Five Books for Philly Fans to Read After "Inner Excellence"
Go birds.
Even if I wasn’t born an Eagles fan, I probably would have become an Eagles fan. The Philadelphia Eagles just get it. I love their underdog mentality. I love that they declined an invite from a certain someone after winning the Super Bowl. I love that they appreciate books!
If you’re not a football fan, you might not have seen A.J. Brown go viral for reading on the sidelines. (Every time I see him, I think, “The Eagles got…A.J. Brown!” Anyone else?) The wide receiver’s book of choice, Inner Excellence, immediately shot up to the top of the Amazon bestsellers list. As soon as the announcers said the name of Brown’s book, I found one of the few copies available on Thriftbooks and sent it to my father for an early birthday gift. Thank goodness I did, too. On Monday, my brother told me he was going to buy it. On Tuesday, my sister told me she was going to buy it. Oldest children being on top of things FTW!
All of Philadelphia, including my father, is reading this book. But what are youse guys going to read after?
I have some suggestions.
Learned Optimism by Martin Seligman
We know hungry dogs run faster. But did you know dogs who know they can do something about their situation find solutions faster? This second observation comes from positive psychologist Martin Seligman’s experiments with dogs (conducted at University of Pennsylvania!) in the 1960s. Basically, Seligman put a group of dogs were put in a room. Some were shocked at random intervals, while some were shocked only until they crossed a line in the room. The second group—the ones who learned they could do something about their situation—were motivated to avoid the shocks. The first group shut down. They felt helpless.
You can learn helplessness and pessimism. But you can also learn optimism.
This is one of my favorite self-help books. It changed the way I look at optimism, failure, and success. If you want to read a “classic” self-help book, start here.
Relentless: From Good to Great to Unstoppable by Tim Grover
Tim Grover was just starting his career when he sent a letter to every player on the Chicago Bulls introducing himself and his personal training services. The one player who responded? Michael Jordan. Grover’s client list includes the GOAT, Scottie Pippen, Charles Barkley, Kobe Bryant, and Dwayne Wade. No AI, but you can’t win ‘em all.
I’ll be honest. Relentless isn’t my favorite motivational book. It’s one of those books that forgets that women also want to succeed? And that they might find it insulting to think that a man’s infidelity is just a result of this dark force that he has to take out on destroying his family but it’s okay because it makes him better at business? Whatever. A lot of self-help books are “take what you like, leave the rest.” This is definitely one of them. If you want to be unstoppable, this book is still worth checking out.
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson
Jalen Hurts doesn’t give a f*ck about much…except winning a Super Bowl. If something gets him closer to winning a Super Bowl, he does it. If it doesn’t get him closer to winning a Super Bowl, he probably doesn’t do it. (Well…no, I won’t make a comment about the A.J. Brown/Jalen Hurts love triangle rumors. This is a blog post about books, not Real Housewives-esque drama.)
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck has really impacted the way I think about how I schedule my day and how I give into external forces that want me to give a f*ck about things I don’t have to give a f*ck about. I enjoyed it. The narrator could have used a less naggy voice when speaking for Mark Manson’s wife, but it’s a much more inclusive book than some other books of its caliber. I primarily listened to it on runs, which I highly recommend if you’ve got Spotify Premium and can listen to 15 hours of audiobooks a month. Use it!
God Bless You, Otis Spunkmeyer by Joseph Earl Thomas
Okay, this is obviously not a self-help book. I haven’t actually read it. But I do have a signed copy of it on my bookshelf and I’m itching to get to it. It’s set in North Philly and has a blurb from Kaveh Akbar, so I need to read it. Damon Young also blurbed it, saying, “I have never read something so f*cking funny and so f*cking weird and so f*cking full.”
So yeah, I’m sold on it.
Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino
I am reading this one! It’s also set in North Philly, and it’s about an alien who comes to Earth in the form of a young girl named Adina. Philly authors are weird and Philly artists are weird and sometimes I wonder why I moved to Austin when Philly’s been keeping it weird since I can remember. I love it, though. And I’m loving Beautyland so far.
All of these books can be found in my Bookshop.org shop. (I get a ‘lil commission if you buy them using these links.)
Which of these are you most excited to read next?
