Acts of Discovery

Ever since I was a young child, I loved to read books. More often than not, I could be found in a chair, somewhere in my parents house, with my nose buried deep in between the pages of some work of fiction. The smell of the paper, covered in ink, the words strung together in such an way that they mesmerized me, grabbed a hold of my mind, and eliminated all concept of time. Hours would go by, the sun would shift across the sky, and still I’d be devouring a novel, lost in another world. For a time there over the past decade, as technology took hold, I didn’t read quite as frequently, but within the past few years, I’ve made a concerted effort to get back to reading. (There is a fascinating book on what the internet is doing to our brains and the effect it has on reading and the depth of understanding, but that will be a whole separate post). As opposed to the fiction I consumed in my youth, these days its a tossup between fiction and non-fiction. While a novel can whisk me away and entertain me, filling my imagination with beautiful imagery and pulling my emotions to and fro, I also love learning and expanding my base of knowledge and so to that I turn to non-fiction. But how do we find what book to read next?

A couple of weeks ago, I met with a gentleman who is starting a new IT business in town. We met with the intent of getting to know each other’s businesses and see how we might be able to refer customers to each other. In the process, I found out a lot about his life before this new endeavor. Amongst his spending a number of years as a white teenager during apartheid in South Africa (it boggles my mind that apartheid only officially ended in the early 1990’s), to traveling the world rock climbing, to working his way up the Starbuck’s corporate ladder, his most recent career was as a district manager for Barnes and Noble in Connecticut. We talked about books and the importance of physical bookstores versus your online only purveyor. He made a comment that stuck with me and resonated as it has happened to me more than once. He said, “Going into a bookstore allows a person to experience the act of discovery. Walking through, you don’t need to know what you want, you can peruse thousands of titles, wander through different genres of writing, and stumble upon something that catches your eye that you would never have found online. With going online, you need to know what you want.” That made sense to me as there have been many times I’ve just wanted a new book to read, and upon entering a Barnes and Noble or some local bookstore, I’ve found that new book jumping into my hands from the racks, totally unbeknownst to me beforehand. Some of my most recent discoveries that have led my down the proverbial rabbit hole of books are “I Cheerfully Refuse” by Leif Enger (a beautifully written novel whose words and images are immaculate) “Meditations” by Marcus Aurelius (a roman emperor’s journal entries that could have been written today, deals with stoicism) and “Stillness is the Key” by Ryan Holiday (a book that talks about how we need to become still amidst chaos in order to become the master or excel at anything). I would highly recommend any of these books.

What acts of discovery do we allow ourselves in this world of digital distraction and online perusing? Yes, I realize the irony as I’m literally writing a blog online, but how often do we allow ourselves the possibility of discovering something new? Whenever we are online these days, almost everywhere we go, every click we make, is guided by some algorithm that claims to know what we want, that bases its recommendations off of our previous online actions. We can “discover” similar things to what we have seen before, and maybe we can break those algorithms intentionally by searching for something new and novel, but I fear even then, the responses we get will be based off of what we have searched for in the past. Acts of discovery have slowed and have limited us in ways unimaginable. So yes, we still have physical Barnes and Nobles, and other non-book stores where we can “discover” books and items, but it takes a concerted effort to get there, but perhaps that effort is worth it if it leads us to something new, to the discovery of book that will help us change our perspective, mindset, or outlook on life. Or maybe we may even discover new people and hear someone’s story. I know it has for me in the past. As for the types of bookstores I like, I prefer to find the small, local ones that seem to be hanging on by a thread these days. The Leif Enger novel I picked up at Brilliant Books in Traverse City, Michigan on our road trip last summer. My kids bought books at Parallel 45 Books in Alpena, Michigan just a little over a month ago. Where will your next act of discovery take place? Where will you go to find the next great book or item?