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Food for Thought 2021 - The Life-Sparring Books of the Year (now also as a Podcast)

Food for Thought 2021 - The Life-Sparring Books of the Year (now also as a Podcast)

Fabian
Life

If 2020 was the year that turned life upside down, 2021 was probably the year where we settled into the new normal. At least for me, it sure feels that way.

2021 was a year of routines and consistency. And it is without saying that in a year of routines, I am not breaking with the tradition of the annual book review. After all, this is already the 7th consecutive edition of Foods for Thought.

Read about my top five Life-Sparring books of the year, or alternatively tune in to the first Food for Thought Podcast Special.

Food for Thought 2020 - The Life-Sparring Books of the Year

Food for Thought 2020 - The Life-Sparring Books of the Year

Fabian
Life

In a year that brought a lot of changes and turned many things upside down, I wanted to uphold at least one little tradition: the annual "Food for Thought" blog post, reviewing the best books I read in the past year.

Please imagine a dramatic drumroll, as here come the five Life-Sparring books of 2020! Enjoy!

Three Places for a Happy Life – Thoughts Inspired by Haruki Murakami’s Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki

Three Places for a Happy Life – Thoughts Inspired by Haruki Murakami’s Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki

Fabian
Happiness, Life

Haruki Murakami’s 2013 book “Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage: A novel” drew mixed reviews. Some people loved it; other’s accused Murakami of relying too much on his proven plots and recipes.

I loved the book, so much that I read it in a single day.

But this article is not supposed to be another book review (if you like those, check out my “Food for Thought Posts”), it is a reflection based on an idea that was mentioned in passing in the book, but that I found quite profound. The idea of the “Three Places” that define our lives and our happiness.

More Than Book Learning - Five Novels that Shaped my Love for East Asia

More Than Book Learning - Five Novels that Shaped my Love for East Asia

Fabian
Life

While in recent years I mostly read nonfiction, I strongly believe that novels can be just as powerful when it comes to broadening the horizon and understanding the big picture. 

I think that to understand the world, our history, even contemporary and future developments, it takes both, reading history books for a factual framework and reading novels to get a feeling for the zeitgeist.

While the origin of my life-long interest in Asia will likely stay a mystery forever, I know for sure that there are a few brilliant books that shaped this interest. Among the many I want to highlight five that stood out in particular.

Quarterly Lederhosen Report – Checking in on my goals for the year

Quarterly Lederhosen Report – Checking in on my goals for the year

Fabian
Happiness, Health, Life

After many years of New Year’s resolutions that lasted hardly longer than a few weeks, I wanted to do it all differently in the first full year of my Life-Sparring experience. Choosing targets that fulfill the S.M.A.R.T criteria: being specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-related to be effective; making my goals public; and checking in regularly with you out there hopefully is enough to keep me motivated all year to achieve all goals for 2016. And just in case this is not enough, I added a punishment on top, promising to go to work in original Bavarian Lederhosen on the first working day in 2017 if I miss more than one of the six goals for the year.  Scary!

So let’s see how I fared during the first quarter of the year!

I Fight, Therefore I Am! – More Reflections on Fear

I Fight, Therefore I Am! – More Reflections on Fear

Fabian
Happiness, Life

This is the second Life-Sparring round on the topic of fear within four months. 

That I am revisiting the topic after such a short time is mainly motivated by two factors: a recent personal crisis on my side, and reading Daniele Bolelli’s excellent book Not Afraid: On Fear, Heartbreak, Raising a Baby Girl, and Cage Fighting. 

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