I remember when I was on summer vacation between fifth and sixth grade when my mom imposed a "10 minute" reading rule on me. Every day, read for ten minutes. I decided to read Anne of Green Gables. Ambitious, I know. It's a thick book and it's only the first one of its series. Getting back to this reading rule my mom gave me, it was to encourage me to read more. As a kid, I grumbled about it because what I really wanted to do with all of my time was hang out with friends, listen to music and probably at that time, fold origami. 

Twenty years later brings me to today and now I can't even seem to find enough time to enjoy a good book. I wish that I could spend hours just reading - both fiction and nonfiction. These days, it's more about reading news, how-to information and market research literature. This is the reason why I now completely treasure even having 15 minutes to read a book - a real book. I know with the Kindles, iPads and e-readers that e-book reading is extremely popular right now but I do love the old fashioned page turning that I get to do with a real physical book.

As of today, I have five books opened and one of them is an e-book - Steve Jobs' book - surprise, surprise. How better to honor the life of Steve Jobs than to read his book using technology. The person, the business, the building of the Apple empire is intriguing to say the least. Three of the books I'm in the middle of are poker strategy books. I take a little bit from all of my sources and I see through implementation what really works or doesn't work for me. It's all a matter of style and attitude during play that dictates the moves that I'm willing to make at the table. The last book that I am three-quarters of the way through is Zappos: Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh. It's not just a fascinating business model (being happy) but it's about how a company's corporate culture which was deemed so far off in the beginning now becomes the model in which other companies are trying to pursue. Being first to be innovative with promoting a highly encouraging and happy corporate culture, Tony Hsieh is genius. His current Las Vegas Downtown revitalization outlook has brought some of the biggest buzz to the city in years. I'm definitely excited to see the Zappos headquarters move Downtown. 

To bring this story back full circle to my original opening paragraph - the ten minutes in which I used to dread has now become the ten minutes that I seek each and every day and being so thankful for when I can actually put that little bit of time aside for my books. While it's not the most efficient way to get through books, I'm having a blast every minute that I can get to spend some time buried in my books. It's five and counting...you never know, a sixth one may just be around the corner.