Hi all:
If we’re really about improvement or change, our focus should aim to balance out what we’re doing physically. Reading … that other kind of improvement is the chance to improve one’s mind. And, it does if you stick with it. All kinds of things happen – our experience of our world broadens, we develop perspective on issues and events, our vocabulary improves and we find ourselves relating with others well because we’ve developed ‘good and growing understanding.’ And, reading allows us to escape the day’s demands or a season’s doldrums – wherever we find ourselves.
In all this ‘standing-up, taking a step and repeating’, the other ingredient is ‘recovery’, our rest days. It probably is appropriate that we develop that other mantra concerning the growth we can participate in on a rest day – reading. What would it be? “Sit down, read, turn-the-page, repeat.”
“Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.” - Joseph Addison
Here’s some book recommendations, from North of the 58th parallel. As well, please note that while I do sit and turn many pages, I often will take a book on my iPod out for a walk … or for a long drive ... or for some road work while cycling. Enjoy.
Sport 
The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner – Alan Silitoe
Into Thin Air – John Krakauer
It’s Not About the Bike – Lance Armstrong et al
Every Second Counts – Lance Armstrong et al
Personal Change/Growth 
The Big Moo by Seth Godin
Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart – Gordon Livingston
Rich Dad, Poor Dad - Robert Kiyosaki
Success Principles – Jack Canfield
The Secret – Rhonda Byrne
A Whack on the Side of the Head: How You Can Be More Creative – Roger von Oech
On Becoming Human – Jean Vanier
Fiction 
My Dream of You – Nuala O’Faolain
The Time Traveller’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
The Mission Song – John Le Carre
Teacher Man – Frank McCourt
Harry Potter, The Chamber of Secrets
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
The Alchemist – Paul Coehlo
Tracks – Louis Erdrich
The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown
The Coffee Trader – David Liss
Others recommended to be read shortly: 
Pay it Forward by Catherine Ryan Hyde
A Suitable Boy--Vikram Seth
A River Runs Through It by Norman MacLean
Eragon, the Eldest - Christopher Paolini
Like Water for Chocolate – Laura Esquival
Village of the Small Houses – Ian Ferguson (the Canadian frontier … written about our region of Alberta)
Tristan et Iseut (the legend preceding the Arthurian tales)
A Time for Judas – Morley Callaghan
The Five People You Meet in Heaven – Mitch Albom
Tuesdays with Morrie – Mitch Albom
Favourites 
Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency – Douglas Adams
The Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul – Douglas Adams.
The Red Fox – Anthony Hyde
Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
