What do you do?  You know, the question that is harder and harder to answer in this multi-tasking, multi-description job world we live in.  What do you do?

One of my current answers is this:  I read books, and help people understand what is in them, and help them think about ways they can use this information in the work they do.

Actually, I’ve been doing this my whole life. (That is basically what I did in my preaching, in the earlier chapter of my professonal life – I read, prepared sermons, and then, hopefully, helped people understand).

But, here is a little added insight about this.  Though I’ve always believed this, today it is a little more clear:  “reading is important work, and reading well is an important job skill.”

This was made clear in a terrific Opinionator piece in today’s New York Times:  What Should Children Read?, by Sara Mosle.  She begins with this:

Malcolm Gladwell, author of “The Tipping Point” and a New Yorker staff writer, told me how he prepared, years ago, to write his first “Talk of the Town” story. “Talk” articles have a distinct style, and he wanted to make sure he got the voice straight in his head before he began writing. His approach was simple. He sat down and read 100 “Talk” pieces, one after the other.
The story nicely illustrates how careful reading can advance great writing. As a schoolteacher, I offer Mr. Gladwell’s story to students struggling with expository writing as evidence that they need not labor alone. There are models out there — if only they’ll read them!

The article is about the ever-changing “what should we teach our children/students in school” discussion.  This time, it is to have them read more nonfiction, but especially nonfiction that includes effective use of narrative.  I am a fan of this kind of nonfiction writing, and Malcolm Gladwell and Atul Gawande, two authors that I like and have read and presented, and are very good at such use of narrative, are both mentioned in the article.

I often say “the more you know, the more you know.’’ Let’s add “the more you read, the more you know.”  And so, Malcolm Gladwell read 100 articles to prepare for one talk.  That is, 100 articles just to get a feel for the flow and flavor of the event, in addition to what he read to prepare the specific material he presented.  His work – his “preparation work” – was the task of reading, a lot.  The unspoken but important observation is this:  Malcolm Gladwell is a very good reader – he is good at reading.  Whatever his job is, his job includes reading well.

Karl Krayer and I read 24 business books a year.  (Actually, we read far more than this – but we read these 24 in order to present our synopses of these books).  Since we have to share the key insights with the participants at our monthly event, the First Friday Book Synopsis (and the people who purchase our synopses, audio + handouts, at our companion web site, 15minutebusinessbooks.com), we read these in a more “notice-the-details way. Bob Morris, who now posts on his own blog, Blogging on Business (but still shares plenty with us here on our blog), reads more books than I can count, and offers reviews and insights and interviews with authors that really are valuable to any life-long learner.

But, though we “read” to share what we learn and discern with you and others, there is no substitute.  You have to read for yourself.  The act of reading is work – important work.  Life-expanding, thought-expanding, business-expanding work.  Don’t neglect it.

And whatever else education is, it is this – learning to read well, with enjoyment, and comprehension.

Here’s how Ms. Mosle ends her article:

If students read 100 such articles over the course of a year, they may not become best-selling authors, but like Mr. Gladwell, they’ll get the sound and feel of good writing in their heads. With luck, when they graduate, there will still be ranks of literary nonfiction authors left for them to join.