3 X 5's: Index Card Wisdom from the Best of Books


Introduction:

What are 3 x 5's and how are they related to best of books?

3 X 5's are standard index cards that i've used for over 20 years to keep track of the "best parts of books" that i read...the best parts are bits of wisdom that i integrate into my everyday life.


Process:

It's a spiritual practice for me (i feel called to do this, and i find joy and satisfaction in the process): integrating the wisdom of teachers (authors of books) into my life in a way to "make life more wonderful" (tipping my hat to Marshall Rosenberg).

i also use index cards to track what books i want to read each year for i am a bookaholic...i would buy books all year long if not for this method. whenever i get the desire to order a book--from a website, friend, video, another book reference, etc., i write the author, title, and WHY i want the book on an index card. Then, at the end of the school year in May, i go through my list of index cards, and pick the top 10 to order for my summer reading (i usually end up ordering a few more throughout the summer, but i stop at 15). 

As a professor, i have the leisure of reading in the summer, so as i finish each book, i write a summary of the "best parts" of the book, and try to find ways to integrate at least one thing from the book into my everyday life. 


Purpose: 

So i have a tall stack of 3 X 5 index cards from many summers of reading that i want to share with the world--perhaps some of the knowledge from these "best parts of books" will resonate with you and help make your life a little more wonderful--that is my hope, and my gift. 


Structure:

word or phrase to "tag" the "best part of the book" 

citation for the book as author, year, and title.

ONE of the "best learnings" from the book.

application to everyday life.

[there is no particular "order to the book" posts]

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
SPIRITUAL SOLUTIONS Wayne Dyer (2003). There's a Spiritual Solution to Every Problem. Dyer earned a Doctorate of Education in Guidance and Counseling, and is a prolific author. His first book that i read in the 1970's, Your Erroneous Zones, profoundly influenced my thinking as a teen.  The theme of this book is that there is a spiritual solution to every problem, that problems are illusions created in the mind by incorrect thinking, and that the solution to these mental problems is to change our thinking in light of the spirit (defined as an energy/intelligence that is the source of all life, i.e., God). Some might call this "spiritual bypassing," ignoring the body in favor of the mind and spirit. The first half of the book is lessons from Patanjali's Yoga Sutras. Dyer suggests that low frequency is associated with the "negative" and faster frequency with the "positive" [for me, at least musically, lower frequencies don't imply negative emo...
Read more
Image
TURN ON Timothy Leary (1965, 1999). Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out Leary was a University Professor at Harvard who is best know for his experiments with LSD. The book is part lectures, part interviews, and part essays. Given all the media hype about Leary, i was surprised at how much common sense i encountered, and how much he speaks to learning, hope, and love.  He begins with a chapter on how to start your own religion (to invoke the rights of the first amendment in US law) with family and friends, a tribe of people living together in community with their own laws...a place where sacrament is consumed (it need not be LSD, but anything that is spiritually meaningful to the community, something that binds the community together in ceremony)...a place preferably in nature where one feels protected and nurtured.  The BIG ADVICE is to drop out of society's robot world/mind, and turn on to God/Goddess (the Spirit), nature, and the body and mind, and tune in (dropping back into socie...
Read more
Image
BODY WISDOM  Therese Bertherat (1989).  The body has its reasons: Self-awareness                                                           through conscious movement.  Berherat takes us on a personal journey in learning body wisdom /awareness using Ehrenfred's method which is radically different than the medical model/method she learned at University. The story unfolds as "sessions" of practices, and the end of the book reveals several "preliminaries" on how to cultivate body wisdom. Among the many practical lessons are:      pause after exhaling to let the body use oxygen before inhaling again--this allows the              body to rest/relax with every breath.      because all parts of the body are integrated, working with one par...
Read more