100 things that I've read in 100 days that may interest you

Ok there will probably be more than 100 things on the list, but for now I've promised you 100 things that may interest you.

Am I saying you should read any of these books / articles / blog entries or anything else I've written about here? Absolutely not, this is not even the definitive list of everything I will read during the 100 days of the challenge - but these are the ones that made some kind of impression on me as a reader and my reasoning's for that. If I wrote everything I will read on this list, I'd have to spend the rest of the day typing - and I don't have time to do that ...

But like all compilations - you may agree or disagree with my choices - that's absolutely great - share the 100 things that may make a difference to me from your perspective. I am always open to new things (so long as it doesn't involve brussel sprouts or pineapple).

Best

Elle 

p.s. I'll add them in reverse order so the latest will always be at the top:

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23. The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins

I have to confess I had not heard of the book until the movie was being promoted, which I heard about one day while driving in and around Hollywood. Yes, sorry, name dropping again. Well what is a road trip around LA if one cannot visit Hollywood, Beverley Hills and in the case of where I bought the book from a bookstore which was inside a converted cinema in Studio city - the building and the lighting inside the store was almost as interesting as the book I bought - being a librarian by profession and one that creates libraries and information centres for organisations. But I will load some pics at some point and you can see what I mean.

For those like me who had never heard of the book let alone the movie, it's about love and survival while "playing the game". Many lessons to be learned from this book - yes, there are lessons to be learnt from fiction. And another lesson for me - don't neglect the fiction in my reading list.

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22. My stroke of luck - Kirk Douglas

I picked this one up in a second hand book store in Avila Beach on our way up the coast from Santa Monica to Carmel and through the famous Big Sur. The scenery was impressive, Avila Beach - a place I could move to. The book - fantastic. I do love biographies, auto-biographies and material that allows me to connect with people I will never meet in person but have seen many times on TV, the big screen and through legend. 

The book details how Kirk Douglas dealt with a stroke, the following depression and what he has done since to help others who know people who have had strokes, or have had strokes themselves. Simply put - the book is inspirational.

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21: The Body Finder: Kimberly Derting

I picked this one up in our local K-Mart - I haven't read fiction in a while, but holidays are a perfect escape from "normal" life I do like to read fiction which is also an escape from my normal reading material... and I needed something to read on the plane during our trip to LA.

I've never heard of the author, but liked what I read in the first couple of pages, so bought it. A couple of lessons for the budding writers - always make sure the synposis and the first chapter are compelling - then ensure you don't let the reader down in the ensuing chapters - Kimberly didn't the book was excellent.

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20. No Excuses:The Power of Self Discipline by  Brian Tracy

I found this one in my local public library. I am a huge fan of Brian Tracy and consider him to be one,of my earliest mentors. So when i found this and realised it was a book I hadn't read I was rather pleased. I wasn't as pleased when i ran out of time to finish it and had to return it half read today ;-( so i ordered a copy from that rather large online bookstore, and it will be mine to re-read many times.

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19. Conversations with millionaires - Mike Litman

Chapter 1: Jim Rohn

Jim Rohn is my mentor. He may have passed on a few years ago now, but his wisdom is timeless. You can sign up for his newsletter at http://www.jimrohn.com

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18. Oh the places you'll go - Dr Seuss

This has got to be the best self-help book ever written. Don't believe me - http://denuccio.net/ohplaces.html it's a bit pink, but the words of the book are there - assuming you can't read the copy in your children's book collection that is.

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17. Can I get a do-over? Unforgettable stories of second chances and life makeovers - Rick Domeier

As the title says - individual stories of people who have had a second chance to make a difference to the way their lives have turned out. Everyone is worthy of a second chance - why not you?

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16. Thoughts I Met On The Highway: Words of Friendly Cheer - Ralph Waldo Trine

This is one of the many "old" books I've found and downloaded from project gutenberg (http://www.gutenberg.org)

I've never heard of Trine, but it came up as reading from another book I've been going through, and me being me, wandered over to the out of copyright and digitised collection of gutenberg to see if there was anything available. I now have quite a few of Trine's to read. This one was a collection of thoughts and poetry - ideas to ponder. But a pattern in my reading is emerging - happiness, what it is, what it's not, and how you need to be "happy" with what you have before anything else will come to you.

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15. The Story of You: And how to create a new one - Steve Chandler

Picked this one up at the local library - I'd never heard of Chandler, but I'm glad I chose to add it to my pile of books - fascinating - we are always telling ourselves a version of a personal story. For a long time mine was "I am an insomniac I don't sleep well" and to be honest I don't - but is that a learned behaviour? So my new story is "I sleep well every night" and in reading this book (which I did in 2 days) I've been re-writing a lot of my personal stories... Have since signed up for his newsletter and you get a freebie, yet another of his books as a PDF... http://www.stevechandler.com

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14. The Won Thing: The One Secret to a Totally Fulfilling Life - Peggy McColl

We are often looking outside for things to make us happy, to define our success - Peggy suggests that there isn't just one thing to your WON thing - but there are 7 and for each of us our "one" thing will change over time and so it should. Like Peggy I am constantly trying to find out what works, what doesn't work and what I need to do to make the difference that will turn my life around. it's nice to know that I just need to keep doing what I've done, just more of it. What do they say - repeat the successes, learn from the mistakes and look inside to know your true worth. It's not a huge book, but it has certainly made me think...

