Books, Books, and more Books.

For those of you out there who are literary fans, here are some books that I have read lately.

I am currently reading "Unbroken" by Laura Hillenbrand.  Absolutely fantastic book.  The book chronicles the life of Louis Zamperini, who was a famous schoolboy distance runner, made the Olympic team in 1936, and served in WWII and was captured as a POW by the Japanese.  I'm only halfway through this book, and I can guarantee that it will be one of the top two books I've read all year.

Secondly, "Drive" by Daniel Pink.  Really interesting look at motivation.  As a teacher and former coach, I'm always fascinated by what makes one person more "driven" than another.  The book is great and I highly recommend it to anyone in athletics or education.

My wife bought me, "Predictably Irrational" by Dan Ariely.  It is not a book that I would have purchased for myself, but she bought if for me, since I had enjoyed "Freakonomics".  Ariely is an economist at Duke University (which gave me some pause, just kidding Dukies) and basically studied why people act and do things the way they do.  It was kind of like Freakonomics meets Drive, to be honest.  A lot of stuff on motivation in there.  If you enjoy that kind of thing, it's a good book.

The "classic" that I read this year was "The Count of Monte Cristo" by Alexandre Dumas.  Each year I try to read a book that is considered a "classic" and although this one took me FOREVER (almost 2 months to finish) it was a really good book.  Actually one of the more enjoyable "classics" that I've read.  I've still got "War and Peace" sitting there on my Kindle, but I think my next classic will be "Don Quixote" by Cervantes.  I've actually started reading this book twice, but I never got very far.  Both times I tried to read it at school for reading time, and I think I just need to download it to the Kindle and read it at home.

Sports Book:  "Born to Run" by Christopher Mcdougal is just an amazing read.  If you are a runner, want to be a runner, or aspire to improve your running, this book is a Must Read.  Very informational, inspiring, and interesting book.  I tore through this book in about 4 days over Christmas Break last year.  I'm thinking I'm going to read it again at the start of the "New Year" so I can hit the ground running.

Lastly, if you are a reader and you don't have a Kindle or an e-reader yet, you really need to get one.  Kindles are now selling for $79.  And no, I'm not paid by Amazon.  The price is great, and the device works awesome.  I love mine.  I'm also intrigued by the Kindle Fire which is basically Amazon's version of the iPad.  But much cheaper.  Although if I was to buy a Kindle Fire it would be primarily used as a web browser, I'll keep my Kindle for reading, thank you very much.

(PS.  Amazon.com... if you guys want to send me some money for all the links... I'd happily accept)

:)