In recent years, the rise of virtual stores such as Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, and Christianbook.com have created a paradigm shift in the book business, for merchants and consumers alike. Today, we can browse the stalls and buy our books online, rather than standing in line. And for those who find bookstores overwhelming, it’s certainly an option.

Somehow, though, I’m confident that no matter what the future holds for e-commerce, brick and mortar bookstores are here to stay. They may be morphing from the dusty old “shoppes,” run by dustier old booksellers, into megastores, but they’ll continue to be part of the fabric of American life. I could almost guarantee that on my personal participation alone! My visits to the local Borders near my home average three a week. You could say I know my way around a bookstore.

If bookstores are like a foreign land to you, your feelings about going into one may be closer to fear, intimidation, or even sheer terror. The phrase “it’s a jungle out there” comes to mind.

I can relate to that. I’ve been in a few unfamiliar places—and I’ve survived. Since this is one place I’m very familiar with, let me take a moment or two to offer my services as your personal guide—“your jungle cruise director,” as they say at the Disney theme parks. If your pith helmet is secured, let’s go. I promise, you won’t regret this trip. Unlimited worlds await you!

I went to a bookstore and asked the
saleswoman, “Where’s the self-help section?”
She said if she told me, it would
defeat the purpose.

—George Carlin, comedian

One More Thing . . . Before You Walk In

When you make a commitment to become a reader, it’s not a casual thing. I read. It’s my hobby and avocation; it’s what I do. As a reader, I’ve also become a student of the industry, so I know that, even with a 10 percent decline reported in 2005 new titles, on average there are over 170,000 new books published each year—and that’s not counting the rising numbers of books that are self-published. Each of those titles averages sales of about 6,000 copies, total. Not much when you think about it. That’s why this first step is critical. I want to help unlock the doors on those difficult reading choices for you, so let me tell you how I make mine.

This is critical: you must have an interest! If you’re not passionate, you’ll never be able to fake it. Over my lifetime, I’ve developed a veritable Christmas list of interests, and each one of those has been brought to life by books. Here’s what I mean:

Baseball

When Dad gave me that Pop Warner book that started it all, there was no stemming the tide. My collection of baseball books began during my boyhood, with those used books I found in New York. I may not have become a major-league player, but those books without doubt inspired my lifetime career in professional sports.

Abraham Lincoln

Over the years, I’ve visited almost all the major Civil War sites and read every book on the life of Lincoln I can find. You’d think a point would come where you run out—that there are no more books to be written. But people still buy them and read about old Abe—they’re the folks in line behind me.

Mountain Climbing

In the mid-1990s, I took a bold step. And then I took another, and another, and another—all the way up Mount Rainier. It’s the only time I went mountain climbing on a grand scale, but it got my blood pumping on that topic. I became absolutely fascinated with mountain climbing, appreciative of it, fascinated by it. To this day a good mountain book comes, and I’m probably in the middle of it—all because of having ascended that one time.

Public Speaking

Speaking opportunities first began to come my way in the 1970s, when I was general manager of the Chicago Bulls. As I got more invitations, I wanted to improve. I already knew the best way to do that was to study the masters—the best speakers, the best teachers. So hardly a book comes out on public speaking in which I’m not immersed. If I only learn one or two little things that might help me, it’s worth it. My passion for this topic even led to a book on public speaking that my wife, Ruth, and I wrote in 2005 called Turn Boring Orations into Standing Ovations.

Walt Disney, Jackie Robinson, and Coach Wooden

What do these three men, from vastly different areas of expertise, have in common? All are legendary men whose lives have deeply impacted mine. In fact, I’ve written a book about each one of them. When I wrote How to Be Like Walt, How to Be Like Jackie Robinson, and How to Be Like Coach Wooden, I became intrigued with the lives of these legends. As part of my research, I tracked down every single written word I could find about them. I don’t think there’s one word written about Coach Wooden that I haven’t found.

What I want you to grasp is that reading interests come from life interests. You’ve got to be immersed in life. You’re never too old to create new interests, as I learned climbing Mount Rainier, and when you have an interest, you want to learn about it. The best way to learn is to read. If you have no interests, no curiosity, it’s going to be tough for you to be a reader. You cannot read in fields in which you’re not interested. It’s too tough an assignment.

