Books

I've always enjoyed reading...a lot. Mostly I read for the pure joy of understanding things.

In grade school I was fascinated by science books. In junior high (middle) school I read every math puzzle book that I could get my hands on. Over the past several years I have read quite a few histories and biographies. (See http://www.librarything.com/home/harleman)

It was only a little over a year ago that I grasped the concept that my view of the universe -- my paradigm -- is totally unique. No other person sees the world exactly as I do. (Nor can they; nor should they want to.) A book helped me to finally understand that.

I have always been curious about how humans came to have the body of knowledge that we have, and about what life was like before we knew what we now take for granted. The vast majority of all humans who have ever lived spent all their evenings doing something besides watching TV or playing with a computer (or a smart phone). From sundown until sleep, everything was done by firelight, moonlight, or in darkness. Almost certainly, nearly everyone knew the night sky as well as they knew their own back yard. Books are helping me to understand what life was like for most of human history.

Here is a list of the most important books that I have read in the past year (in the approximate order that I have read them). Each one has had a tremendous influence on the way that I view the world and/or myself:

• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People © 1989 by Stephen R. Covey
• A Crack in the Edge of the World: America and the Great California Earthquake of 1906 © 2005 by Simon Winchester
• Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation © 1999 by Parker J. Palmer
• The Road Less Traveled © 1978 by M. Scott Peck, M.D.
• Defining the Wind © 2004 by Scott Huler

I've just started reading Defining the Wind. (I'm on page 43 of 281.) Its purpose is to explain how the Beaufort Scale was developed.

I don't recall how I came to have this book, or why I would have even chosen it in the first place. But it's a very enjoyable and captivating read. (Sometimes as much fun as Paul Harvey's The Rest of the Story.)

Defining the Wind has already helped me to get a better grasp of how our understanding of the world has changed in 200 years. It has also piqued my growing suspicion that maybe -- just maybe -- there really aren't so many "coincidences" in life.