Summer Reading – time away from the office
I’ve just powered down my work laptop ahead of my summer holiday. Before turning off, I finished my timesheets and backed up files that needed to be. It’s a good routine to come down a cognitive notch after a final working day with various translations and revision jobs to finish and turn around.
Part of the packing routine is also sorting out my reading material for the trip. With not being sure whether we might need to share rooms with the children en route, I have taken to ensuring that I have some books to read on my Kindle (as well as also trying to read a physical book). The following are the books that I am taking with me for the next fortnight. Some I might only dip into if I wake up early, or am not quite ready to fall asleep.
I used to ingest first time, digest second time.
It’s a mixed bag – although with certain thematic groupings. Some books I am starting for the first time, others I am going back to, and others are re-reading. As I commented to a former tutor of mine from university, who remarked about rereading books, “I used to ingest first time, digest second time.” His attention was piqued by my re-reading a book that had been part of my primary reading during first year at university (28 years ago!).
I’ve deliberately left out any books about translation and languages, There are plenty of books I want to read, but for restorative purposes, I need to give my ever-curious brain some down time from language and law and to read something unrelated.
There are some self-improvement titles – a couple of which are recommendations from the coach I had sessions with earlier in the year. The sessions with him really paid off. I’m sure I will return to the “wordface” in September relaxed and reinvigorated.
Summer Holiday Reading List
- Diccon Bewes, Swisswatching
- Urs Birchler, Das Einmaleins des Geldes
- Bill Browder, Freezing Order and Red Notice
- James Clear, Atomic Habits
- Gunter de Bruyn, Märkische Forschungen
- Katja Hoyer, Beyond the Wall
- Cal Newport, Deep Work
- David Omand, How spies think
- Fiona Rintoul, The Leipzig Affair
- Rebecca Seal, Solo: how to work alone
- John Sillitoe, The loneliness of the long distance runner
- John Sweeney, Killer in the Kremlin
- Louis Theroux, Gotta get Theroux this.
During my family holiday, I managed to read Cal Newport’s Deep Work. It might be a few years old, but it is still relevant in 2024. Getting back to my core work (translation) and trying to minimise shallow work was something I subconsciously achieved this summer by condensing my working week into 4 days rather than 5 days.
Urs Birchler’s Das Einmaleins des Geldes is a fascinating read – particularly from a history of money in Switzerland – as well as Europe and the world. It is very gently written – having worked for Urs when he was SUERF president and having heard him speak many times, I can almost hear his voice when reading the book.
James Clear’s Atomic Habits ties in nicely with Cal Newport’s Deep Work, in that ultimately both handle forming good habits and getting rid of bad habits. The book went on my list after originally picking up the tip (for the German version) from Bettina Kapfer’s blog – Bettina was a colleague in my division at the FMA for several years – and is now a psychologist and coach – https://zurechtpsychologie.at/hirnfutter-zum-schenken/