Tag Archives: reading

December 31, 2022 · 11:00 am

Summary of (my) 2022

Time to look back and reflect on how the year which is about to end developed. Brief recap of my 2022. (*)

The personal memory from this 2022 was having my father back at home after nearly two months in hospitals, including a couple of days at the emergency room. He suffered a heat stroke at the end of June and only came back from it mid August. Those were testing times for him but also for the family, especially for my mother and brother who lifted the lion’s share of the caring for him during those months.

Family. Andrea is now 9 years old and David, 6. Andrea has been learning piano for most of the year, she enjoyed very much climbing, reading, singing in the school choir, drawing anddoing handcraft. She also started taking Spanish lessons once a week since the fall, on top of the Dutch lessons they both take every second week.

David is now nearly fluent in English and they both talk to each other in that language. He is improving with his reading and writing and very eager with maths. He started to play video games, is very fond of football and wants to help with anything, especially if it involves the use of tools (that probably comes from his maternal grand father).

Sports

Back to marathoning! After not having taken part in any marathon in 2020 and 2021 (breaking a 9-year streak), in 2022 I completed 2 marathons: Sevilla and Bucharest. Those were great and emotional experiences. With them I have now completed 23 marathons.

This year, together with some work colleagues we participated in a month-long sports (running and biking) challenge fighting against hunger in the spring and in the fall we ran the 15km-long Airbus charity run.

I ran 1,200km in 2022, around 100km less than in 2021. You can see below that I alternated periods of heavy training with some weeks of not running, due to illness, injuries, travelling or resting after the races.

Following a mantra I try keep to letter, “the running shoes, always in the suitcase”, the year 2022 caught me running in: Galapagar, Singapore, Seville, La Châtre-Langlin, Fontainebleau, Wijchen,  Pontoise-lès-Noyon, Isla, Derby, Hamburg, London, Torrelodones, Almuñécar, Hyères and Bucharest, plus the tens of times I trained in my village, Blagnac and Toulouse.

With those 1,200 kilometres run in 2022, this is the sixth year in a row that I struggle to add more mileage, as I used to do between 2011-2016… One would say whether it is due to the arrival of the second child (spring 2016), the moving of houses (summer 2017) or just getting older (!), but something has made it more difficult. Hopefully in 2023 I can break that trend.

Other sports:

  • Skiing. After the cancellation of our plan in 2021, in 2022 we could go back with the family for  a week to our favourite resort at Vars, in the Southern Alps. If in 2020 it was the first time I descended some tracks with Andrea, in this 2022 it was the first time that the four of us descended some tracks altogether. That was a great experience. This year Andrea got her Flocon medal and David his Ourson one (levels from the French ESF).
  • Swimming. On top of enjoying the pool at home, this year we went to the beach at three different locations: Isla (North of Spain), Almuñécar (South of Spain) and the Presque-ile des Giens (France). The kids loved it. During the holidays, they also took some swimming lessons to improve their style.
  • Golf. The whole family started taking golf lessons last year and for half of the year 2022 we continued doing so, though after the summer the kids wanted to quit.
  • Climbing. Both Andrea and David are very fond of climbing, so now, at almost every school holidays break they follow some climbing stage.
  • Real Madrid. Even if David and I did not have to play for it, we did enjoy watching a few football matches together supporting our favourite team all the way to winning the 14th Champions’ League, another memorable hapenning of this 2022.

Flying. Unfortunately, this year I haven’t flown much, just 7 flights and 13 landings (the least in 12 years of flying). This takes the total to just above 192 flying hours and 300 landings since I started taking lessons back in 2011.

Together with our Aviation Society we were planning some excursions for the summer time but for different reasons a couple of them were cancelled and I could not join another. Therefore all the flying this year has been around our South West region.

On the positive side:

  • I renewed the FCL055 qualification that allows me to speak in English to the ATC when flying abroad, this will permit me to attempt long excursions next year again.
  • This year I flew for the first time with a few colleagues: Iain, Scott, Emilio and Marcellin. I am sure that in 2023 I will have the chance to fly with more colleagues.

Travelling. After many restrictions during the pandemic, especially in 2020, in 2021 we started to travel more and in 2022 we had the chance to visit some new and old places: Singapore (first time for me), Spain (Seville, Santoña, Isla, Madrid (a few times), El Escorial, Bailén, Almuñécar, Las Navas de Tolosa, Tordesillas, San Sebastian), France (Gap, Vars, Avignon, Sully-sur-Loire, Fontainebleau, Péronne, Château de Blérancourt, Meung-sur-Loire, Nimes, Presque-ile des Giens (there we had great week at the beach in the French Riviera)), Germany (Xanten, Hamburg (first time for me, and where we were very warmly hosted by Burkhard!), Munich), the Netherlands (Wijchen), England (Derby, London (it was quite some time since the last time I was in London), Farnborough), Romania (Bucharest) and Pakistan.

