I wanted this video to be many things, but I felt that I was holding myself back by attempting to plan it all out. I realized that once I started talking about the books that it would unravel itself. It did that.
At first, I wanted to do a tabletop book review. Show the books, and talk about the books. Then I thought that I would try something different. Instead of making the books the centerpiece I would showcase my bookshelf. This was the ticket.
What do you do with the books before and after you read them? They sit on a shelf somewhere don’t they? Well… I do a weird thing with my books as they sit there. I rearrange them sometimes and play with books. I move them into symmetries and try to find more space. I do this for fun or when I am planning what book to read next. So why not show you were the books fit on the shelf. This is the heart of the video, the bookshelf.
As I talked about the books I realized there were hidden themes. I knew this would happen. Once I got going there would be treasure to uncover. These themes created a nice thread and told a story from the stories themselves.
Bret Hart’s biography and Zig Ziglar’s sales book made me realize that performance, perception, and belief were important themes found throughout all the books. How you perceive the world is very important. Attention is used as currency in the real world. To sell you have to capture someone’s attention. To entertain you must also capture someone’s attention. To learn anything you have to be able to focus your attention on one thing for a period of time.
I started to ask bigger questions. How we do know anything is true in the digital world where everything can be changed. Belief in the truth that what we are seeing is real. Bret Hart makes you believe when he is in the ring. Ziglar makes you believe that when you buy his products that it is for the right reasons. The experience of seeing is real, but is what we are seeing real?
Themes seemed to come back to performance and championship. To be the champ you gotta beat the champ. Be able to perform something for at least an hour. No breaks. I realized this was another hidden theme that I was embedded into the video through my own performance. Do this all in one take, or as little takes as possible. Eventually, the film ran out on the camera and I had unloaded it all onto the computer and mix it down.
Things come out of a performer when you know have only one shot. Editing removes the possibility of artistic moments. This is what you will see. Sure I stamper a lot, I say um, and I stall. But it’s me. I am all there. You are seeing the real Brent behind Newduereview. No enhancement, pure aura.
I am choosing to be imperfect so that you believe me. The digital world is perfect. We show the best sides of ourselves, and we choose to make things perfect. I am far from perfect. I choose to show you what it takes instead of an end result. The journey is always more fun than the destination, this is what you are seeing, a journey. Enjoy the book list. I hope it serves you well in 2020. Share my experience or combine them in new ways to make your own. No wrong way to have a reading list.
To see the full reading list visit here.
If you want to see the 2017/2018 reading list go here.