Holiday Reading

The Christmas holidays and the miserable form of Australia's cricket team has afforded a great opportunity for reading over the past week!

I've just finished 'A Short History of the 20th Century' by Geoffrey Blainey, which I thoroughly recommend! It's a fascinating read, very well written and gives a great general knowledge of the last 100 years, without getting bogged down in the details. Another book by Blainey, 'A Short History of the World' will definitely be on my reading list for 2009.

Today I also finished Lance Armstrong's 'It's Not About the Bike', which I found incredibly inspiring. His journey from cancer patient to Tour de France champion provides compelling reading.

Lessons which I learnt from Lance Armstrong's story:

1. Public Prizes are earnt in Private Discipline
In his preparation for the 2000 Tour de France, Armstong had a severe crash while training on the Hautacam, the Tour's most difficult ascent.

'A month later [after the crash], I went back to the Hautacam, alone except for Johan [Armstrong's coach], to complete my training ride... It was a bitterly cold and rain-splattered day, and it took me four hours of hard riding to get to the top. Johan pulled up in the follow car and handed me a jacket and some hot chocolate. "Great job - now let's get you warm," he said. But I didn't feel right about it.
"I don't think I understood the climb," I said.
"What do you mean?"
I meant that I didn't feel I had fully mastered it...

"What do you want to do?" Johan asked.
"I'm going to do it again," I said.

And that's what I did. We drove back down, and I climbed it again, another four hours of uphill work. I was pretty sure I was the only fool who was willing to climb it in that weather even once, much less twice. But that was the point.'

2. The Difference is in the Details
From weighing his food before eating to ensure that calorie input was lower that energy output, to preparing his bike with pedantic precision, Armstrong shows an enormous attention to detail, earning him the nickname 'Mr Millimeter'.

3. Pain can be Productive
Naturally, most of us pray that our lives be problem free, mistakingly thinking that a pain-free life is the greatest life. Armstrong defies this.

'The truth is that cancer was the best thing that ever happened to me. I don't know why I got the illness, but it did wonders for me, and I wouldn't want to walk away from it. Why would I want to change, even for a day, the most important and shaping event in my life?'

'The truth is, if you asked me to choose between winning the Tour de France and cancer, I would choose cancer. Odd as it sounds, I would rather have the title of cancer survivor than winner of the Tour, because of what it has done for me as a human being, a man, a husband, a son, and a father.'

I'm keen to read 'Every Second Counts', Armstrong's second book. Has anyone read it, and would you recommend it?'