In some of those trips we had the opportunity to meet some friends from the university and the high school that we had not seen in a few years. That opportunity to continue reconnecting felt good.

Work. The year 2022 marketing our Airbus widebody aircraft has meant lots of fun and a great learning experience. The everyday work is already quite interesting and exchanging with the team I learnt new things everyday.

This year, with the picking up of the aviation activity and the opening up of many countries, I had the opportunity to meet many of our colleagues working abroad, to give several presentations to customers about our products (remote or onsite), to welcome a few of them and show our A350 final assembly line, host in Toulouse and visit our colleagues from Rolls-Royce in Derby, fly with the press on one of our A350 flight test aircraft during the Airbus Summit, and especially take part in the air shows of Singapore and Farnborough, where I could showcase different A350s, from Singapore Airlines and ITA Airways, respectively. Those air shows have been real highlights of the year, at times showing the aircraft non-stop for hours to many different and varied groups of customers or institutional representatives.

These activities gave me the opportunity to fly for the first time on an A350 (!).

At the beginning of the year, one of our colleagues, Alex, switched departments and we reshuffled the activities within the team and that made it much more interesting, including the working hand in hand in particular with Raphael and Cedric.

At the end of the year, another of our colleagues, Florian, announced his departure and this offered another opportunity to grow. Following a recruitment process, in which a few colleagues participated, I was selected and from January 2023 I will change again the scope of the activity focusing now on the A330neo (back to it after having spent 4 years (2015-2019) working in its development!), working hand in hand with Anna and Raphael.

Reading. I started 2022 reading at a good pace until summer, then I got stuck with the second volume of Le Vicomte de Bragelonne and a series of trips interrupted my pace, and it took me months to recover it. In the end I completed just 13 books, the least since 2015 and read just above 4,800 pages, also the least in the last 6 years. For the detailed list of books, see the post I wrote about my 2022 reading list with a brief description of each book.

Other cultural activities:

  • Bullfighting. This year again together with Luismi, his family and my family we went to Nimes for a weekend to enjoy its Feria, and in particular to attend the corrida de toros with Roca Rey, currently the most successful bullfighter. The experience and his performance were simply splendid. Roca Rey performed together with José María Manzanares and Alejandro Marcos, and with bulls provided by García Jiménez. He was awarded three ears, hence, he was borne triumphantly aloft through the main gate, “Puerta de los Cónsules” at Nimes Roman amphitheater. The atmosphere in the city those days was ecstatic.
  • Museums. This year again we took benefit of every road trip to visit as many museums and castles as we could, among them: the Naval and Aviation museums in Madrid, the museum of the battle at Las Navas de Tolosa, the Great War musem at Péronne (finally! I had tried to visit it before but is always closed during Christmas), Château de Meung-sur-Loire, Château de Blérancourt (which includes the Franco-American museum), Château de Sully-sur-Loire, the visit of the roofs at Seville Cathedral and the Roman settlement at Colonia Ulpia Traiana (Germany).
  • Shows. In the past two years with the pandemic we had not gone to any show; in this 2022 I loved going to the cinema again, with some work colleagues to watch Top Gun Maverick (superb!) and the musical Malinche, about the conquest of Tenochtitlan, produced by the artist Nacho Cano, which was another great experience.

Blogging: This is the 13th year since I started the blog, but I didn’t manage to write much, only 5 blog posts in 2022. The blog received just above 21,200 visits in 2022 (the least since 2012) and over 473,000 since I started it in 2010.

Not everything was positive in 2022: a former work colleague passed away, so did the parents of other friends and colleagues, plus the Russian invasion of Ukraine which created havoc in many families, including the many refugees host in the region. Hopefully in 2023 that war comes to an end.

On the positive side, some colleagues and friends had new babies and got married in this 2022!

Now it’s time to rest, celebrate with the family and hope for the best in 2023. This year we will participate again in the San Silvestre Vallecana in Madrid running along tens of thousands of other runners in the evening of this December 31st as a farewell to the year. For the moment we have just a couple of planned trips for 2023, to the Netherlands and another skiing week in Vars, but hopefully many more activities will make it memorable as well.

I wish you the best for 2023, enjoy it!

(*) You can see here my 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 recaps.

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December 29, 2022 · 11:00 am

My 2022 reading list

In this post I wanted to share the list of books I read along the year (1) with a small comment for each one and links to some Twitter threads where I shared some passages that caught my attention while reading the books. I have also included a small rating from one to three “+” depending on how much I do recommend its reading.

