In 2011 I got back to reading. Don’t get me wrong—I’ve always been a reader—but in the year past I pursued it with a vigor I haven’t had in years.

I read books about design and business, lots of fiction, and re-read a few classics. I read all the books on my shelf that I’d bought but somehow never got around to reading, and several books that I’d heard were good but hadn’t attempted yet. 

I made an effort for balance this year, too. Instead of just design and business books, I was more open to other topics. And I returned to fiction. The most productive years of my life as a artist were complimented by reading fiction almost exclusively. Reading fiction seems to open the imagination in ways that nothing else can. I tried to relax and read for enjoyment. Reading literature and books in my field is important, but reading for the pure enjoyment of the story was missing in recent years. 

So why did 2011 turn out to be such a great year for reading?

1. Balance. I tried to keep two books going at once. One fiction, one work-related. 
2. Goodreads.com. Keeping score is always a motivator for me. I started using Goodreads in late 2010 and found keeping track was a positive motivator for me. Have I really not touched that book in 2 weeks? Maybe I should move on. And it’s been fun to look back.
3. Bookins.com. Bookins is awesome for trading books. Get rid of the old ones on your shelf and pick up a few new ones. They don’t have the most eclectic selection but I’ve found dozens of books there. It’s dead-simple, too, with Netflix-style queues for what you have and what you want.  

So what did I read in 2011? Take a look at my 2011 reading list on Goodreads.

My biggest surprise and treat this year was definitely the Harry Potter series. I’d put it off for years thinking that I’d read it someday if for no other reason than that it was part of the popular lexicon. What I didn’t expect was to enjoy the series so thoroughly.

Sure the first few are written for pre-teens and have very simple themes, but it’s reading those that lets you appreciate how masterfully J.K. Rowling grew the series in sophistication, theme, and reading level as the characters (and readership) aged. The final book reveals that the pieces were all in place from the start. The world is charming, the characters endearing. I loved this series in a way I haven’t any since I was a kid. 

It’s funny how putting something off for a long time, only to have it exceed your expectations leaves you with a feeling of loss. This great experience could have been a part of you so much sooner, and that time is gone.

I feel that way about Harry Potter and I’m starting to feel it again for my last book of 2011 (and first book of 2012 since I haven’t finished yet), Cloud Atlas. I’ve been meaning to read it for years, and within just a few hours it was shaping up to be one of my favorite books ever. Can’t wait to finish. And I can’t wait to see what 2012 brings. Happy reading!

Super 8 is most enjoyable movie I’ve seen in ages. It’s a complete throwback to another era of filmmaking, sharing the spirit of some of my childhood favorites. The Goonies, E.T., Stand by Me, and Radio Flyer come to mind.

What made all of these movies great is that they were movies with kids at the heart of the story but they weren’t just kids movies. They were smart, funny, and full of genuine adventure.They weren’t wise-cracking children living in a world where adults were imbeciles whose only function in the story was to ruin the pampered lives of their kids. The kids were real to me. They talked like we did, they had the kinds of problems we did (sans pirate ships and space aliens, of course), and helped adults remember what it was like to be a kid.

The child actors weren’t part-time models with bleached teeth, the latest haircuts, and a pop album about to drop. (When did Hollywood decide that everyone ever put in front of a camera had to be perfect?) Their dialog wasn’t full of hip banter clearly written by adults with wink-wink subtexts pandering to the adult audience. I have kids of my own and we see a lot of movies on the wrong side of this comparison.

Super 8 is the kind of movie I can’t get enough of. I hope it inspires filmmakers to raise their game.

Scott’s column in The Wall Street Journal is spot-on. The idea is that creativity and boredom are intrinsically linked. Boredom lets our minds rest and work through the backlog of stuff that is sitting in the background processes of our minds. Boredom sets the stage for invention.

I’ve noticed that my best ideas always bubble up when the outside world fails in its primary job of frightening, wounding or entertaining me.

I’ve given this some thought in raising my own kids. The fact is my kids are almost never bored and unsurprisingly, they really don’t know how to handle it when they are. When I was a kid, fun wasn’t a choice between thousands of entertaining options. Fun was the result of inventing something to do. 

I’m as guilty as anyone else of never being bored. There is always work to do, another book to read, movie to watch, hobby to tinker with, thing to learn – something that would be a better use of my time. There isn’t anything wrong with any of that, but am I robbing myself of my best creative moments by always staying busy? It’s like constantly breathing in without ever exhaling.

Today I’m going to be bored. Today I’m going to exhale.

I really love Amazon’s Subscribe and Save program. In a nutshell, you can get a 15% (or sometimes greater) discount on certain items if you agree to have them automatically shipped at regular intervals. If you’re a Amazon Prime customer and they have a good price on something you use often, it’s a no-brainer. Household cleaners, food, etc. are good candidates.

But what really impresses me is how honorable the system is. Subscription can be a dirty word for a lot of customers. Many companies that offer subscription products rely on shipping you more than you want, more often than you want and hope that you’ll forget or find it too confusing to cancel. It’s part of the model and I’m sure it results in tremendous revenue. 

But Amazon is completely up-front with Subscribe & Save. If you want to cancel the subscription after the first shipment and just bank the discount, you can. It’s simple to change the frequency or cancel any item’s subscription. But what I really like is that you get an email shortly before each shipment. The email tells you when it will ship and gives you a clear break down of the price like this:

Quantity: 1 
Subscribe & Save price: $15.74 
Regular price: $18.52 
Subscribe & Save price of last shipment: $21.28 

Not only are they showing you the subscription discount but also what you paid last time. And as you can see above they gave me the current lower price, too! That’s a delight as a customer. Many companies would lock you in to whatever price you signed-up at. 

The email also gives you the option to skip or cancel the shipment in a single click. It’s great.

Amazon gets so many of these little goodwill gestures right. They make it a pleasure to be a customer. I’m surprised how few people seem to know about Subscribe & Save so if you haven’t tried it, I’d highly recommend that you do.