August ‘22 Recap

episode SUMMARY:

In this episode of the Books for Men podcast, host Douglas Vigliotti provides a recap of the books featured in the first month of the show, August 2022. The month included three fiction books and two non-fiction books, covering a range of genres and topics. Vigliotti emphasizes the importance of "The Interest Principle," which encourages readers to pursue books that they are genuinely interested in. He also announces the upcoming release of The Books for Men Newsletter, which will feature a round-up of every episode with full book and author information, as well as quotes from each book. It will be available to subscribers on the website and aims to inspire more men to read. Vigliotti encourages listeners to share the podcast and the initiative with others.

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READ THE TRANSCRIPT:

Welcome back to Books for Men, a podcast to inspire more men to read and bring together men who do. So I thought this would be a fun way to tie a bow on the first month of the podcast and do a quick recap episode. And I might look to do these moving forward. They're just going to be short three to five minute episodes just to sum up all of the books that we had featured in that month previously. So they're not going to be as detailed as say the episodes are, but I thought it would be a nice way to introduce new listeners to some of the books that we had previously featured without having to have them go back and listen to all of the previous episodes. And also for you, the devoted Books for Men listener who's been there since the beginning. Just to jog your memory.

(00:56)

And as a reminder of some of the stuff that we had covered, and it was a solid, solid first month, we did three fiction books and two non-fiction books. And the three fiction books were one, Miles from Nowhere by Nami Mun, two Lush Life by Richard Price, and three, Night Prayers by Santiago Gamboa. And then the two nonfiction books were The Tiger by John Vaillant and Skin in the Game by Nasim Nicholas Taleb. We did a full range of books. We had literary crime, crime, literary genre mix, big idea, philosophy, and then a narrative non-fiction book. And so we covered a pretty good gambit there. One of the things that I wanted to kind of reiterate is that I am sharing in recommending books that I think you'll like. Yes, 100%. However, the most important idea that I can introduce to you is one that I call “The Interest Principle.”

(02:00)

And The Interest Principle is one that I sort of live my life by—do the things that you're interested in because you're going to be more prone to doing them, doing them more often, having more fun with them, being more engaged with them, being more passionate and willing to share about them. And that's no different for reading. So although I'm sharing different kinds of books that I think you'll like, and hopefully I'm engaging you in a way where you are interested in reading one or two of them, maybe the most important thing is for you to just pick up the book and read whatever you're interested in. I don't care if it's ponies or hockey or golf or crime or whatever it is, if you pick up what you're interested in reading, it will lead to other things. I didn't start enjoying everything that I recommend to you on the podcast.

(02:51)

I started with one thing that led to the next, that led to the next, that led to the next. And I'm just a huge proponent of what I call the interest principle because I feel like for the aforementioned reasons, it is the most important factor in learning anything really is your engagement and your interest in it. If you're not interested in it, you're not going to do it. With that being said, I also know that we have many veteran seasoned readers that are on the podcast or that are listeners of the podcast, I should say. And maybe your reading is already well varied or you're, I will remind you that we featured five truly great books on the first month of the show. I will say that if you find yourself in a reading slump, go back to the interest principle. What are you interested in that might help you get out of it?

(03:41)

I always lean on it. It's basically the North Star in my life. All right, so lastly, just to wrap up this recap episode, I want to remind you that tomorrow the first issue of The Books for Men Newsletter is coming out, and that is going to be a roundup of all the books and authors that you've heard on the show to date. It will also introduce a cool feature that is only going to be available to newsletter subscribers, which is the Books for Man Hall of Fame inductee. So each month I will select a new author to induct into the Books for Men Hall of Fame. The only parameter is that they have to be dead, so they cannot be living. And I thought that would be a good parameter or a good rule or guideline for the Books for Men Hall of Fame.

(04:32)

Got to draw the line in the sand somewhere. There are a lot of authors out there, a lot of great authors out there, worthy candidates, obviously for the Books for Men Hall of Fame, I want to remind you that you could sign up for that newsletter at BooksforMen.org and please, please continue to share the podcast and the initiative more important than anything else with family and friends, and especially men who read. We need women and men to do that if we're going to continue to push the initiative forward, which is the ultimate goal for this show, and that is to inspire more men to read and bring together men who do. So, thank you so much for listening, and I will see you next Monday with a brand new episode.