  1. “Políticamente indeseable” (by Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo) (+++): The book is partly an autobiography and partly an essay where the author (a politician of the Spanish Popular Party) recollects memories from her childhood, to her settling in Spain around 25 years ago, her career as a journalist and to the current status of Spanish politics (to the end of 2021). The book is a call against nationalism, collectivism, tactics, and in favour of reason, freedom and individual responsibility. [Twitter thread].
  2. “La revolución española vista por una republicana” (by Clara Campoamor) (+++): The author is described in the Wikipedia as follows: was a Spanish politician, lawyer and writer, considered by some the mother of the Spanish feminist movement. In this book she describes her memories and provides an analysis of the months prior to the onset of the Spanish civil war (1936-39) and its first months, with emphasis on the government rearguard that she lived through. The irrationality on both sides that she describes is devastating, to the point that she fled Spain fearing for her life, while she was a Republican, was in Madrid (under the Republican side until the end of the war) and she still felt in danger from the Republican side. [Twitter thread].
  3. “Extremo centro: el manifiesto” (by Pedro Herrero and Jorge San Miguel) (+++): I started following the authors (who formerly worked for the Spanish political party Ciudadanos) in social media and in a podcast they started years ago. In this book they condensed many of the ideas they have come up along these past years. They offer many interesting analyses and various proposals around the caring for others, in favour of the creation of culture, creating ties with the community… Something special about the book is the fresh and provocative language they use together with a kind of “cards” that they have used to represent some stereotypes of characters of the Spanish public life. [Twitter thread].
  4. “Emma” (by Jane Austen) (+): I wanted to read Emma as this is the book from Austen included in the Great Books curriculum for the bachelor in arts of Saint John’s College (see section at the bottom of the post). However, chronologically Emma came after Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice, so I arrived to Emma after having read the other two. The plot is around Emma’s willingness to play matchmaking with her acquaintances (even if her skills on that front are unimpressive) and her own negative views on marriage. Once again, as with the previous two Austen books, I found the narrative very slow, quite dense and too detailed. On the positive side: the plot and Emma’s situation are turned upside down at the very end of the book. [Twitter thread].
  5. “La matemática en el arte” (by Pedro Miguel González Urbaneja) (+++): This is a book from a collection of 40 short books on mathematics that my mother gifted me with in 2019. My idea is to read a few of those books per year. This one offers a review of the influence of mathematics and the Greeks on art since the Renaissance. Some of the artists that are looked at in the book are: Della Francesca, Pacioli, Alberti, Dürer, Leonardo, Raphael, Gaudí… [Twitter thread].
  6. “Soumission” (Submission) (by Michel Houellebecq) (++): I remember that when the book was published back in 2015 it created some controversy in France. I only got interested in the book more recently after having heard some positive reviews of it. The book tells the story of a university professor during the fictional transformation of a France governed by the Muslim Brotherhood, where the public university becomes Islamic, hence the profressor first resigns from his position and then after wandering around France for some time he yields in to the times, submits himself, prepares to convert to Islam and comes back to the university. When reading it I did not find it so provocative as to create the noise it did in 2015. [Twitter thread].
  7. “The End of History and the last man” (by Francis Fukuyama) (+++): First published in 1992, after the end of the Cold War and fall of the Soviet Union, the book’s case is that after old regimes and the failure of fascist and communist totalitarianisms, liberal democracy and capitalism stand out as the remaining system at the end of History. [Twitter thread].
  8. “Air Wars. The global combat between Airbus and Boeing” (by Scott Hamilton) (+++): The author is the editor of Leeham News and Analysis, a reference blog on aerospace industry. This book starts out as a biography of John Leahy (former chief operating officer for Customers at Airbus – retired in 2017) and frames it on the background of Airbus and Boeing competition during the last ~40 years until 2021. It is a very good read for anyone who has been working in the industry in the past years as it will trigger many memories. [Twitter thread].
  9. “Le Vicomte de Bragelonne“, tome II (by Alexandre Dumas) (++): This book is the second tome of the sequel to Twenty Years After and continues the Dumas’ story on the musketeers (see below). This is the book that I liked the least of the series. There is very little action with the musketeers and to my taste far too many amorous intrigues at the court of Louis XIV (I found it slow, almost as Jane Austen’s books). However, it serves the purpose of introducing the characters and jealousies that will be key in the development of the last book of the series.
  10. “Critón” (Crito) and “El Político” (Statesman) (by Plato) (++): These are two dialogues that show (1) the ethics of Socrates after being tried (the trial being described in a different dialogue, Apology) where he abides by the outcome of the trial even if unjust to the point that he resists Crito’s offer to flee and explains that he has to live up to his principles to the end; and (2) a criticism of politicians and the differentiation of what a statesman should be in contrast to sophists. Plato offers how the city should be governed and the preferences of some systems (monarchy, oligarchy, democracy) over others depending on whether the laws are respected or not, although he goes into less detail than in Republic. [Twitter thread].
  11. “Le Vicomte de Bragelonne“, tome III (by Alexandre Dumas) (+++): This was the last of the five books that make up the story of the three musketeers, after The Three Musketeers, Twenty Years After and the first two volumes of Le Vicomte de Bragelonne. In all they make up for over 4,200 pages of reading and with no doubt it is among my favourite books or series of books. In this final book Aramis tries to strike a coup that could have changed the history of France with the man in the iron mask, the twin brother of Louis XIV, Philippe, who had been concealed and imprisoned from birth by his father, Louis XIII, and his mother, Anne of Austria. However, Fouquet (finances superintendent) rejects taking part in that plot even if he would have benefitted from it. That part of the book is thrilling. The last ~300 pages of the book are dedicated to giving an ending to each of the main characters: Aramais, Porthos, Athos and his son Raoul and d’Artagnan; some parts of this last section can be quite moving as by now one is attached to these characters.
  12. “Confesiones” (Confessions) (by Saint Augustine) (++): The first half of the book is a kind of biography of Saint Augustine until his conversion to cristianism and the death of his mother (Saint Monica); there he confesses the struggles he goes through, how with the help of Saint Ambrose and some friends he quits his previous lifestyle and gets baptized. From that point the confessions take the form of shared reflections on memory, time, evil or how to interpret the Creation in the Bible (book of Genesis). [Twitter thread].
  13. “Sobre la vejez” (Cato the Elder on Old Age) and “Sobre la amistad” (Laelius on Friendship) (by Cicero): Cicero was a Roman politician, lawyer and philosopher who lived first century BC. In these books and through dialogues he uses the characters of Cato the Elder and Laelius to explain the goodness of (1) old age, where different complaints against old age are addressed one by one, such as the lack of activity, strength, health…; and (2) friendship, which is shown as making life more enjoyable, bringing the best in people, not to be used as an excuse for wrongdoings and the only thing around which there is a consensus on its utility. [Twitter thread].