What topics rivet you? When I go into a bookstore, I know I can eliminate fiction right off the top. I don’t read fiction. That’s not a judgment, mind you, just a personal preference. My areas of interest are these: sports, naturally; business—specifically, leadership and management; Christian inspiration—we can all become more like our role models; self-help; current events; American history; biography. So that’s where I go. I don’t go to the computer section or the gardening section. I don’t wander, and I don’t spend time in sections in which I’m not interested.

I feel so incompetent when I walk into
a bookstore. There’s so much there that I don’t
know. Education teaches you to read, and
reading is a way for you to educate yourself.
It’s important, more so today, because
society is changing.

—Fisher DeBerry, Air Force football coach

So before I even walk into that bookstore, I already have in mind what I’m after. If you’re not sure what that is, ask yourself these questions:

• What am I interested in? Is there a topic you’d like to know more about? A field of study you’d like to explore? Or maybe you’re already a recognized leader in your arena, but you want to know what other leaders are saying in order to a) support their message; b) correct their message; or, c) identify and prepare to meet areas their message is missing.

• Where do I need to improve my skills? What would you like to be able to do better? Maybe you know you need to develop an area of your life, as I did with public speaking back when I first discovered the book by Bill Glass. You’d love to go to those seminars, but who can afford them? Well, guess what? Many of those seminar leaders have written books containing the information you’d get from a costly seminar. Peter Drucker, for example, is justifiably recognized as the kingfish, the guru of contemporary leadership thinking. Though he left this world not long ago, his thoughts are still with us—in the many books he left behind on leadership. Maybe you missed the man, but you don’t have to miss his message. Think about what you’re burning to know, then look for a category it might fit into once you’re in the store. Spend a few bucks on a book or two, and you’ll get all the information you’d have gotten from the seminar. You’ve just gotten it more directly. Instead of listening hard and racing to take notes, it’s all there in the book. Open the book, open your mind, and pour it in.

• How can I do my job better or train myself for the career I really want? Maybe you’ve got your degree, and you’re using it every single day. But life is not static. What we learn in school is great, but we’ve got to keep up our skills, keep watching the market to see where it’s headed, keep our fingers on the pulse for the next paradigm shift to come along. If we don’t, we’ll find ourselves washed out by a wave we didn’t see coming. Books are like surfboards for our brains.

• Where do I need inspiration? Maybe you just need new ideas. We all do sooner or later. Here’s one of the more exciting things I’ve discovered about books: they allow you to have a brainstorming session all by yourself! There have been times I was reading, alone in a room at home, when an idea from a book just grabbed on to my brain like a power surge, and I’d leap out of the chair, shouting, “Yes! That’s what we need to do!” My wife, Ruth, wondered who I was talking with, until she realized it was just Pat, reading again.

• Where do I want truth? There is no question that today’s media has an agenda, and most of it involves capturing our minds. Once they’ve got us where they want us, who knows what fate is in store for our nation? So you and I have an obligation to learn the truth. What is really going on in this world? Here’s where you’re going to have to do a little trusting and a lot more discerning—but I have faith in you. Bookstores are filled with books to help you sort out the chaff from the wheat.

Decide in advance that you won’t waste time on topics that don’t interest you. Unless you have a lot of spare time (a rarity these days), that advance-planning strategy helps you resist the temptation to start wandering around the store. I can’t stress that enough.

There’s something special about
people who are interested in the printed word.
They are a species all their own—learned,
kind, knowledgeable, and human.

—Nathan Pine, bookseller

Remember, too, that every bookstore has employees who can help you find your way around. I’ve even heard they don’t bite, though they might foam at the mouth a little over their personal favorites—especially if they’ve just downed a cappuccino from the store’s coffee central on their break.

Ready? Let’s go on inside.

What’s in Store?

The first thing I do when I get to the store is make a beeline for the front table where the new books are. If 190,000 new books are published every year, how many do you suppose arrive each day? That front table changes every day, sometimes twice a day. Once those books leave that table and go back to the archives, they may disappear forever. That’s an almost unbearable thought!

Now remember those questions? Time to pull out that sheet of paper on which you wrote them and start looking.

