August ‘23 Recap

episode SUMMARY:

In this episode of the Books for Men podcast, host Douglas Vigliotti expresses gratitude to the listeners, recaps the month of August 2023, and emphasizes that the show is not exclusive to men, despite its title. He shares his experience of being in Croatia and how traveling reminds him not to judge people, places, and things based on appearances but to embrace curiosity and let people, places, and things surprise him. Vigliotti then provides a recap of the three books featured in the month's episodes: The Paradox of Choice by Barry Schwartz, Shoe Dog by Phil Knight, and Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zine. He briefly discusses the themes and messages of each book and encourages listeners to listen to the corresponding episodes for more information. He concludes by mentioning the website BooksforMen.org, where listeners can find full transcripts of the episodes and sign up for the newsletter, and reminds listeners they can connect with him on Instagram @douglasvigliotti.

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Welcome back to Books for Men, a podcast to inspire more men to read and bring together men who do. So. As always, I want to first and foremost send a big thank you to all of you, everyone who listens to the show, and even more so to anyone who has supported the show in any of the various forms of liking, subscribing, following rating, reviewing on any of the podcast platforms that you listen to this on. Doing that helps other people and new listeners find the show and even more to the people who take the time to share the podcast with a friend or a family member via word of mouth because that is probably the most direct way that you can support the show and in return, it supports awareness around the initiative, which again, as I always lead this off with, is to inspire more men to read. And you are an essential part of making that happen.

(01:04)

And I guess it's worth mentioning because I haven't said it in a while, although I hope that this podcast reaches the ears of a lot of men. I definitely don't want to exclude women from the show because that's not the intent behind the title or the concept of the show at all. It's funny, I was just in Croatia and I was in a conversation with a female, and when I told her the name of the show, she kind of looked at me side-eyed and was like, “Have you ever thought about renaming it? Because I would never listen to that show.” And sometimes I get this response and then I have to follow it up with, “It's a podcast designed to inspire more men to read.” It's not like I'm making a statement saying, these books are not for women.

(01:56)

I'm just trying to put it out there as these are books that men could read. And there's nothing that qualifies it as a book for a man except that I'm a man. I really like this book for this particular reason. And so you're a man and you might like this book too. That's really the only qualification for the show. But it's interesting to have these conversations in public and see people's responses. I will say that generally I've had a lot of really good responses to the theme and the concept of the show, but I do think, or I am aware that potentially the name is alienating for some people because they're judging a book by its cover or misconstruing what the show is about. And it's interesting, I just mentioned that I was in Croatia, and one of the things that I'm always reminded of when I travel is exactly what I had just mentioned, never to judge a book by its cover, never to judge people on a surface level and really just let them surprise you.

(03:05)

This is just the thing I love the most about traveling, especially internationally, where most of the people that you meet are so culturally different and they come from such a vast array of different backgrounds, nationalities, and living situations, that it's really fun to connect with people, as I just mentioned, let them surprise you. The reason why I say this … and I don't want to tout my own show, but I hope that if you are an active listener, you could tell people, “Let the show surprise you.” Don't be swayed away by its title, what you think it is, or what you think you're going to hear. And honestly, as an overall message, I think that that is a strong one to even try to lead your life with. It's something that I have written on a piece of paper on my desk, and it's something that I try to remind myself about all the time, is to let people surprise me, let the world surprise me, approach it with a sense of wonder instead of a sense of knowing or a sense of certainty.

(04:19)

If there's one thing that my old podcast pointed out is that almost everything in this world is not what it seems. All right, I will get off my soapbox and get on with the recap. This was a three-book month, two nonfiction books in one fiction book. The first nonfiction book of the month was The Paradox of Choice by Barry Schwartz, and it was a self-help psychology, social science type of book. And it mixed a compelling case that some choice is good, but more choice is probably not good. And the reason why he says that is because more choice creates increased paralysis and decreased satisfaction. And honestly, I find it very hard to argue with him, and this is why I shared it as a lover of the less is more concept generally in life. This book fits right in with my thinking, but because I am a man of many contradictions, I decided to share the second nonfiction book Shoe Dog by Phil Knight, which probably makes the case for striving for more in your life.

(05:30)

Not to say that The Paradox of Choice or the author of that book wouldn't agree with a lot of the things or some of the things in Shoe Dog, but I thought it was an interesting juxtaposition. Whereas one book talks about less being more. This other book, although completely different style, it's a memoir from the creator of Nike, really that spans over 18 years from the seed idea in 1962, all the way to 1980, the year the company went public. It reads pretty much like a first-person novel, but it makes the case for the American dream and achieving your dreams and going for more in your life and what is the benefit of that. And there's a lot of it that I do agree with. It's a really fun book to read, and you can go back and listen to either of these episodes if you want to dive deeper.

(06:16)

And lastly, the sole work of fiction for the month was Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. It is a literary contemporary novel that follows Sam and Sadie, two lifelong friends as they build a gaming company and achieve massive success, but not without many challenges, both personally and professionally. In short, it's really a love story, but not like you’re thinking, one that is extremely unique, extremely novel, and will make you think a lot about life and artistry and friendship and relationships and partnerships and all of the above, really. I love this novel for a lot of reasons. It got a lot of acclaim over the last year. It came out only a year ago, and it's probably the newest novel that I've ever featured on the show, but for good reason and just like the others, if you want to know more about it, then definitely go back and listen to that episode.

(07:14)

Alright, that's all I've got, and since I already gave you a big spiel at the top, I will close this out rather quickly. I just want to remind you that if you want more information, you can always visit BooksforMen.org where you can get full transcripts for every episode, as well as sign up for the newsletter, which is a monthly roundup of all of the episodes complete with full book and author information, all the best quotes and newsletter only book recommendations. So again, if you're interested in that, just head over to BooksforMen.org.