I started 2022 reading at a good pace until summer, then I got stuck with the second volume of Le Vicomte de Bragelonne and a series of trips interrupted my pace, and it took me months to recover it, as always, thanks to the rigorous approach following these two tips:

  • a blog post from Farnam Street blog “Just Twenty-Five Pages a Day“, which was published well after I had adopted such an approach to reading but captures it very well,
  • the Wikipedia article about the Pomodoro Technique, which enables you to efficiently use the last hours of the day.

Even so, in this 2022 I managed to read just 13 books, the least since 2015 (when I adopted the approach described above). In terms of pages I read just over 4,800 pages, also the least in the last 6 years. Fun fact: even if I only read 3 books in French language, they accounted for over 42% of the pages I read.

Another question that I have got a couple of times is about the source of the list of some of the classics that I read. That one comes from yet another blog post from Farnam Street blog. That post mentioned the Great Books curriculum for the bachelor in arts of Saint John’s College in Annapolis. You can get the list from the Wikipedia or directly from the college website. As I am not reading exclusively those books I try to advance at a pace of 5 to 8 books out of that curriculum per year, thus it will take me around 20 more years to finish the programme.

I wish you all very interesting reads in 2023!

(1) You can find here: my 2012 reading list, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 ones.

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December 31, 2021 · 10:00 am

Summary of (my) 2021

Time to look back and reflect on how the year which is about to end developed. Brief recap of my 2021. (*)

If I had to pick a couple of personal and positive memories from this 2021 they would be:

  • Flight excursion to Norway, when three general aviation planes went together from Toulouse to the North Cape in Norway. That was a great experience in which in we flew for over 46 hours in 7 flying days, with a maximum over 9 hours the last day. We completed 15 flights.
North Cape (Norway) from our plane
  • Family trip to Paris during the autumn school break, when we took the opportunity to visit with the kids the Eiffel tower, Disneyland park for a second time and the Parc Asterix for the first time. We had plenty of fun with the kids in those days.

Family: Andrea is now 8 years old and David, 5. Andrea has been learning piano for most of the year, she enjoyed very much climbing, reading, singing in the school choir or doing handcraft. David learned this year to ride his bike, he’s becoming confident with English language, and started to write, read and do some math. This year we couldn’t go skiing together to the Alps (as stations were mostly closed in France), so we just went skiing one day in the Pyrenees. On the other hand, since September we started taking golf lessons altogether, though what the kids enjoyed the most was the swimming season during the summer, even if this year the weather wasn’t the best for that purpose.

Reconnecting: in our experience 2021 has been a more relaxed year than 2020 was, even if not back to normal. We did not travel far but we made some trips and excursions, we met everyone of our closer family (we visited them and received visits at our place), started to reconnect with some cousins and several friends that we hadn’t seen in two or more years. It felt great.

Flying: Thanks to the aforementioned excursion to Norway this year I flew 30 flying hours, more than in any of the past 10 years. I also took part in another flight excursion to Biscarrosse flying for the first time with my colleague Thomas. During the excursion to Norway I flew for the first time with Jérémie and later with Andrea, the flight instructor with whom I renewed the license for two more years.