• What am I interested in? Is there a book on the new-arrivals table that might fit? If not, now’s the time to begin getting familiar with those long rows of books. Pick your topic and head on over to the information desk to find out where those books are located. It’s right over there.

• Where do I need to improve my skills? I’ll always be grateful to those books by Bill Glass for building an area of my life that has become one of the most rewarding. Speaking has plussed my life in ways I could never have imagined if I’d continued to make excuses for my lack of a message. And in time, if I hadn’t figured out what that message was, my phone would have stopped ringing long ago. Today, because I speak, I travel the country, meet fascinating people, reconnect with old friends, share my enthusiasm in ways that light fires in others—the list goes on. Books can help you find new life opportunities and passionate life messages, too. Look for those books while we’re here. And don’t worry about me. While you’re looking, I’ll just be over in the history section, looking for book number 251.

• How can I do my job better or train myself for the career I really want? Check to see if there are books that help you predict trends in your field—and get out in front of that wave we talked about earlier. Ever heard that old saying, “Don’t prepare for the job you have; prepare for the one you want”? There are reasons old sayings get old—they’ve proven to be true. So take a look down that row. Don’t worry; I’ll wait . . . right over there, in the sports section.

• Where do I need inspiration? Are you a writer, an artist, a musician? Books are rich sources of ideas for your next project. Or perhaps what you need most is hope in a dark, painful area of your life. Somewhere in here, there’s a book to meet you, right where it hurts. No matter what you’re experiencing, someone has been where you are and can shed light on your darkness. I can promise you that. Light has warming, comforting, and even healing properties . . . so let someone else’s pain bind up your broken heart and point you to the hope you need.

• Where do I want truth? Look for books that give you facts and insights on issues from a variety of perspectives. Challenge yourself to think differently—open your mind to new ideas. I love what motivational guru Fred Smith says: “I get a lot of my ideas from synthesizing things from different disciplines.” Don’t be afraid to go outside the box in your search. Read, read, read—and let the innate intelligence within you synthesize it all. Let books verify truth in your life.

Ready to check out? That wasn’t so bad, was it? Maybe I’ll even see you here next time I’m in . . . probably in a couple of days.

Staying in the Game

Serious readers need to know what’s going on. So in between trips to the bookstore, I keep up with the industry by paying attention to the latest information. I read the Sunday New York Times Book Review, and then the Thursday USA Today section where they feature book news. I also subscribe to Publishers Weekly to stay current with trends and news—important for someone who reads and writes books like I do. I recommend them all.

There’s a wonderful sense of accomplishment when you walk in those bookstores and see books that you’ve already read. You look at them and know you’re already friends. When I see books in the store that I know have earned a permanent place on my finished reading shelf, I receive a great sense of satisfaction.

As an author, I can relate to the thoughts of contemporary poet Tristan Gylberd, who has observed, “There is no greater delight for an author than to stumble upon a copy of one of his own books in an unfamiliar bookshop. Of course, the comfort and consolation is soon dissipated when he discovers, to his dismay, that he has far more books in hand to purchase than he can ever hope to sell in that little place.”

When books are your passion, it’s really not such a bad problem to have.

Bookstores today are undergoing a positive change, brought on largely by the Starbucks phenomenon. When these amazing little coffee shops began popping up on every corner, it was only a matter of time before enterprising business owners saw the obvious connection: if you want people to spend time in your store, add a Starbucks. The “relax with us” message Starbucks has mastered, in almost direct opposition to the caffeine jolt they sell, has made them community hangouts, or as one writer put it, “America’s new front porch.” Thanks to their now-expected presence in Barnes & Noble stores, Starbucks has transformed the bookstore into what Orlando Sentinel columnist Kathleen Parker calls “the new public library.”

A bookstore is a place where we can really have relationships with people for their entire lives.

—Stephen Riggio, CEO of Barnes & Noble (New York Times, April 15, 2006)

Here’s another power being wielded by today’s bookstore: buyers and distributors are rapidly becoming today’s market decision-makers. These savvy sellers know what people are buying and will make decisions about what to carry in their stores based on those numbers. Publisher Brian Lewis understands this relationship, which is why he took his unknown title Has Anyone Seen Christmas? to Barnes & Noble buyer Brian Monahan in September 2005. Because he knew the work of Lewis and his author wife, Anne Margaret Lewis, he bought the book—and it became one of the breakout Christmas children’s books of that year. If you’re in the business, it’s good to get to know those book buyers.