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13. Angel Inside - Chris Widener

This is perhaps one of my favourite "personal" development stories, and a must re-read a couple of times a year. How and why Michelangelo can help us - is there an angel inside each of us waiting to be revealed to the world. There is if you believe as I do, that we all have unique talents to share with the world.

It's also one of my recommended reads in the store

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12. 21 rules to live your life

http://www.stealthesesecretsyet.com/21-rules-to-live-your-life/

According to the author, the 21 precepts were written just as Miyamoto was giving away all his possessions in preparation for death and I think many of them still apply to our modern society and lifestyles.
They are:
1. Accept everything just the way it is
2. Do not seek pleasure for its own sake
3. Do not, under any circumstances, depend on a partial feeling
4. Think lightly of yourself and deeply of the world
5. Be detached from desire your whole life long
6. Do not regret what you have done
7. Never be jealous
8. Never let yourself be saddened by a separation
9. Resentment and complaint are appropriate neither for oneself or others
10. Do not let yourself be guided by the feeling of lust or love
11. In all things have no preferences
12. Be indifferent to where you live
13. Do not pursue the taste of good food
14. Do not hold on to possessions you no longer need
15. Do not act following customary beliefs
16. Do not collect weapons or practice with weapons beyond what is useful
17. Do not fear death
18. Do not seek to possess either goods or fiefs for your old age
19. Respect Buddha and the gods without counting on their help
20. You may abandon your own body but you must preserve your honour
21. Never stray from the Way
The author tries to give examples as he seems them, read and make your own judgement as to what Miyamoto was trying to tell us. Some more than others struck home for me.

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11. Designing your best year ever - Darren Hardy

I was lucky enough to be given a copy of Darren's book as part of a giveaway from Jim Rohn after buying his 1 year success plan. It's taken me 2 years to get around to reading it, but it was worth the time. It also made me stop and think about exactly what I had achieved last year and what were dismal failures. It was a pretty even split I have to say. The book is in 2 parts, the second being a way to plan an entire year - with lots of fill in the blanks. They say you only get as much out of these things as you are willing to put into it - and like our own 100 day challenge, this is extremely true.

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10.Why the weight is so hard to shift

Because most diets and eating plans deal in generalisations and don't take into account base metabolic rates and our changing needs as we lose weight ...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/feb/21/weight-loss-guidelines-wrong-vancouver

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9. Goldenberg's 10 Rules of Spectacular Failure

What better way to talk about motivation and success, than to read something about how we can fail - every time. Somewhat tongue in cheek (NO!) but all too true

1. Give up.

2. Listen to others.

3. Believe you can't.

4. Be afraid of failing.

5. Don't be curious.

6. Be too old to succeed.

7. Don't stretch your limits.

8. Let a disability hold you back.

9. Be the problem. Not the solution.

10.

I read this in Jeffrey Gitomers Sales Caffeine Newsletter - http://www.gitomer.com/sales-magazine/Sales-Caffeine.html

And with lots of examples, I must admit to squirming a few times

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8. Zig Ziglar Weekly Newsletter

I have been reading this newsletter for several years and there is always a gem or two hidden in the posts. The one I was most interested in today referred to "owning your goal". If something is given to you free or for not much money people are less likely to invest the time and the energy and the goal is not appreciated. Imagine how easy it would be if we could snap our fingers and simply achieve anything we wanted - much like Sabrina the Teenage Witch. The author says that in order to appreciate achieving our goal, we MUST invest the time, energy and yes money - that way not only are we going to achieve our goals, but more importantly we are not going to give up before we reach them.

If you're not already subscribed and would like to - http://www.ziglar.com/ the newsletter signup is a popup window that appears.

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7. IDM: Image and Data Manager Last Quarter 2011 Journal

Finally able to catch up on my journal reading tray. This one allows me to catch up with all things cloud / IM / RM / KM  - new software and implementations, case studies and in this edition - Capturing Census 2011 in Australia.

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6. The Dark Side of Creativity - PsyBlog

A bit of a theme happening here, but..

Ouch this one hurt a little. Are creative people good liars, egotistical and / or downright evil? Or are we just mad as the hatter? I like to think I'm just different - but the science behind the piece IS interesting. One of the reasons why I started reading the blog is because of a little book they had on their site entitled "How to be Creative: 6 psychological principles of creativity" by Jeremy Dean. The question of where do creatives get their ideas and inspiration from... where do you get yours from?

http://www.spring.org.uk/2012/02/the-dark-side-of-creativity.php

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5. Are we being creative yet?