Running: even if I did not complete any single race in 2021 (even if I was registered in two) the year has been positive in this front. Following over a year of either not finding the motivation or not keeping the habit to run, since the end of May, the chatting about the sporting activities we had done the previous day(s) with a couple of work colleagues (Alex and Patrick) helped to build up the frequency of runs.

From then on, I exchanged with my brother on the idea of getting back into shape to start marathoning again in a not too distant future. With that I found myself with serious mileage cumulated from June to September (a bit less in end July and August due to different trips and visits). We then registered for the Sevilla marathon (taking place in February 2022) and started the 16-week training plan in November… in the end I have run over 1,300km in 2021, with less than 230km till the end of May and 920km in the second half of the year.

Travelling: After so many months of restrictions, in October 2021 I flew commercial for the first time in two years! I felt like a kid in a first flight. A month later, I flew again. Hopefully traveling becomes soon the norm again.

This year we visited some new and old places: Biscarrosse, Mazamet, Montpellier, Grignan, Lyon, Besançon, Colmar, Strasbourg, the Ligne Maginot at Schoenenbourg, Verdun, Hoge Kempen national park in Belgium (where we spent a few days with the family to celebrate the 50th anniversary of my in-laws), Maastricht (so many years ago since the last time!, where we met Luca’s friends for a wedding), Doncourt-lès-Conflans, Tønder (Denmark), Trondheim, Bodø and Alta (Norway), San Sebastián, Madrid (first beer in a terrace there in 2 years!), Chateauroux, Valençay, Paris (Disneyland again! and Parc Asterix), Orleans, Milano (18 years later!)…

Reading: I started 2021 reading at a good pace until summer holidays, then a couple of trips interrupted my rhythm and it took me months to recover it in the last two months. In the end I completed 20 books and read above 6,500 pages (about half of last year). For the detailed list of books, see the post I wrote about my 2021 reading list with a brief description of each book.

Blogging: This year in February was the 11th anniversary of the blog, but I didn’t manage to write much; only 8 blog posts in 2021. The blog received just above 22,000 visits in 2020 (the least since 2012) and over 450,000 since I started it in 2010.

Work: This year the commercial activity of the company started to pick up, so it became more interesting with more customer facing activities, including visiting them by both Luca and me, in our different roles (she switched jobs). And we even launched a new product, the A350F freighter aircraft.

Now it’s time to rest, celebrate with the family and hope for the best in 2022. This year again there will be no running the San Silvestre Vallecana in Madrid with tens of thousands of other runners in the evening of this December 31st (even if we subscribed to it), but a lonely ~10km run in our village. We have a couple of planned trips for 2022: to Sevilla for the marathon and another skiing week in Vars (hopefully this year is not cancelled!), let’s cross fingers so that we can accomplish those two plans and the many more that should follow.

Other than that, my wishes for 2022 are simple and basic: that the critically of the pandemic fades away in a short time and that the general public and economy can get to their normal lives.

I wish you the best for 2022, enjoy it!

—

(*) You can see here my 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 recaps.

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January 2, 2019 · 12:04 am

Reading language, format and age of books (2018 update)

Three years ago, I wrote a couple of blog posts where I reflected on the mix of languages I used when reading books between English, French and Spanish and about the format of the books I read, whether electronic or paper books. In the past two years I have updated the figures in dedicated blog articles and this post, written after having shared last week my 2018 reading list, is just a follow up update of those two tables and a third one:

Reading language

Booksperlanguage_2018

From 2010 to mid-2015 I read mostly in English. From mid-2015 I have started to read more in Spanish than in the past (mainly classics) and in French. In terms of books the mix for 2018 was English 48%, French 26% and Spanish 26%. However, last year I thought that the mix would be better measured in terms of pages read, as the books can vary quite a bit in their length. Thus, in terms of pages: English 45%, French 23% and Spanish 32%. Since then I also compile that bit of information in a different table.

Pagesperlanguage_2018

Reading format

Booksperformat_2017

In 2018 I did not read any book in electronic format, all were in paper format. As I estimated here the amortization of the e-reader in about 20 e-books read with it, I am still just above half way through achieving that. I already anticipated it in the blog post from last year:

Seeing, the stock of paper books that I have in the shelves, I doubt that I will read many e-books in the near term.

Age of the books

Since 2016, I decided to focus more on reading classics and books that have aged well, i.e., that their impact on society has not faded after having made it to the best selling positions of the literature pages for the current the year. Thus, I try to limit the proportion of books that I read from the last 10 or 30 years. This can be tracked as well:

Booksperage_2018

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January 2, 2018 · 8:00 am

Reading language and format (2017 update)

Two years ago, I wrote a couple of blog posts where I reflected on the mix of languages I used when reading books between English, French and Spanish and about the format of the books I read, whether electronic or paper books. Last year I made an update of those stats and this post, written after having shared last week my 2017 reading list, is just a follow up update of those two tables:

Reading language

Booksperlanguage_2017

From 2010 to 2015 I read mostly in English. From mid 2015 I have started to read more in Spanish than in the past (mainly classics) and in French. In terms of books the mix for 2017 would be English 32%, French 20% and Spanish 48%. However, this year I thought that the mix would be better measured in terms of pages read, as the books can vary quite a bit in their length. Thus, in terms of pages: English 25%, French 33% and Spanish 42%.