There’s one more thing I do after I’ve made a great discovery in a bookstore: I tell people about it. When I read a book that excites me, I post the information on my website, tell my friends, family, and associates, or I talk about it when I speak in public. Please feel free to visit my site (www.patwilliamsmotivate.com) frequently for suggestions. You just might find a challenging title or two that will help you see life in a new way. Expanded thinking is always a good thing.

Before we walk out of the store, I want to share a little good news I read recently in a New York Times interview (April 15, 2006) with Barnes & Noble CEO Stephen Riggio. “Reports of the book industry’s demise have been greatly exaggerated over the last twenty years,” Riggio said. “And they’ve been unsupported by any sound research.”

I don’t know about you, but remarks like that from industry-leading experts definitely recharge my reading batteries.

Action 4: Your Library Card—Don’t Leave Home Without It

One of the other great benefits of reading is it doesn’t have to cost you a lot of money. Oh, it can! Would anyone else out there like to give a testimony on that? Yes, reading certainly can cost you money if you have a habit like mine to support.

But taking out a second mortgage on your home or giving up your kids’ college-education fund is not necessary to make reading books a healthy, happy, lifetime pursuit. Thanks to men like Benjamin Franklin, our nation is populated with public libraries. When Franklin and his Junto cronies created the first public libraries, they made books accessible to more people. Before those libraries came into existence, only people of means were able to afford them, limiting education to only certain people. We owe a great debt to old Ben, in so many ways. Next time you pick up a book, think of Ben Franklin and thank him.

Planning a trip to the library is a great opportunity for making lists of all the books you want to read. Keep it handy and take it with you every time you visit the library. When you find a book on your list, make sure to check it off, and keep on adding new titles. And last I heard, library cards were free. Of course, the fines you’ll pay for letting your book return date go by can add up, but as I see it, it’s all the more reason to make use of that speed-reading course.

When we are collecting books, we are collecting happiness.

—Vincent Starrett, book collector and author

When you walk into your local library, don’t be dismayed if the current bestsellers aren’t there just yet. Wait long enough, and they will be.

Libraries are set up a little differently than bookstores, but once you get the hang of it, locating just the book you want is not difficult. And if the title you had in mind is checked out this week, there’s likely another joyful discovery nearby.

In the late 1800s, a librarian by the name of Melvil Dewey invented a system of categorizing library books using decimals. We know that system today as the Dewey decimal classification system, and it is used by all public libraries in the United States. This system makes books pretty easy to find once you’ve identified the overall category to search.

Inside your library, you’ll find card catalogs to help you locate the books you want and, in most cases, banks of computers to help you find them even faster. Plug in the title, author, or category, and within seconds you’ll know a) whether or not the library has that book; b) its on-loan status; and c) exactly where you’ll find it on the shelves. You’ll see a number that will look something like this: 813.45. That is the book’s Dewey decimal name, and means that on one side of it you’re likely to find book 813.44, and on the other side book 813.46. See? Nothing to it. Typically, that system follows last name of the author, another helpful tool in finding your book.

This is where I confess that, as familiar as my face is at my neighborhood Borders, I’m not well known to my local public librarian. My disadvantage where libraries are concerned is that I like to mark up my books and photocopy key information from them. I can’t do that with library books. In spite of that, I’m grateful to old Ben for giving America its fine network of public libraries. What a vast treasure-house of books they make available to us—for free!

Getting my library card was like citizenship.
It was like American citizenship.

—Oprah Winfrey

Libraries are great places to take kids. Introduce them at a young age to the rich smell of bookbinding, the feel of paper, the weight of that book in their hands. Let their eyes dance over the letters on the pages, even when they’re too young to know what those letters represent. They’ll want to know soon enough, and this exposure reinforces reading as an essential, fulfilling part of life.

If you haven’t been to the library in a while, why not make it your next outing? You might come home with a few new treasures. Trips to the library are an American tradition. As Jennifer Moses suggested in her May 15, 2006, article for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, “To put it plainly: Democracy needs readers. Want to show your patriotism? Forget the flag-waving, and take your kids to the library instead.”

