Living in More Than One World

A new, semi-regular feature begins on my blog today: “300 Words With…” I’ll be interviewing people I admire, especially those who exemplify the spirit of living in more than one world. Their responses will be (in the range of) 300 words. The first person is Tom Butler-Bowdon, who has written the excellent 50 Classics series of books; on self-help, success, psychology, spirituality and prosperity. In the past, I wrote about and interviewed him for USA TODAY.
1.    In what ways (day-to-day and otherwise) has your life changed in the years since your first book was published?

It was important because I could start to see myself as a proper writer, and work towards writing full time, which didn’t happen until a couple of years after. I thought my book would ‘set me up’ in terms of a career, but in fact it was just the first step. I had to write four more books before people really began to see me as an authority in the personal development area. Every day I do what I love, whereas before, although my career as a political and policy adviser was exciting, it was never fully ‘me’.  Now, there is really no limit to what is possible if I keep at it.

2.    You excel at synthesizing large amounts of information succinctly, and in a reader-friendly way. Any tips on how people can accomplish this in their own work?

Because I have had to read, absorb and write about so many books with my 50 Classics series, people always assume I am a speed reader. Actually, I don’t do this and in fact read every word carefully of the first few chapters. I believe that if you give a book this sort of respect, you will truly ‘get’ it. Once you have the essence, you can write about it comparatively easily. Trying to summarize from the first page in a machine-like way is difficult and a drudge, whereas the act of synthesis is basically exercising your natural insight and judgment.

3.   What non-work/non-writing activities do you find particularly meaningful in your life?

I enjoy cycling, running, swimming, spending time in nature and with my daughter. Beyond these things that have the power to refresh, what gives me real insight and peace is spiritual practice. This includes meditation (I usually attend a Buddhist group each week), and purposively giving up my day to God. That may sound wacky to a non-believer, but giving control to a Higher Power gives you great clarity and direction. You are like a pen in the hand of the real writer. I also read a range of spiritual literature; everything from Christian theology, such as Rick Warren, to New Thought writers including Catherine Ponder, to Eastern traditions and the Kabbalah. I feel it doesn’t matter where you get your inspiration as long as you get it on a daily basis.

Yesterday marked the 111th anniversary of the birth of the author Jorge Luis Borges, who died in 1986. Penguin has been releasing a series of collections of his poetry, prose and fiction this year, such as On Mysticism, On Writing, On Argentina and The Sonnets.  For many years his work has been reissued in new forms, such as topically or in new translations; making it almost akin to the kind of rock album anthologizing and remixing treatments given to bands like The Rolling Stones. I was intrigued to see that The Borges Center has moved to The University of Pittsburgh. I didn’t find out about it until recently, after my visit to that city in April. It was definitely a case of so close yet so far, as I visited the building housing the center, the magnificent Cathedral of Learning, an entirely appropriate home for Borges scholarship. Though the center has lots of material online, I’ll try to schedule a visit for the next time I am in Pittsburgh. One item in particular caught my attention on their site: an event held earlier this year in Jerusalem, called “Borges and I,” in which five Borges scholars discussed their work. One was Professor Saul Sosnowski of the University of Maryland, who years ago taught in the Hebrew school I attended as a child in Scranton, Pa. As a new school year dawns, it might be a good time to employ the device of a conversation with your younger self, as Borges describes in the short story “The Other.” Finally, take a few moments for reflection with the recent NPR blog post Borges, The Universe and The Infinite Library, by the Dartmouth theoretical physicist Marcelo Gleiser. It reminds us that Borges’ work, in all its forms, remains thought-provoking, timeless and subject to new interpretations as the world changes.

Last year I enjoyed blogging about my virtual experience of the Guardian Hay Festival. It has already taken place this year, but those of us who missed it in person can still enjoy it online. The Guardian still has lots of material – text, photos, audio and video – on its site for the event. The text offerings include a brief wrap-up piece, Best of the Hay Festival 2010. Hay is more than author readings. It’s also about book-buying, as driven home by the photo essay Used books, new books, looking for the perfect book … and the videos representing the Hay Festival Bookshop Challenge, including this one featuring Val McDermid. Continuing the video theme is a section of short author interviews, such as this one with Alexander McCall Smith, on Sky Arts’ The Book Show. The others in the series include McDermid, Simon Schama, Audrey Niffenegger, Bill Bryson and more. There is another photo essay in which festival-goers answer the question What Are You Reading at the Hay Festival? An extensive section of audio Haycasts features author interviews from this year, 2009 and 2008. I was happy to see one particular video from The Book Show that exemplifies the concept of Living in More Than One World: an interview with Brian May, the guitarist of Queen, who also happens to have a Ph.D. in astrophysics and is an author. The video snippet describes the recent book he co-authored with Elena Vidal, A Village Lost and Found. The Hay Festival material serves as a reminder that the extensive Guardian Books site is always worth a virtual visit. You can easily lose yourself in new and older articles, reviews, blogs, special features, audio and video. And if you still want more of the Hay virtual experience, go back to the Guardian’s main page for Hay, to access links for its coverage going back to 2006.