Reading format

Booksperformat_2017

In 2017 I mostly read books in paper format, with a single book in electronic format. As I estimated here the amortization of the e-reader in about 20 e-books read with it, I am still just above half way through achieving that. Seeing, the stock of paper books that I have in the shelves, I doubt that I will read many e-books in the near term.

 

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January 4, 2017 · 8:00 am

Reading language and format (2016 update)

About a year ago, I wrote a couple of blog posts where I reflected on the mix of languages I used when reading books between English, French and Spanish and about the format of the books I read, whether electronic or paper books. After having shared last week my 2016 reading list, this is just a short post to update the two tables I included in those posts:

Reading language

reading_language_2016

From 2010 to 2015 I read mostly in English. This is something I changed in the second half of 2015 and in this 2016 I have continued with a more balanced approach, with 42% of the books I read being in English, 33% in Spanish and 24% in French. I believe I will continue with a similar approach in this 2017.

Reading format

reading_format_2016

In 2016 I have continued with the same ratio of electronic to paper books than in the previous years. As I read more books in 2016 than in any other previous year, I have also read more electronic books, hopefully this will lead to the amortization of the e-reader I have in this year or the next (I estimated here its amortization in about 20 e-books read with it, the first batch of 10 already completed).

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July 17, 2016 · 8:00 am

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running (book review)

MurakamiHaruki Murakami is Japanese writer of World fame. Murakami happens to be a consistent runner since the early 1980s, about the same time as he went full-time with the process of becoming a professional writer. “What I Talk About When I Talk About Running” (2007) is an autobiographical book in which the author not only explains what running means to him but also how he turned from running a bar to becoming a writer, from being a rather sedentary person to training about 60 km weekly, running at least a marathon a year for over 25 years, etc.

Murakami draws some parallels between running and writing:

  • Stop right at the point when you feel you can do more, both when writing and running. As he says to keep going you have to keep the rhythm, the most difficult part being starting and setting the pace.
  • The most important qualities for a novelist after talent: focus (“the ability to concentrate all your limited talents on whatever’s critical at the moment”) and endurance. These two can be applicable to practically every profession (e.g. “The Focused Leader” by Daniel Goleman at HBR).

There are some other passages that drew my attention while reading the book that I want to share:

“Nobody remembers what stupid things I might have said back then, so they’re not about to quote them back at me”. (Think now about today’s social media)

“I’m struck by how, except when you’re young, you really need to prioritize in life, figuring out in what order you should divide up your time and energy. If you don’t get that sort of system by a certain age, you’ll lack focus and your life will be out of balance.”

“Have you ever run sixty-two miles in a single day? […] I doubt I’ll try again, but who knows what the future may hold. Maybe someday, having forgotten my lesson, I’ll take up the challenge of an ultramarathon again” (No need to tell me that)

“[…] Thus the seasons come and go, and the years pass by. I’ll age one more year, and probably finish another novel. One by one. I’ll face the tasks before me and complete them the best I can. Focusing on each stride forward, but at the same time taking a long-range view scanning the scenery as far ahead as I can. I am, after all, a long-distance runner.”

If you are a frequent runner it is quite easy to relate to the author in several passages (1). In my case, it has been from the races he has taken part in (New York or Athens marathons), to the experiences lived in a 100 km ultra marathon, the thoughts or lack of them while running, the balance found in training, etc.

The book is rather light (about 180 pages in the version I have) and makes for a good reading, however, if he ever wins the literature Nobel prize it won’t be for this book. 🙂

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(1) I guess that for a professional writer there may be several parts easy to relate to as well.

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January 12, 2016 · 6:00 pm

Reading format

BooksIn a previous post, Reading language, I reflected on the mix of languages about the books that I read. This post, some days later, triggered the idea of taking a look at which format do I use when reading books; paper books or electronic books.

I have had a couple of electronic readers since some time ago. The first one being a gift received in 2010 (1) and the second one, a similar model I bought in 2013 to replace the previous model which got damaged. I have always thought that the business case for the electronic book was clear and positive: after just reading about 20 books in it the purchase was probably justified, especially if those books were classic ones, of which free copies are available in the net.

Find below the figures.

ReadingFormat

However, taking a look at the table above, the business case for me it has clearly not yet proven positive… In the past 5 years I have read less than 10 electronic books. So far, the cost of the 2 e-readers that I have had, plus the cost of the ebooks divided by the number of books I read in electronic format (a figure between 20 and 30 euros) surely exceeds the average cost of the books in paper format that I buy (which I haven’t calculated but must be between 10 and 20 euros).

