The Paris Review published a short and playful article titled “The Six Books We Could and Should All Write” that provides examples of six historic books that fit six different TYPES of books.
What types? “One should compose (1) a book about oneself, (2) a book about others, (3) an anthology of favorites, (4) a book about words, and now I’m adding (5) a book of lists.” The author adds a sixth, which is supposed to be scandalous and debouching. Most of the examples he gives are, he notes, better as ideas than actual books.
I can add another type of writable book that is also maybe better in concept than it actually is. Tal Ben-Shahar’s “Choose the Life You Want. the Mindful Way to Happiness” has 101 1- or 2-page chapters. Each one has a single footnote. The Notes page at the back of the book is a simple listing of 100 different books.
So, in essence, the book represents the single most powerful ideas from 101 books he read about the topic of making your life happier.
We should read extractively, pulling out at least a single idea from each book we read. Then we should write a book about what we’ve learned about life from them.
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