Yesterday marked the one year anniversary of the publication of my book, Living in More Than One World: How Peter Drucker’s Wisdom Can Inspire and Transform Your Life. It’s been a fast moving year as a first-time author, an experience I’m treasuring since you can only do it once. (I welcome eventually being a “second-time” author.) My big recent news is that Diamond, Drucker’s publisher in Japan, has bought Japanese translation rights. I’m looking forward to publication there, as well as to editions scheduled to be published in China, South Korea and Brazil. I’ve also been doing a number of author events throughout this first year. It’s difficult to single out individual ones, as they have all been fun and interesting in various ways. The podcast for my keynote at the National Press Club on April 20 for LexisNexis’ The New Face of Value breakfast for government librarians is now online. There were three events in Pennsylvania: one in Scranton, where I was born and raised; another for the Wharton Club of  Philadelphia and one for the Pittsburgh chapter of SLA. In November I did a presentation for the Drucker Society of Los Angeles, at the Drucker-Ito School, in Claremont, Ca. Later that week, during the Drucker centennial observations, there was a book signing. The week before saw an especially memorable “fireside chat” for the Drucker Society of New York City with Frances Hesselbein, who wrote the wonderful foreword to the book. There have also been a number of articles/reviews. I was particularly pleased with two interviews, one for Idea Connection, and another for CIO.com. Both got me thinking in deeper ways about why I wrote the book, and how Drucker remains so relevant. I expect year number two to be just as busy.

Recently I was interviewed by the American University alumni website for a feature in which I and several other AU alumni librarians gave our summer book recommendations. Preparing for the interview was a good exercise in thinking about the pleasures and rewards of reading, and its relationship to life as a whole. This, of course, is the season of summer book lists, which I also blogged about last year. NPR has a major section of book recommendations, 2010 Summer Books. The Los Angeles Times’ Jacket Copy blog also has a considerable summer books section, featuring Q&As with a variety of authors and editors on their summer reading. In the UK, The Guardian’s summer books page is particularly intriguing, with annotated suggestions from many top writers, including AS Byatt, Jonathan Franzen, David Lodge, David Hare, Margaret Drabble, Ian Rankin, Annie Proulx and Tom Stoppard. The Telegraph has a similar list, The Best Books Under the Sun, with some of the same people, but also Alexander McCall Smith, Tracy Chevalier and others. For a change of pace, check out Fortune’s The CEO Summer Reading List. Top executives were polled on their reading plans this season. While some will be reading business titles, others plan to read fiction, or books about politics, food and other subjects. On a similar note, The Boston Globe has a photo gallery of CEO summer reading lists, starting with the choices of Mass. Governor Deval Patrick. Summer book sections have been around for years, but have become much more elaborate in the online era. At the same time, some of the edge and novelty may have been diminished since so many websites and online booksellers concentrate heavily on lists and recommendations. But let’s hope that summer reading lists (and summer reading) never go out of fashion.

When I heard that two-time Pulitzer Prize winner W.S. Merwin had been named the new Poet Laureate by the Library of Congress, I thought of our shared roots in Scranton, Pa. I was born and raised there and Merwin lived in the city from ages 9-14. His connection was covered by the local media, including the Times-Tribune and neighboring Times Leader in Wilkes-Barre.  Last year I blogged about the city’s transformation, and I returned for the first time in a year and a half two months ago, when I was one of the featured authors for the inaugural event Jewish Authors of Northeastern Pennsylvania. On my final day in town I walked through the reshaped courthouse square area, and saw the new Piazza dell’Arte sculpture paying tribute to Merwin and others from the worlds of the arts and humanities with ties to Lackawanna County.
At the author event I discussed my book, Living in More Than One World: How Peter Drucker’s Wisdom Can Inspire and Transform Your Life. There is also an important Scranton connection for Drucker. Forty six years earlier, in May 1964, he delivered the commencement address for the University of Scranton, within walking distance of my event, at the Jewish Community Center. At the time, he was 54 and a longstanding bestselling author. I was 12, living a short distance from where he spoke, and unaware of who he was. Part of my talk at the event was about how our lives intersected years later.
As for Merwin, he describes his changed, more positive feelings for Scranton in this 2008 Fresh Air interview. The Times-Tribune story says took part in a poetry series in the area about 20 years ago. What a wonderful touch it would be, if in his new capacity as Poet Laureate, he would make a return visit to Scranton to complete the circle.

