Coronavirus Lockdown Spain Blog Day 4: Books I’m Reading
Written by Rupert O.
It’s day 4, or 5, depending on how you count it, of Spain’s CoronaVirus lockdown. As a British expat, living in Spain, Venus can go out to buy groceries, and still go to co-working. But, she can’t do much else. She explains that it was raining yesterday. It’s cloudy today. Tomorrow, it might be sunny. That might make having to stay indoors seem especially hard. Fortunately, she has a friend with her, who’s hard at work in the kitchen preparing some delicious vegan food.
In this video, Venus is looking at a collection of books. They will, she hopes, keep her entertained during this very challenging time. She remains extremely grateful that everyone is still able to order books online and have them delivered. Venus thinks that it’s extremely important to use the enforced time at home in ways that don’t involve: ‘watching hours and hours of terrible television.’ In this way, the lockdown can be seen as being a good time to read, and meditate, do some yoga and connect with yourself.
It was already the case that Venus had begun to get back into reading in a very big way. Until recently, she hadn’t read a book for a few years. Then, she read “Think and Grow Rich’ by Napoleon Hill. She admits that the experience: ‘kind of blew my mind.’ She asked herself a very important question: ‘What other books can I read, that will blow my mind in the same way?’
Venus has become intrigued by personal development books over the last year. She’s read some truly amazing things. Last week, she went to Madrid on a business trip. She bought a book especially, to read on the train journey. It was ‘Lead The Field’ by Earl Nightingale. Even as she was reading it, Amazon was sending her follow-up recommendations for similar books. She ordered them all when she got back home. She’s very glad that she did.
Now, after the imposition of the lockdown, she’s thankful to have them all at her disposal. Venus holds them up to the camera and smiles broadly. She read the majority of ‘Lead The Field’ on her train trip. She made sure that she finished it the following day. It definitely merits a re-read, possibly on another business trip, sometime in the future. The book is light and highly suitable to carry with you in hand luggage.
After every chapter of ‘Lead The Field,’ there are useful personal development exercises to practise with. Venus has read all of the theory but it remains for her to apply its lessons directly to her life. That will depend upon her second reading and the completion of all of the exercises. It is at times like these when she wishes she had a friend who was as familiar with the text as she is. Being able to do the exercises together would be amazing: ‘ You could help each other, coach each other and encourage each other.’
The first exercise is called ‘The Magic Word.’ It asks you to: ‘List opportunities that surround you now in your current work. Brainstorm, and write down whatever comes to mind.’ The exercises are very practical: ‘They’ll help you to realise your potential and understand that you might already have what you’re looking for.’
The next book on her list is “The Law of Success.’ It’s a weighty volume. Venus ordered this book, again written by Napoleon hill, because she saw it on Valuetainment. That is a channel, dedicated to entrepreneurship, that she really enjoys watching. This book was a number 1 recommendation on several lists, so she had to pick it up. It’s the third of this author’s works that she’s really enthusiastic about, after ‘Think and Grow Rich’ and ‘How To Increase Your salary, which is: ‘amazing.’
Her copy of ‘The Law of Success’ looks very much like a bible. So much so, in fact, that it reminds Venus of her catholic upbringing. It has: ‘either 15 or 16, chapters’ and she intends to devote a day to each of them. There will be some practical exercises to do as well. So far, she’s really getting a lot out of the book. The first chapter is about: ‘ having a chief, definite aim in life’ which is very important. In her experience: ‘we think that we know what we want, but if you ask any person what they want, just one thing, they often don’t know what that is.’ If they do know, Venus thinks that this book will certainly help them to work their way towards it.
In her reading, she’s been finding out about the real importance of self-confidence. That subject has always been a challenge for her. She’s found herself being focused on: ‘abundance and big ambitions.’ Along the way, however, she’s ignored things like self-confidence and self-love, when: ’that really is the foundation for success.’
The book she intends to read after ‘The Law of Success’ is ‘How To Win Friends and Influence People’ by Dale Carnegie. She’s heard that it’s a really good book, so she’s looking forward to finding out for herself. Again, it’s a perfect size, and weight, for the purposes of travel. Venus still favours physical books over Kindle or other E-readers. She used to work for a printing company and she still retains her fetish for: ‘books, bookshelves and libraries.’
Another ‘Super-bible’ that she has to look forward to is ‘Yoni Shakti.’ She received it about a month ago and it’s certainly far from suitable for travel purposes because of its size and page-count. It’s written by Uma Dinsmore-Tuli and it represents the ultimate reference book for Yoni. Yoni is a Sanskrit word and it means ‘sacred space.’ It stands for the vagina and vulva. The book is all about yoni yoga and: ‘ The power of the yoni, the power of womanhood.’ Venus has heard amazing things about the book. Just seeing her flipping through the pages of the volume is an impressive sight to behold. Venus will tell us all about it after she’s read it.
These are the lockdown books that Venus has collected recently. If she finishes reading them all before her period of self-isolation ends then she’s open to any suggestions that might point her towards other examples of uplifting, and inspiring, reading matter.