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- đ The Reading Journal #005
đ The Reading Journal #005
The Healing Power of Reading, Atomic Habits, Coffee, and Ikigai
đ Hey Everyone
We are hosting a giveaway this week of any book mentioned in today's Reading Journal! Share this newsletter with friends who would be interested using your personalized link. Winner will be randomly selected by the end of the week and someone from our team will reach out to you via your email. Good luck! đ
Thanks to all the readers who sent in their bookshelf pictures. For all the new readers, reply to this email with a picture of your shelf to be featured in next week's Reading Journal. We love to see them!
Jenn Trafalgi
đ Staff Pick of the Week
â Atomic Habits by James Clear
Atomic Habits is #14 on the most recommended book list, for good reason. Itâs actionable, practical and written in clear and precise prose. One of the key themes throughout Atomic Habits is automating your life, the idea that "You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems."
James Clear takes you through the psychological, scientific, and anecdotal evidence of habit formation, with practical examples and tips to help you create a new habit or eliminate a bad one. He focuses on the small winsâmaking 1% improvements every day that form the foundations of a good habit. Over time, these small improvements become the architect of our lives.â
âAn Atomic Habit is a tiny habit or change that can have an enormous impact on your life. Getting up a little earlier, deleting social media from your phone, automating your savings, developing a system, these are atomic habits. Me personally, I donât feel like I am particularly talented or even that disciplined, but I have a number of atomic habits that I started early on that have had a massive compounding benefit. My blurb of this one: âA special book that will change how you approach your day and live your life.â
â Ryan Holiday, author of Stillness is the Key
Atomic Habits is recommended by Keith Rabois, Ana Fabrega, Tim Ferriss and  19 others.
đ„ Reading Talk's
đ Best Seller - Week of July 24, 2022
đ«Atlas of the Heart by BrenĂ© Brown
In Atlas of the Heart, Brown takes us on a journey through eighty-seven of the emotions and experiences that define what it means to be human. As she maps the necessary skills and an actionable framework for meaningful connection, she gives us the language and tools to access a universe of new choices and second chancesâa universe where we can share and steward the stories of our bravest and most heartbreaking moments with one another in a way that builds connection.
Over the past two decades, Brownâs extensive research into the experiences that make us who we are has shaped the cultural conversation and helped define what it means to be courageous with our lives. Atlas of the Heart draws on this research, as well as on Brownâs singular skills as a storyteller, to show us how accurately naming an experience doesnât give the experience more powerâit gives us the power of understanding, meaning, and choice.
Brown shares, âI want this book to be an atlas for all of us, because I believe that, with an adventurous heart and the right maps, we can travel anywhere and never fear losing ourselves.â
Atlas of the Heart has been recommended by Ellen DeGeneres and Oprah Winfrey.
đ New Book List
The Library of Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
đ In Case You Missed It
đ Reading Journal Book Club
Augusts Book is Ikigai by Hector Garcia Puigcerver & Francesc Miralles.
Bring meaning and joy to all your days with this internationally bestselling guide to the Japanese concept of ikigai (pronounced ee-key-guy)âthe happiness of always being busyâas revealed by the daily habits of the worldâs longest-living people.
Whatâs your ikigai?
âOnly staying active will make you want to live a hundred years.â âJapanese proverb
According to the Japanese, everyone has an ikigaiâa reason for living. And according to the residents of the Japanese village with the worldâs longest-living people, finding it is the key to a happier and longer life. Having a strong sense of ikigaiâthe place where passion, mission, vocation, and profession intersectâmeans that each day is infused with meaning. Itâs the reason we get up in the morning. Itâs also the reason many Japanese never really retire (in fact thereâs no word in Japanese that means retire in the sense it does in English): They remain active and work at what they enjoy, because theyâve found a real purpose in lifeâthe happiness of always being busy.
In researching this book, the authors interviewed the residents of the Japanese village with the highest percentage of 100-year-oldsâone of the worldâs Blue Zones. Ikigai reveals the secrets to their longevity and happiness: how they eat, how they move, how they work, how they foster collaboration and community, andâtheir best-kept secretâhow they find the ikigai that brings satisfaction to their lives. And it provides practical tools to help you discover your own ikigai. Because who doesnât want to find happiness in every day?
âïžÂ Quote of the Week
The person who deserves most pity is a lonesome one on a rainy day who doesnât know how to read.