I’m one of those annoying people who recommends books.

It’s less about expecting people to read the book than it is about feeling a physical compulsion to recommend it – as if I swallowed the book and need to puke it up all over everyone.

Most people do not read the books I recommend. Dad, you’re the one exception. Thanks man!

But like I told my wife, if you read this book you will never have to listen to me talk about this topic again (she immediately queued up the audiobook in Spotify).

So here I am puking on you: If you’re a parent, a grandparent, an aunt or uncle, an educator, or anyone who interacts with children, I implore you to read The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness, by Jonathan Haidt.

Or you can call me and I will summarize it for you in less than three hours.

Or you can do what most people do and not read it at all.

There. Now I feel better.

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2 responses to “I Read It So You Don’t Have To (But You Should)”

  1. jph1312gmailcom Avatar
    jph1312gmailcom

    Thanks Rory. Short and to the point. Can’t wait to read the book. I’d like to have a conversation about this over a beer or coffee one day at your convenience. Jim Hughes 517-230-4276

    “Let no one be discouraged by the belief there’s nothing one man or one woman can do against the enormous array of the world’s ills–against misery and ignorance, injustice and violence…few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each one of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those events will be written the history of this generation. It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a person stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, one sends a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.” * Robert F. Kennedy, June 6, 1966 *

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  2.  Avatar
    Anonymous

    I think book recommendations are more like offering seeds that you believe have value. If they reach the right environment, they’ll grow and flourish. If not, unlike puke, they’ll wither or blow away without any real need to clean up. I say, keep offering seeds you think have value.

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