What is actually the electronic book adoption trend nowadays? I found several articles. It seems that the high growth of the e-book market up to 2010 has more or less stopped. In this article from The New York Times, it is mentioned that about 30% of readers read a majority of books in electronic format, whereas this other one mentions that in terms of sales ebooks represent as well around 27-30%.

Finally, on the other hand, there is people like my wife, Luca; if she made the numbers for her reading habits, they would show that she reads books per dozens per year and that she reads a large majority of electronic books. She has a Kindle reader from Amazon, rather than a Sony e-reader as I do. This subtle difference may have a point in the shaping of habits: in the Kindle the shop is in the device itself. In a couple of clicks she has the book with her. In my case, I have to buy or download the books using a computer and then transfer the files from the computer to the reader. I guess that this subtle difference, which eases the availability of books for Kindle readers, may have a big impact.

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Note: In 2013 I completed reading “Thinking Fast and Slow” which I started in electronic format, but after my e-reader got damaged I continued and completed in paper format (in the meantime, Luca had bought it in parallel in paper), hence the use of decimals.

(1) I received this gift at the end of 2010 from former work colleagues when I left my job in Madrid for Toulouse. I therefore include in the table for the mix of format, only the books from 2011 onwards (it is obvious that before 2011 all the books I read were in paper format).

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January 7, 2016 · 6:00 pm

Reading language

In a previous post, Musings on objectives setting, I mentioned about reading:

I found that I am not that fast reader (in English and French and neither in Spanish!) nor all the books that I pick are that easy or short, so I linger every year around the 10 books.

BookShelfIn the second half of 2015 I was able to catch up with the objective by reading 2 books a month as intended. This demanded a rigorous approach, dedicating some time each night to reading (not that I didn’t enjoy it!).

I then reflected on the fact that of the last 8 books I read: 4 were in Spanish (plus 3 in English and 1 in French, a light novel by Saint-Exupéry). Did it help in that last reading rush that I read more books in Spanish than in 2014? In 2014 the mix of the books I read was 8 in English and 2 in Spanish. This reflection triggered the curiosity to find out the language mix of the books I read in the previous years, which I checked with the help of this blog (1). See below:

Booksperlanguage

I do not speak many languages, thus I cannot read all the books I read in their original languages (e.g. “The diary of a young girl” or “Crime and Punishment” lately). However, I try to read books in their original language when the authors write in English, Spanish or French, with few exceptions (normally due to availability of a book). When I cannot read one in the original language, I assume that the different translations to the languages I understand are as good (2) and I normally chose the Spanish version to ease the reading.

Seeing the mix above, in the last 6 years I have read more than three times as many books in English than in Spanish. This was intentional, since over a decade ago, in order to keep learning, improving, and to exercise the mind (3). I considered that each book I read in English (or now in French) met two objectives in one: using a different language and reading. It is only now that I reflect that by pushing myself to this exercise I might be reading a bit less than I could if I read always in Spanish, but I am happy with the mix and I think I will keep up with that policy.

I wonder whether you have similar reading language mixes or policies, feel free to comment below if you like.

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(1) Either in a specific post about each year’s personal reading list or in the personal summary of each year provided some info of the books I read. However, in 2011 and 2010 I relied on a then available feature of LinkedIn which enabled you to track and comment books read, not active anymore. I retrieved some info of what books I read in those years via the book reviews I made in the blog but I was not able to retrieve all books from 2010 (over a dozen vs 11 I am able to track now).

(2) This may be a bold assumption, but I never go that far as to knowing or researching about how good translators are (may be I should!).

(3) Similar reasons are behind the fact of writing most of the posts in the blog in English: exercising, learning and improving, plus reaching a much wider audience (including foreign in-laws and friends).

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January 6, 2016 · 6:00 pm

Musings on objectives setting

A few days ago, I had a short Twitter exchange with a couple of friends on  objectives. Sara mentioned that she was not setting objectives for the New Year. Nacho made a point of my objective tracking approach, which I detailed in a post in the blog back in 2011 (Personal mid-year review). Unfortunately (or fortunately) I do not follow such a thorough approach anymore (1), though I do set myself some personal yearly objectives, have them noted down, track them, etc.

In that post from 2011, I made reference to a previous post in which I commented on a HBR study and a post post by Sid Savara. The main takeaways from those readings were: have the goals in written, have plans towards achieving them and share the objectives with someone (at least with someone you have confidence with, not necessarily with everyone!).

