Things I Carry: A Device That's Thousands of Years Old, and Still Inspiring

Ever since Hurricane Sandy hit, my daily train trip between my New Jersey home and the American Banker newsroom in Lower Manhattan has become an even longer and bigger drag. For months, the subway under the Hudson River was washed out entirely. Express trains are still rare.

Like thousands of others who’re trapped on the trains for an hour or two a day, I spent much of my time with my smart phone in one hand and my iPad or computer propped on my lap. I’d then fill my time toggling between email, social media, the latest news and whatever document had the most pressing deadline.

One day it hit me: Extending workday stresses throughout my commute (I still do a slice of it) was probably doing more to raise my blood pressure than my productivity or smarts.

That’s when I decided to start packing a non-volatile, random access analog device whose origins hark back to 2400 BC. It’s called a book.

Books of the printed variety that I favor are not compact. They’re not popular. And they’re definitely not cool.

What books have going for them is that they’re tactile and still the best way to consume long-form writing. The sort of writing that’s born of pain and read with pleasure. That takes you out of your skin. Out of your century. Out of the transitory and into what matters.

One book, The Art of Racing in the Rain, took me out of my species and into the head of a dog. Another, Nonbeliever Nation, pulled back the camera on our political polarization and the contentious debate over social issues, like school prayer, abortion and religion in public life.

Elmore Leonard, one of the authors I find most fun to read, famously said "I try to leave out the parts that people skip." Leonard makes it look easy (which it ain’t). Reading Leonard is like watching Michael Jordan play basketball or hearing Aretha Franklin sing.

Good books inspire me toward long-term goals. They boost my skill level by pulling my nose off the pavement and presenting me with the 30,000-foot view of life. They make me more efficient by giving me much-needed perspective.

“The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can’t read them,” said Mark Twain.

When I get to work or home, there’s still plenty of time to multi-task. But after spending a bit of my day with a good book, I do it with a better feel for what’s important and what’s a waste of my time.

Photo: Phillippe Renault/hemis.fr/Getty Images

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