dispatches from the new world of work

My Hatchards Addiction

I love bookstores ... even in the age of Amazon. And there is none I love more than London's Hatchards, on Piccadilly, est. 1797). I made my annual Christmas pilgrimage there this afternoon (I added a day to my voyage from Dubai to Boston expressly & solely to go to Hatchards) ... and emptied my backpack in anticipation. Ha! I ended up expressing a big box home. And also ended up with a $900 book bill, high even by my standards. (I'd brought a list, thanks to the Economist's best books of 2004 selections, but put it aside for unfettered binging in short order.) The only thing I missed—by just one day—is the Christmas authors' night. The British literary establishment, fiction and non-fiction, attends, sit patiently at little tables scattered all about the 4 floors of books, and sign and personalize their works. (I stumbled on this remarkable event a couple of years ago.) My special treat—yes, for myself—is N.A.M. Rodger's The Command of the Ocean: A Naval History of Britain, 1649-1815, recipient of rave reviews. It weighs in at 907 pages, but yes, Susan, I am including it in my carry-on, bad back notwithstanding.

Once again ... THANK YOU, MOM PETERS! She made me the marrow-sucking, reading-maniac I am today. Nothing contributes more to my personal and professional well-being. The thought crossed my mind that I'd happily spend the rest of my life in a condo above Hatchards, slipping down to exchange books at a second's notice.

(On a controversial-to-some note-from-the-stacks, I picked up a wonderful member of the delightful Penguin Books' Great Ideas series: Charles Darwin's On Natural Selection. This little extract from The Origin of Species is 4-inches X 6-inches, and runs 117 pages. I plan to carry it with me permanently, as a Totem, along with the likes of my books on Breathing. One reason is to underscore my devotion to science and progress ... and express to myself my abiding dismay that so many millions of my fellow citizens are unconvinced of evolutionary theory. I guess it turns out that my generic disposition toward tolerance has limits.)

Tom Peters posted this on 12/01/04.

Comments

Tom-
I love your boook suggestions- please keep them coming! (My wife and I have added a Morning Cup of Yoga to our daily routine!)

One question- do you follow a "speed reading" process, and if so, can you recommend anything that will help me speed up?
Thanks,
Dave

Posted by Dave at December 1, 2004 7:05 PM

They should name this sickness. Bookaholic doesn't have quite the right ring to it. I find that I love to read but I love even more spending time in a bookstore browsing the titles. I am living example that if you write a good back jacket and give the book a good title then you can sell alot of books. :)

Posted by Steve Kickert at December 1, 2004 8:25 PM

Please, sir, just which books on breathing do you carry and do you recommend?

Posted by Doug Smith at December 1, 2004 10:18 PM

Doug Smith: Three. Free Your Breath, Free Your Life ... by Dennis Lewis. The Calm Technique ... by Paul Wilson. Peace Is Every Step ... by Thich Nhat Hanh.

Posted by tom peters at December 2, 2004 1:22 AM

Dave, I'm actually a pretty slow reader. (My wife, Susan, is the family speed--and retention!--reader.) I am a "diver." I'll decide a book looks promising, pick an interesting chapter, and dive in ... deep and pretty slow. Then I'll either stop, probably never to return; or keep going in a zig-zag manner, from one interesting chapter to another. I rarely read non-fiction in a linear fashion. I save that for Ian Rankin and John Le Carre.

One other thing, I wander my own piles & stacks from time to time. Often my "best read" of the month is a book put down 2 years ago that now looks--and is--exactly right.

Posted by tom peters at December 2, 2004 1:28 AM

Tom,

I am right there with you about the book addiction... but I find it quite interesting to see your closed mindedness to the supposed closed mindedness masses out there... I noticed you did correctly suggest darwin's ideas as theory...even darwin suggested that all he explored could not be reality without a Creator...I'm all for progress, most consider my positions on issues as radical... but I don't play with natural law in the process...Darwin doesn't pass the rigors of scientific method...so why mock someone's faith or belief over yours?

Posted by mp at December 2, 2004 4:11 AM

do you just reed books or do you see any merit in magazines?

Posted by paul at December 2, 2004 5:31 AM

mp,

Nicely stated. I agree.

Joe

Posted by Joe Ely at December 2, 2004 5:24 PM

mp, I take your point. I in no way suggested that there is not a Creator. To a significant degree, that is my point. There is absolutely no contradiction, as I see it, between being a devout ______ and dismissing creationism. Of course, to some degree all is theory (Karl Popper: "Conjectures and Refutations"); however, by this point it seems unspeakably clear that humans did not pop on to the scene, but emerged, ever so slowly, over an extremely long period of time. Personally, I would pull my kids in a flash out of any school which gave equal weight to creationism and evolution. FYI, see Andrew Sullivan's Blog today--on Federal $$$ spent educating children on the value of feminine submission. This will be my last word on this topic. I do respect your right to your beliefs--I am a Devout Believer in the Bill of Rights; in fact I will gladly go to the mat to protect your beliefs. (I have a long history in this, as an avid financial supporter of the ACLU's First Ammendment protection efforts.) I am afraid I can not find it in myself to respect the nature of that particular belief per se.

Posted by tom peters at December 3, 2004 5:37 AM

Tom

Great to hear about your spending spree in UK - keep the book store economy going - many of the bookshops in the UK are under pressure from Amazon - Blackwells may even close its retail arm - is this the same in the USA? Anyway apart from Darwin what else did you buy that was particularly notworthy?

Posted by Paul Fisher at December 3, 2004 6:42 AM

I am also a bookaholic. I've been reading since age 3 and before that my brother and sister read to me. I remember going to the local library every Saturday to pick out books to read for the week. Even now, I can't get on a plane without at least 2-4 books in my backpack (and with more packed in my checked luggage for the rest of the trip). I also love books on tape/CD. I can listen to them while working on the computer.

I also love bookstores, so much so that I owned a used bookstore for about 3 years. Spent most of my time talking to my customers about books and reading and not enough time on the financials of the business. Oh well, another life...

I'm getting ready to open another business and have been immersing myself in business books. I've found some great ones, some good ones, and some that are just not credible at all (I guess that is why they were in the used book store!).

Posted by Snorkelbuddy at December 10, 2004 4:51 PM