Knowing how to read, after all, is only half the conquest. Finding books to read, knowing where they are and how to get them, is the thrill of the hunt. Somehow, I think old Ben must have realized the power in an educated public back when it was his goal to make them part of the American landscape. Thanks for seeing it through, Ben!

Before we leave the library, I want to share a story I happened on recently that makes my case very well. It involves a librarian who was dutifully checking in books when she looked up to see a chicken on her counter. Having caught her eye, the chicken squawked, “Book, book, book, BOOK!” Surprised, the librarian put a small stack of books in front of the bird, who grabbed them and left the building. This scene repeated itself for several days in a row. Finally, the librarian’s curiosity could take it no longer. One day, she followed the chicken all the way to a large park. He waddled to the pond and stopped. She crept as close as she could and found the chicken next to a small frog. Together, they carefully examined each book, and the frog said, “Read it, read it, read it . . .”

There you have it, my friends. If even the chickens and frogs are checking books out of the library, what is your excuse?

The New You Factor: So What Can I Do About It?

By now, it’s my hope you’ve already begun to do something about it. You’ve taken my reading challenge, and you’re committed to that hour a day. In time, you’ll begin to naturally weed out those books that muddle your thinking from those that inspire you. As your reading skills improve, your language and thinking skills are sharpened in the bargain. Set these goals for yourself, and you’ll soon see a new you taking shape:

1. Accept my reading challenge! I’ve issued a call to action and rallied the reading troops. The question is no longer “what can I do about it?” but “what are you going to do about it?” I’m guessing there might be a book or two in your home you’ve always intended to read. Go get them down off the bookshelf now. I’ll wait.

Good. Now put them in the stack by your reading chair, ready to dig into one after you’ve finished this one. With books, as with any project, I’ve discovered the best thing to do is always have the next one waiting in the wings. Maybe you understand the phenomenon of letdown that often occurs when you’ve finished something amazing, something into which you’ve poured your heart, mind, and strength. One almost surefire way to bounce out of that low spot is to quickly engage in a new endeavor. So have that next book handy and ready to go. Of course, you should definitely take time after each book to reflect on what you just read and decide how to apply it to your life. But once that action plan has been made and you’ve folded it into the new you, get going on the next book.

2. Exercise daily. Regular workouts not only strengthen your body, they are critical wherever you desire excellence in your life. If you want to get better at anything, you’ve got to practice it daily. Knowing how to read is only one step toward conquering illiteracy. We all know how to eat, but unless we know where to go for food, we’ll surely die of malnutrition. Whether you choose the bookstore, the public library, or your own private selection, know where to go for your daily workout sessions.

3. Recognize why reading goals—and all goals—matter. Entertainer John Morgan wrote me, “Reading is right! I have grown in many ways . . . through my reading and study of valuable books. I have fallen short of my reading one hour minimum per day,” Morgan confessed, “but at the very least I have a goal, and I have read vastly greater amounts than I would otherwise have done without it.”

So actually achieving your goals isn’t necessarily why you need to make them. Goals are like targets. They are like destinations on a map—in this case, the map of your life. They focus your vision and energy on what you want to accomplish. You may or may not reach all those goals. In truth, most of us reach some of them. Few of us reach all of them. But without a goal, you’ll be like the guy who got in his car and just started driving. Because he never knew where he was headed, he ended up stranded on the road, out of gas, and lost. Don’t get lost! Books, by the way, are great tools for adjusting those road markers and compass headings.

Speaking of reading goals, both U.S. News & World Report and the Wall Street Journal ran articles in 2006 about President Bush’s decision that year to enter a book-reading competition with advisor Karl Rove. You can’t tell me the president of the United States isn’t a busy man—but he recognizes the importance of books to staying educated, and of goals to reach destinations. Writer Kenneth T. Walsh (U.S. News & World Report, August 17, 2006) more than gently implied Bush’s reading competition was an attempt to improve his less than scholarly image. Perhaps that factored in to his motivation, but at least he recognizes that books offer a direct route to greater knowledge, and he’s set a reading goal.

