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I go through phases of reading books. I really started to read books for the shear enjoyment of it back in college. Before then the only books I read were assignments from school teachers and were rarely interesting and never worth talking about. Since college, I’ve gone into lulls now and then where I either don’t have the time to read or don’t have the ambition. When I lived in NYC and commuted to work everyday via subway and bus I read a lot of books. It’s a great way to tune out your fellow New Yorkers and relax in an otherwise hectic environment. Since moving back to New Jersey, I drive to work and I think there may be a law prohibiting the reading of non-fiction and operating 2,000 lbs. of steel at 60 mph.

My business trips got me back into books. Before working at the company I am at, I never went on business trips – nor did I ever think the position of Art Director would ever warrant it. But, since I love to travel and my trips are usually a lot of fun, I don’t complain. I think that most people get books to read when they are travelling. Even people who don’t normally read. I can only speculate because I’m not sure I know enough people to be able to speak for them all – but I sure do know there are a lot of books for sale at every single major airport in this country.

So, the last book I read was Who’s Your Caddy? by Rick Reilly. Rick is a writer for Sports Illustrated magazine and took a couple years off to caddy (for FREE) for some of the most influencial and colorful figures in the golfing scene today. To professional gamblers to Donald Trump to the great comedian Bob Newhart to Deepak Chopra to several of the best professional golfers on the pro tour now and yesterday. Rick is a great writer and the book was very funny.

Before that I read Love Me by Garrison Keillor. Garrison is the creater/host of the great NPR radio program A Prairie Home Companion. Love Me is an autobiographical account of the beginnings of his professional writing career. It was hilarious.

Now, I’m reading an older book by one of my favorite authors, Bill Bryson. I’m reading his book The Lost Continent, Travels in Small-Town America. Bill is considered a travel writer, as he mostly writes about his travels in England, Australia, America and one of my top-5 favorite books of all time: A Walk in the Woods recounting his hilarious trek from Georgia to Maine on foot via 2,000 mile Appalachian Trail. His descriptions are not only funny, but they paint such an accurate picture of somewhere you’ve never been that you put the book down and feel like going to stamp your passport.

Go pick up a book by any one of these authors. You won’t be disappointed.