My View from 1958

If you read my previous Blog entries, you should get the sense that I am a proponent of reading, especially history if one is going to position himself/herself for exercising the discipline of critical thinking.

As you probably know, many of the world’s greatest minds were or are avid readers, not only of history, but the classics, technology and philosophy. Abraham Lincoln, Theordore Roosevelt, Jane Austen, Winston Churchill, Albert Einstein, Warren Buffett (he famously said that the key to success was reading “500 pages” of material every day. That’s how knowledge works. It builds up, like compound interest,”), Elon Musk, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson just to drop a few names. NOTE: I am not implying that I belong in this list of famous people….it is only examples used to make a point.

I have started to compile a list of books I have read over the past 6 months and decided I would share this and solicit your feedback.  This list is in no particular order, and I will continue to update this list as time passes.

I will though, provide the names of two books that were pleasant surprises: The Wright Brothers and Team of Rivals.  The Wright Bothers went well beyond what little I learned about them in school and proved to be very interesting. If there are role models for perseverance, it is these two men. Team of Rivals was very eye opening in terms of Lincoln’s cabinet picks and emphasized the true genius of this man in terms of his political shrewdness and in sizing up men’s strengths and weaknesses.

You will also note that I added a short list of books from the past. These are books that have stuck with me over the years.