Year of the Book

Rick Ropelewski |
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Thomas Lally

By Tom Lally, CFP®

I’m not really the type to make a bunch of New Year’s resolutions.  It’s not because there’s anything wrong with self-improvement or having goals.  I just think those things should be true all the time, not simply because the calendar has turned (and I’m going to spend the first month re-writing my dates).  But as December became January, it hit me that I’d like to read more books.  In college I was an English major and I’ve long loved to read, but over the last few years have found myself doing less and less of that.  I’m pleased to report that so far I’ve read two books.  While it may not seem like much to a voracious reader – like my late grandmother, who for a long time visited the local library about once a week – it’s a start.

First up was “A Brief History of Time” by Stephen Hawking.  I’m fascinated by this absolutely wild area of physics – black holes, the relativity of time, and how much is still unknown about our world at the most fundamental level.  I have to admit I did not understand nearly as much of the book as I had hoped.  But I still thought it was incredible and learned about many concepts, like the uncertainty principle and quantum mechanics.  Stephen Hawking passed away last year, but his work will shape this area for a long time to come.

Next came “Not Afraid of the Fall” by Kyle James.  The subtitle is a little more revealing about the book’s topic: “114 Days Through 38 Cities in 15 Countries.”  I love to travel so I’ve really enjoyed reading about so many places I’d like to visit, and discovering new ones I might not have learned about otherwise.  There are also many tales of the hilarious or cringe-worthy encounters and problems that happen when traveling on such a shoestring budget.

I have a long list of books to read next, including Malcolm Gladwell’s “Outliers” which is currently sitting on my bookshelf.  But I’m always looking for new suggestions and would be glad to hear of any ones that you recommend.

The author of this article is Tom Lally, Wealth Manager Assistant at U.S. Wealth Management.