As I noted in my previous post, I am writing a short series of progress reports/impressions of the first-time author experience for Living in More Than One World: How Peter Drucker’s Wisdom Can Inspire and Transform Your Life. You can only be a first-time author with a new book once in your life, and I want to make the most of it. Besides my first bookstore event last week at Reiter’s Books in Washington, I have made presentations in a variety of settings. I’ve already spoken three times for the Wharton Club of DC; twice in DC (including once for its Nonprofit Roundtable) and once at the City Club in suburban Virginia. I screened my 21 minute Drucker interview DVD at all these events, and will also be screening it on October 15, when I will do a presentation for the Wharton Club of Philadelphia. Speaking to these audiences is especially meaningful for me, as Drucker had a longstanding history with the Wharton School. I’ve also spoken at two Rotary International meetings in suburban Maryland, and have another scheduled for Washington. I haven’t screened the video at these talks. As with the Wharton events so far, Rotary has been a great audience with insightful questions. Reflecting my own different worlds, I also had a well-attended, exhilarating event in early September for DC/SLA, the local chapter of the Special Libraries Association. This had the highest percentage of friends/professional colleagues/former students in the audience. The video was well received, even by people who had seen it before! Libraries are also a crucial part of my event strategy. I had an enjoyable presentation last week at Arlington County, Va., Public Library. This held special significance as I began working on the book when I was living in Arlington, seven years ago. Next week will be the first of two dates for different locations of DC Public Library. More details are on the About page of my website. I’ll post again after I return from my publisher’s author retreat in California next week.

I haven’t posted for a few weeks, so I would like to add to my blog at least once or twice before I leave later this week for an authors’ retreat in California, sponsored by my publisher, Berrett-Koehler. It’s been a little over two months since my book, Living in More Than One World: How Peter Drucker’s Wisdom Can Inspire and Transform Your Life, was published. This post will be the first in a short series of progress reports/impressions of the first-time author experience. I’m focusing mainly on the author events, which have been some of the most crucial activities since publication date. I wrote earlier about the first event (even before the official publication date), the July 11 book signing at the American Library Association annual conference in Chicago. I’ve done a mixture of events since then, all of which have been enjoyable and gave me the opportunity to meet and work with a number of interesting new people. Each event requires considerable detail-work ahead of time. The people I’ve worked with have been very good about making sure things work as smoothly as possible. Depending on the setup, I have done a presentation based on the principles in the book, with a brief account of how I came to write it. At some places, I have screened my 21 minute DVD interview with Drucker, which always gets a positive reaction. The audiences have varied in size, but all have had interesting and thought-provoking questions during the Q&A segment. Most of the events have been and will be held in the Washington, D.C. area, where I live, but some will be held in other cities. On October 1, I did my first bookstore presentation, at Reiter’s Books, in downtown Washington. It was an exhilarating experience, with an audience mixture of friends, former students and people I had not met before. We did not screen the video. In the next post, I’ll go into more detail about where I have done the presentations so far, and where I’ll be going in the near future.

I recently wrote a post about the intersection of two of my favorite subjects, music and literature. Now I have discovered a series of posts on the Los Angeles Times’ Jacket Copy blog about rock music books and related topics, capped by The 46 essential rock reads, on Sept. 1. Obviously a list of this sort is going to be not only incomplete but controversial, as shown by the comments. But it does provide interesting food for thought. Among the 46 books is Get in the Van, by Henry Rollins, an account of his early ‘80s days as lead singer of Black Flag. Right before he moved to California to join that band in 1981, he and I were neighbors in the same apartment building in Arlington, Va. I knew him even before that, having first met him around 1979 or 1980, when I was working a part time job at the late, lamented Olsson’s Books and Records. Henry has been highly successful for many years, and he’s an intriguing example of living in more than one world: as a singer, poet, actor, DJ, entrepreneur, public speaker, etc. I met him at the same time as his friend Ian MacKaye, who has also been a longtime, huge success both in music (with Minor Threat, Fugazi and The Evens) and in business (starting and leading Dischord Records). I know from experience how hard it is to start and run an independent record label – I didn’t last long — and his success over nearly 30 years is well-earned. Among the best LA Times posts is Robin Benway’s Favorite Storytelling Songs. I was unfamiliar with her before this, but Benway is an interesting writer, and has done well with her novel, Audrey, Wait! Let’s hope that Jacket Copy returns to rock themes before a year from now.

Although it’s been over for nearly a week, you can still find lots of material online to vicariously experience the Edinburgh International Book Festival, which is billed as the largest of its type in the world. Edinburgh is a lovely city, and I’m sure it was a great setting for this 17-day celebration of the written and spoken word.  There has been considerable coverage before, during and after the event in the British media; such as this September 1 report on guardian.co.uk and another, Scottish-centric one on the same day from the [Aberdeen] Press and Journal. Among the hundreds of authors featured this year were Garrison Keillor, Margaret Atwood, Neil Gaiman, Karen Armstrong, Alexander McCall Smith, Tracy Chevalier, Margaret Drabble and Richard Dawkins. The media page of the festival’s site has lots of interesting material, including photos, blogs, and audio/video from 2009 and earlier years. I also liked the Staff Tops 10s lists. There are a number of archived stories about the festival from EdinburghGuides.com. Of course, J. K. Rowling is closely associated with Edinburgh and she read from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and answered questions at the 2004 Edinburgh Book Festival. The longtime director of the festival, Catherine Lockerbie, is stepping down this year and the occasion was commemorated in a poem by the poet laureate, Carol Ann Duffy. Read more about it (and the text of the poem) at Magnus Linklater’s August 18 story on timesonline.co.uk, Carol Ann Duffy’s tribute to departing head of Edinburgh book festival. Next year’s festival dates are August 14-30, 2010. My new goal: to not just attend, but to be booked for a future Edinburgh International Book Festival.