4. Rehearse your reading. Everything we do, even those things we do well, can be improved upon. Take those tips from Margaret Cotton and begin applying them in your daily reading. Even if you do your reading on the computer screen, there are ways to employ these pointers. In fact, a pointer is one of them. Take a thin stick of some kind—a pen, pencil, small pointer, or even the built-in cursor—and use it to guide your eyes down the screen.

5. Practice speed-reading during your hour a day. Keep track of how your daily quota increases as you practice what you’ve learned in this chapter. There is something both exhilarating and challenging about seeing yourself improve.

While writing this book, I grew wild-eyed with amazement over an article I spotted in the Wall Street Journal about revived interest in the Evelyn Wood method I described earlier. Specifically, the article said, it is catching on with businesspeople “trying to cope with information overload” (Shivani Vora, July 25, 2006).

The Leaders and Success section of Investor’s Business Daily recently featured an article on the value of reading faster. In it, they recommended a book called Speed Reading for Professionals (Bernard Wechsler and Arthur Bell, Barron’s Educational Series, 2005). Acknowledging the growing reading load of today’s professionals, the article advised that when reading, we should take special note of: place (comfortable with good lighting); pacing (using that finger or pen trick I gave you to keep from letting your mind wander); progress (avoid the temptation to go backward, even if you’re afraid you missed something—you’ll likely pick it up later); paper (that notebook I recommended to write down important points); and an interesting tip called palm, or “fist notes” to keep track of the “who, what, where, when, and how of what you’re reading” (“Read Faster, Learn More,” Investor’s Business Daily, December 11, 2006).

You can imagine my joy at seeing the same tips I’ve shared with you here reinforced in these articles. Practice them daily. I believe you’ll be amazed at how your reading improves.

6. Look for ways to retain what you read. This can be a tricky step, even for a practiced reader like me. I was grateful for these tips I found in a book by Rick Rusaw (60 Simple Secrets Every Pastor Should Know, Group Publishing, 2002). Even though it is directed at pastors, the book contains great practical tips for anyone who finds themselves frequently asking, “Now where did I read that?” Rusaw recommends:

• Writing the beginning of the sentence and the page number in the back of the book, and even summarizing the idea if it helps. That trick makes it easy to find a source or quote when you need it.

• Rusaw also likes to use a system of hieroglyphics, his own personally devised code, to identify major topics. Just as Rusaw did, you can develop a system that works for you.

The idea is to identify a method that helps you remember—and use it!

7. Take a trip this week to your local bookstore or to the library. Practice those techniques we discussed. Make it a point to go at least once a week or once a month to a bookstore or library. Before long, you’ll be navigating those aisles like one born to the purpose. In time, you’ll be the one giving the guided tours. What better way to pass on the joy of reading than to help others make the same discovery! Yes, publishers and authors definitely appreciate your business . . . but it goes way beyond that. Acquiring books, reading them, and then placing them in your home library is like creating a blueprint of your mind. And you get to be the draftsman! Start that custom design today.

Whether you read from a book in your hands or from an electronic version on your desk or laptop, with practice, you can read faster and retain more. While you’re setting goals, why not make a weekly reading goal? Maybe a book a week, or if you’re already good at it, maybe two. If even one sounds like an impossible dream to you, set that goal anyway. You’d be amazed at what the power of a dream can do.

8. Build a home library. No personal possessions will satisfy you more than those books. Every time you walk into that room, it’s like a family get-together, but without the cooking, cleaning, or arguments. Cicero said, “A room without books is like a body without a soul.” I fully grasp that meaning. As our soul is the basis for our personality, so books inform that soul. They help make us who we are. Books are like the secret ingredients, without which your cake recipe would fall flat and tasteless. Whether you buy your books at a local bookseller, from Amazon.com, or from one of the thousands of used bookstores rapidly growing in popularity, build a personal library. Nothing quite tells the story of your life like the books you love to read.

So do the math: one hour each day in a book, plus regular trips to your local bookstore or library to round out your reading stack, plus daily practice at improving your reading skills, equals a you who is better equipped to 1) do almost anything you want to do, and 2) be a personal part of the solution to America’s reading crisis.

Now that we’ve cracked the how-to codes for daily reading, and bookstore and library navigation, let’s explore ways to impact our world far into the future with this newfound love of words. Turn the page with me and step into tomorrow.