Ah, summer vacation! Perhaps you remember with sunny fondness that annual event — before it became nearly extinct.
Today, Americans receive among the fewest vacation days (14) in the world. They also leave the most unused days on the table (four). Technology now allows 24-hour communication making many of us feel we are working all the time, even while on vacation.
If you can’t leave it all behind, you can still recharge your batteries — including your business savvy, creativity and insight — in ways that might help bring balance into your life and your work. Here are three authors whose work may do just that. Each has written several books; all have bestsellers. Instead of reading a single book, choosing an author can help provide stronger insight and perspective. That may help those scarce vacation days move just a little slower.
Malcolm Gladwell
“The best way to understand the dramatic transformation of unknown books into bestsellers, or the rise of teenage smoking, or the phenomena of word of mouth or any number of the other mysterious changes that mark everyday life,” writes Malcolm Gladwell in his now classic “The Tipping Poin,” “is to think of them as epidemics. Ideas and products and messages and behaviors spread just like viruses do.”
It can be argued that Gladwell’s writing has created its own phenomenal epidemic.
As one of the more original writers in America today, Gladwell has provided us novel and extraordinary insights into any number of topics. He has also contributed to our everyday vocabulary with “tipping point” and “outliers,” among others. He is also the author of “Outliers,” “Blink” “What the Dog Saw.” Gladwell is a keen storyteller with a talent for providing a novel perspective — one guaranteed to leave you thinking.
His latest book is “David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants.” Gladwell illustrates how the “underdog” can use that status to his or her advantage, just as in the biblical story.
He also illustrates how what may be a disability may be seen as an advantage. A student with a learning disability may develop better listening and creative problem-solving skills. The phrase “use what you got” is attributed to Gladwell.
Michael Lewis
Michael Lewis is a diverse and prolific writer. From his bestseller “Moneyball,” about the pursuit of success in baseball, to a story about Silicon Valley during the internet boom, “The New, New Thing,” he covers diverse territory.