never blown up a toilet.”

“Great idea though, thanks, Mum.”

 

“So light a fire!” Harry choked. “Yes…of course…but there’s no wood!” …

“HAVE YOU GONE MAD!” Ron bellowed. “ARE YOU A WITCH OR NOT!”

 

“Enter, stranger, but take heed

Of what awaits the sin of greed,

For those who take, but do not earn,

Must pay most dearly in their turn.

So if you seek beneath our floors

A treasure that was never yours,

Thief, you have been warned, beware

Of finding more than treasure there.” 

My Take

When my oldest child Nick was in grade school, we started reading the Harry Potter series together and I was completely enchanted.  While recently checking out Lethal White (Book 4 in J.K. Rowling’s Cormoran Strike Detective series), I asked the Librarian for a good audio book recommendation.  She suggested the Harry Potter series.  Well, as Gretchen Rubin says, “the best reading is re-reading” and she was never more right.  Although this time around, I am going to listen to the audio version.  The voice work of actor Jim Dale is an impressive delight and brings these creative and ingenious stories to magical life.

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361. The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure

Rating:  ☆☆☆☆1/2

Recommended by:   Ben Shapiro

Author:   Greg Lukianoff,  Jonathan Haidt

Genre:  Non Fiction, Public Policy, Education, Philosophy, Psychology, Parenting

352 pages, published September 4, 2018

Reading Format:  Audio Book

Summary

The Coddling of the American Mind, by First Amendment expert Greg Lukianoff and Social Psychologist Jonathan Haidt, explores significant changes in what the authors refer to as the iGeneration (also known as Generation Z), who are comprised of kids and young adults born after 1995.  This is the first generation to grow up with smart phones (and other digital devises) as a constant presence in their lives.  This generation has also been raised with much more attentive and safety conscious parents than any previous generation.  The combination of these factors has led to a culture of “safetyism” which has resulted in a campus assault on free speech and what that means for kids and our country.  According to the authors, iGeneration has been taught three Great Untruths: their feelings are always right; they should avoid pain and discomfort; and they should look for faults in others and not themselves. These three Great Untruths are part of a larger philosophy that sees young people as fragile creatures who must be protected and supervised by adults. But despite the good intentions of the adults who impart them, the Great Untruths are harming kids by teaching them the opposite of ancient wisdom and the opposite of modern psychological findings on grit, growth, and antifragility. The result is rising rates of depression and anxiety, along with endless stories of college campuses torn apart by moralistic divisions and mutual recriminations.

Quotes 

“From time to time in the years to come, I hope you will be treated unfairly, so that you will come to know the value of justice. I hope that you will suffer betrayal because that will teach you the importance of loyalty. Sorry to say, but I hope you will be lonely from time to time so that you don’t take friends for granted. I wish you bad luck, again, from time to time so that you will be conscious of the role of chance in life and understand that your success is not completely deserved and that the failure of others is not completely deserved either. And when you lose, as you will from time to time, I hope every now and then, your opponent will gloat over your failure. It is a way for you to understand the importance of sportsmanship. I hope you’ll be ignored so you know the importance of listening to others, and I hope you will have just enough pain to learn compassion. Whether I wish these things or not, they’re going to happen. And whether you benefit from them or not will depend upon your ability to see the message in your misfortunes.”

 

“But efforts to protect kids from risk by preventing them from gaining experience— such as walking to school, climbing a tree, or using sharp scissors— are different. Such protections come with costs, as kids miss out on opportunities to learn skills, independence, and risk assessment.”

 

“Grant offers the following four rules for productive disagreement:10 Frame it as a debate, rather than a conflict. Argue as if you’re right, but listen as if you’re wrong (and be willing to change your mind). Make the most respectful interpretation of the other person’s perspective. Acknowledge where you agree with your critics and what you’ve learned from them.”

 

“A culture that allows the concept of “safety” to creep so far that it equates emotional discomfort with physical danger is a culture that encourages people to systematically protect one another from the very experiences embedded in daily life that they need in order to become strong and healthy.”

 

“But efforts to protect kids from risk by preventing them from gaining experience— such as walking to school, climbing a tree, or using sharp scissors— are different. Such protections come with costs, as kids miss out on opportunities to learn skills, independence, and risk assessment.”

 

“there are just two activities that are significantly correlated with depression and other suicide-related outcomes (such as considering suicide, making a plan, or making an actual attempt): electronic device use (such as a smartphone, tablet, or computer) and watching TV. On the other hand, there are five activities that have inverse relationships with depression (meaning that kids who spend more hours per week on these activities show lower rates of depression): sports and other forms of exercise, attending religious services, reading books and other print media, in-person social interactions, and doing homework.”

 

“parenting strategies and laws that make it harder for kids to play on their own pose a serious threat to liberal societies by flipping our default setting from “figure out how to solve this conflict on your own” to “invoke force and/or third parties whenever conflict arises.” 

My Take

This was my second time reading this book (taking Gretchen Rubin’s adage that the best reading is re-reading to heart).  I found The Coddling of the American Mind to be a fascinating inquiry into what has turned many of the young adults in our country into the “snowflake” generation who are afraid of micro aggressions, being exposed to speech they disagree with, and anything else that threatens the cocoon of safety they were raised to expect by their overindulgent, protective parents.   In addition to diagnosing the problem, Lukianoff and Haidt offer a comprehensive set of reforms that will strengthen young people and institutions and encourage diversity of viewpoint.  I have already raised my kids for the most part (they are currently 20 and 17 and right in the middle of the iGeneration), but am pleased to see that they are not snowflakes who will melt at the first differing opinion they encounter.  That is partly due to the fact that we are conservatives in one of the bluest counties (Boulder, Colorado) in the country.  My children grew up surrounded by people who disagreed with our political viewpoints.  That was extremely beneficial for them.  They were constantly challenged on their beliefs and had to deliberate and think about why they believed what they did rather than exist in an echo chamber that validated their every view.  Consequently, they are very experienced at hearing viewpoints that differ from their own and have no problem engaging with others on a myriad of topics without taking offense.

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