You are what you [read]

Wonderful article on the libraries of CEOs and their significance to their successes: CEO Libraries Reveal Keys to Success.

Perhaps that is why — more than their sex lives or bank accounts — chief executives keep their libraries private. Few Nike colleagues, for example, ever saw the personal library of the founder, Phil Knight, a room behind his formal office. To enter, one had to remove one’s shoes and bow: the ceilings were low, the space intimate, the degree of reverence demanded for these volumes on Asian history, art and poetry greater than any the self-effacing Mr. Knight, who is no longer chief executive, demanded for himself.

The Knight collection remains in the Nike headquarters. “Of course the library still exists,” Mr. Knight said in an interview. “I’m always learning.”

I rarely reveal all that I'm reading. That's for several reasons: A. I'm private; B. I don't find many avid readers to discuss my library with; C. People make too much out of too little and they do it poorly. Trying to read someone's personality based on their reading lists is a bit less helpful than reading re-used tea leaves for the same purpose.

I may share some content and thought from one book every so often. Occasionally I've even bought a title for everyone to read here in the company.

Right now, I'm very much in a summer, fiction, reading mode. Having said that, I've got lined up a few political, business and historical titles for later this year. But...it's my private library that delivers a lot of private pleasure. It's more important you have your own.