In this post I quickly wanted to share some examples of the objectives I set to myself (2):

  • Reading: as I mentioned in a previous post in which I shared a summary of (my) 2015, I set myself a minimum objective of reading 10 books a year. I do not read any book for the sake of meeting the objective. It is rather that I have dozens of very much dear books in the shelves waiting to be read and I keep buying (and grabbing from my parents’ home) books that I think would teach me something or add some value. Ideally, I would like to read about 2 books a month. That would make over 20 books in a year, however, during some periods along a year I read less often, I found that I am not that fast reader (in English and French and neither in Spanish!) nor all the books that I pick are that easy or short, so I linger every year around the 10 books. Do I share the objective? Up to now, not explicitly, though I force myself to write at least a yearly post commenting the books I have read… thus, I do have to read them! Follow up: it is not very structured, though I know at any moment the books I have read along the year (I keep a record) and every now and then make some numbers of pages to be read per day, per week, in order to complete this or that book at a given point in time.
  • Writing: here I always remember a tip from Conor Neill, a professor at IESE, who says that we should strive to write something everyday, at least 500 words (see the blog post where he explains the benefits of doing so, Writing to reflect. Mindful leadership). In my case, apart from job emails, files, presentations…, I do not write (and reflect on) for this blog (or any other format) on personal interests everyday. Ever since I started the blog, back in February 2010, I intended to write regularly. What does that mean? Initially I aimed at publishing 8 posts per month, I lowered this target lately to about 6 posts per month. That would make about 70 a year. In 2015 I just met that target. Previously I had always been above 80 posts. See below the monthly production.

Blog post per month

Blog post per year

  • Speaking: on this front I was very consistent when I joined Toastmasters in December 2007, trying to give a public speech every two months. I kept being quite engaged until more or less mid 2012. I then dropped Toastmasters until I re-engaged myself in mid 2014 at the corporate club of Airbus in Toulouse. I am now trying to figure out the pace at which the club attendance allows and I am able to prepare myself to speak often (by speaking I refer to giving prepared speeches, as every two weeks in the club almost everyone gets to speak either with a role of evaluator, in table topics, etc). Thus, a vague objective (speaking regularly), not quantified, not yet in written, though shared.
  • Flying: for this objective scheduling is key. As I mentioned in the post where I shared my path to the private pilot license (PPL), it took me 4 years to obtain it mainly due to the difficulty in finding slots. From March 2015 (once I had passed the theoretical exam) I was more rigorous, always trying to have at least two slots scheduled with the instructor and airplanes booked at any point in time. This enabled that, even if many slots had to be cancelled due to weather conditions (or any other issue), I was more regular with the flying, I managed to obtain the license and fly over 19 hours. For the 2016, the goal is clear: to fulfil the requirements to maintain the license, that is 12 flight hours with 6 take offs and landings in the last 6 months prior to the license expiry date. On top of that, in order to carry passengers it is required to have completed 3 take offs and landings in the previous 90 days. Thus, the requirements by law help you in aiming at flying often. On the other hand, I was trained to fly on Robin DR 400 airplanes and another objective I have is to learn to fly another model, Diamond DA20 in order to have more flexibility with the scheduling of airplanes and be able to fly often… how often is often? At least a flight per month (ideally 2), about 2 flight hours a month… this objective, then, is well followed up with the aeroclub scheduling tools, navigation logs, etc.
  • Running: with the running I have many and varied objectives. From running (e.g.) 2,000 km in a year, to completing at least 2 marathons a year, to beating personal best times (PBs) in different distances (10k, half marathon and marathon), to other miscellanea objectives (e.g. running x days in a given week, y kilometres in a given week or month, running some special race, running a number of days while on holidays…). For the completion of marathons and aiming at PBs I do schedule training plans at the online tool provided by Garmin (the provider of the GPS watch I use). Thus, the objectives are clearly defined, shared (with Luca, colleagues, in social media) and well followed up.

And it is here that I wanted to stress on the definition of the goal, its writing and its sharing. I will take the objective “running 2,000 km”. In 2014 I started to publish online in Twitter regularly both the goal and how I was progressing.

With the online tool I have the objective clearly written down and tracked, I know whether I am ahead or behind, the weekly or monthly mileage needed to attain the goal, etc. The sharing of the goal in my inner circles helps with the finding slots to run. The sharing of the goal more widely encourages and pushes oneself. See below how I reached the objective in 2015. You can see that while the training towards Seville (February) and Madrid (April) marathons lasted I was well ahead the reference. After those marathons took place I fell behind, even if I only fully stopped for a week after Madrid marathon. I kept running below the reference weekly mileage until the end of June, when I was 70km behind… I then subscribed for Millau (September) and started building up mileage for it, then extended the training up to Toulouse marathon (October), stopped only 3 days after it and, since then, I always was around or over the reference to attain the goal (even if I had to stop for over a week at the end of November due to a cold that got me down with severe throat ache).

Running mileage 2015 progression

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It is clear that each one has a different approach and there is not a single one that fits us all. Many will not want to be constrained by fixed goals, nor be reminded of them by having them written, even less sharing some goal they are unsure to meet, not to talk about publishing it on social media! This is just how I go about trying to meet some personal objectives.

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(1) At least not for every objective and plotting a global indicator.

(2) These goals are easy to share others are kept in the inner circles.

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