Books At The Bar!
Books at the bar provides a fun, inviting, and stimulating environment for us to enjoy working our cerebral muscles as hard as we train everything else.
Developing the mind, improving the ability to read, communicate, analyze and understand the world can only help you in every endeavor in life. Whether that is reading, understanding and executing on your task in training, or deep diving to explore ideas on a deeper level, reading is a prerequisite for understanding the world around you and collaborating with people throughout this thing we call life.
Today we are in a literary crisis, and something that has always been a great source of enjoyment, knowledge, and opportunity for me—reading—is a habit that most, even well educated people, struggle to make the time for regularly.
Which is why I felt called to do this.
While Pew Research actually shows better numbers than you may hear batted around social media, it is still a habit that needs support in our society. Truthfully around 88% of people with a Bachelor’s degree or higher, around 78% with a shorter degree, and around 60% of those with a highschool diploma report that they read a book or part of one last year.
Globally the literacy rate has climbed from 82.5% to 87.7% in the last 20 years, while in the US literacy is stagnate around 79 to 86% depending on which metric you use. There is some discussion over standards changing around 2005, but if we remain consistent with the original standards a whopping 28% may be at a 1st grade level or lower.
When we look at reading proficiency broken down into the PIAAC levels 1-5, we see that in the US that while people can still call themselves literate in the sense of being able to read a sentence, that more people are in the level 1 group than in 2005, rising from only 17% of the population struggling to surpass a level 1 to a full 28%. Level 2 absorbed some of the backslide, but the number of level 4 and 5 changed very little.
This means reading is a luxury that those who are able to enjoy, are, while those who cannot are continuing to not be able to.
My father used to tell me knowledge is a superpower and that reading is the key to unlocking every door you want to walk through.
He was right.
Like anything else, the brain only adapts to the stimulus you provide it with.
That means
USE IT OR LOSE IT!
It also means, if you don’t build it, you won’t have it.
In comes Books At The Bar!
We will examine various literary works together to enjoy the benefits of being a student of the game—the game of sport and the game of life.
We offer a welcoming environment where readers of all levels can find a home to cultivate their love of reading and expand their horizons.
Not only is this a great opportunity to enjoy good books with good people and grow together as well rounded humans, but it is also a way you can earn credit towards other services we offer!
Click below to learn more, and sign up now!
I have always felt strength is more than just physical. It is physical, mental and spiritual. It is a system of equations of how much you can, and will, pour from each cup. As such, making sure the cup doesn’t have leaks, filling it up, trying not to spill it but cleaning it up and filling it back up when you do, and even upgrading the cup to a bigger one as you grow is a metaphor that should hit home in almost all walks of life, in all 3 categories of strength I mentioned before.
I believe that even to be good at one of those three categories, that you must have at least some level of development of the others. To be your best, that will require better of all the categories of strength as well. There is simply no way around it. There is no work smarter, or work harder, because someone out there is willing to do both.
To quote General Mattis, “If you haven't read hundreds of books, you are functionally illiterate, and you will be incompetent, because your personal experiences alone aren't broad enough to sustain you.”
Harsh but true.
That is why I am inviting you to develop all your strengths alongside one another.
Many book groups operate off the expectation that you will have readings done prior to the meeting, and homework is often daunting to people and becomes a barrier to community, socialization, and reading itself. This would be compounded by any difficulty reading.
As such, although some operations of the book club will be finalized with the help of those who will be a part of the community, one thing I am firm on is that the readings will be performed DURING the meetings by a list of rotating readers who would like to sign up to do so. That way if you want to listen as you develop the confidence to read, you are free to do so and read along as we go. Likewise, if you love reading and speaking in front of people, or are ready to hone your skills and confidence at reading aloud and speaking in front of people, the stage is open.
Reading, confidence speaking in front of others, learning about interesting topics and stories, gaining a sense of community and all the wonderful things that happen when you put humans together with books and tell them to read and talk about it are what I seek to host and what you can expect to create and enjoy together. I look forward to seeing you at the next meeting, and feel free to jump in any time!
Coach Josh