The obvious way to get knowledge is through experience. But books are a pretty good alternative.
I can’t go back in time to Cold War Berlin, but I can read Anna Funder’s Stasiland and get a good sense of it. I’m no expert on green matters, but Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring gives me a sense of where the modern environmental movement began. I’m pro capitalism, so have read my Adam Smith, Milton Friedman and von Hayek. Yet The Communist Manifesto and Das Capital helped me understand why people saw socialism as the answer.
If books do this for us, again why aren’t we smarter? Because just as we don’t have the time or ability to experience all things, neither do we have the time or ability to read everything that may advance us in life or work, or make us a better citizen, parent, or boss.
So what can we do?
People who know about my 50 Classics series, which covers the key writings in many subjects, from philosophy to economics to business to psychology, often assume I have huge knowledge. Actually, I have excellent knowledge of what I don’t know. The 50 Classics books are just an entry point, and I’m always hungry to know about more ideas, disciplines, and people.
Why? Because it’s all fascinating in itself, and because it may help me build an intellectual framework to say something original, one day.
I can’t go back in time to Cold War Berlin, but I can read Anna Funder’s Stasiland and get a good sense of it. I’m no expert on green matters, but Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring gives me a sense of where the modern environmental movement began. I’m pro capitalism, so have read my Adam Smith, Milton Friedman and von Hayek. Yet The Communist Manifesto and Das Capital helped me understand why people saw socialism as the answer.
If books do this for us, again why aren’t we smarter? Because just as we don’t have the time or ability to experience all things, neither do we have the time or ability to read everything that may advance us in life or work, or make us a better citizen, parent, or boss.
So what can we do?
People who know about my 50 Classics series, which covers the key writings in many subjects, from philosophy to economics to business to psychology, often assume I have huge knowledge. Actually, I have excellent knowledge of what I don’t know. The 50 Classics books are just an entry point, and I’m always hungry to know about more ideas, disciplines, and people.
Why? Because it’s all fascinating in itself, and because it may help me build an intellectual framework to say something original, one day.
It’s with all this in mind that I leapt at the opportunity of helping create a new knowledge product called Book Insights. I started talking to hibooks, based in San Francisco, about a year ago. They liked my 50 Classics books, but imagined the same concept reaching more people through their audio publishing platform. I would write or edit commissioned 3,000-4,000 word pieces on key non-fiction books, from Aristotle and St Augustine right up to Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens and Michelle Obama’s Becoming. The pieces would then be recorded by professional narrators so people could listen to them on the go, or just late at night lying in bed. And for anyone not into audio, they could just read the text version.
What we're doing is choosing three or four important themes from each book, talking about them, then adding in context, analysis, and comparison with other books in the field. Perhaps you only have time to read a few books a year, but you know that just a single important insight can put you on the path to something great. Book Insights aims to help you discover the titles that can be transformative for you.
I’m confident that if you’ve liked any of my previous books, you’ll enjoy the Insights. Except now, there’s the added dimension of it being online and in audio.
Book Insights homepage:
https://memod.com/insights/
Get the free Insights Weekly email to hear about the latest Book Insight releases:
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I’m confident that if you’ve liked any of my previous books, you’ll enjoy the Insights. Except now, there’s the added dimension of it being online and in audio.
Book Insights homepage:
https://memod.com/insights/
Get the free Insights Weekly email to hear about the latest Book Insight releases:
Add your email here
As Book Insights launches, I want to say a deep thanks for buying my books in the past, or sharing them with friends. I’ve had email chats with many of you, and made lifelong friends through my writing.
It would be wonderful if you would now join me on this next step through the door of enlightenment and knowledge.
Kind regards,
Tom Butler-Bowdon
It would be wonderful if you would now join me on this next step through the door of enlightenment and knowledge.
Kind regards,
Tom Butler-Bowdon