Harvard Business Review

I am a big fan of the HBR as you never know what you will find - this piece follows on from my quest to determine what makes us "creative" and it seems I am not the only one to wonder what is happening to our society where the creativity appears to being stifled and daydreaming is seen to be a waste of time.

Are We Being Creative Yet? - Harvard Business Review

It is rarely a coincidence when three books exploring the same territory arrive in the same month; a trend in nonfiction publishing is often a barometer of societal anxiety. Creativity has become that. It’s a worry at the personal level because workers fear they might not have enough to survive in an economy actively shedding everything but high-end knowledge work. It’s an obsession at the firm level because companies dread the consequences if the new new thing isn’t in their salespeople’s bags but in their competitors’. And it’s a concern at the national competitiveness level.

At all these levels, the flip side of our growing celebration of creativity is a growing uneasiness at our dependence on a phenomenon we can’t really control. Yes, we can design workshops to challenge assumptions, and we should. We can design workspaces that make ideas collide more often. We can allow smart people to spend 15% of their time on the half-baked ideas they believe in. But as managers we also need to think outside our own box. As creativity becomes more central to performance, we shouldn’t reflexively reach for our accustomed tool kit of efficient levers and objective metrics. We need to come to terms with a core competence that defies discipline, a competitive edge that depends deeply on being disorderly.

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4. 18 Rules of Happiness - Karl Moore

In a world of negativity, where the news is a constant source of pain and anguish, where the slightest "slight" can be a mortal wound, this littls book allows us to put things back into perspective.  Tips, techniques and why some foods really do provide that feel good feeling - it's because they do. And no - chocolate isn't listed per se. I've got an old edition I found it in my collection the other day - Karl has updated it ($0.99) - http://www.karlmoore.com - if money can buy happiness, it's not a bad way of spending a dollar. So long as you don't have to buy the machine to put it on first that is :-)

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3. Would you throw away a book? How about hundreds if not thousands of them? I have... but isn't that sacrilege?

One librarian's reasoning that not all books should be saved for ever. If out of date, out of accuracy and positively falling apart aren't ones we can chuck, which ones can be thrown away? As a librarian myself who has closed down (or helped to close down) several libraries I can honestly say, sometimes we need to throw things away to make way for the knowledge that comes later. Including perhaps the organisation directive we were following decide afterwards that perhaps we shouldn't have done that after all ... http://perfectwhole.wordpress.com/2011/05/16/i-cant-believe-youre-throwing-out-books/

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2. Questioning everything

I mentioned going to my public library on the weekend, well this is one of the books I picked up to read.
"Get a Grip: Your 2 week mental makeover" by Dr Belisa Vranich
This is not a read once and be done with it kind of book. In fact Dr Vranich urges us to treat each chapter like we would a weekly therapy session. This is an action book - there are assignments and questions to make you think. I'm only part way through this book - and at 1 chapter a day, it will take me 2 weeks to go through the self analysis and write out my answers - as instructed. Now lie down and tell me about your childhood...

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1. The importance of living through it, not just being there for a day or hearing the words:

So said Evan McHugh in his book "Birdsville - My year in the back of beyond" he and his wife left Sydney to live for a year in the remotest town in Australia, on the edge of the Simpson Desert. Why? Well because they could and because as a writer (on Australian subjects) he felt the need to truly experience the outback - but it's not a travelogue, but contains the history and a real sense of place. The highs, the lows, the problems, the friends, the tyranny of distance - when your food order can't get through because the roads are flooded, the people they met and how they managed to continue their work via satellite. But an observation by Evan when listening to one of the locals and I paraphrase. "I'm glad I waited to speak to him, because I knew what he meant, if I had spoken to him sooner, all I would have heard were just the words". You can see something for a couple of hours or even a couple of days, but to truly know a place, the people and yourself - is to live it, to experience it.

How many times have we been guilty of not being present where we are. Not listening to the people who are talking to us. Not joining in the community - because we "have no time". Not sharing our talents because we feel we a) don't have anything to offer b) can't be bothered c) feeling precious about our time. What makes our time more important than anyone else's? And I am not just talking about a dollar value here.

I've cheated a little with the first book on my list as I have read it once, and was only a couple of chapters from finishing it. But I do that - re-read things that have made an impact on me in some way. Why this one? As a writer I loved his writing style. But more than that you see, I come from country England, so a lot of what he wrote about I could translate into my own experiences of growing up in a remote community. We had 1 public telephone, no internet (way before the internet), 2 pubs, no restaurants, 1 post office, 1 garridge, and we either caught the bus into "town", rode our bikes or walked as we didn't have a car. Yes I could appreciate the "outback" through Evan's eyes.