“Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers.”
― Harry Truman

Over the past few months YHC has been confronted multiple times with the limits of his knowledge and understanding. In plain fact, much like his physical conditioning, his mental conditioning had been lacking and could use some serious improvement. Given that the simplest solution is most often the best (unlike Gillette, Occam’s razor doesn’t dull and need to be replaced), YHC decided to exercise his mental muscles rigorously old school by reading. The most measurable way to do this seemed to be to count the number of books read in a given time frame. In short order, it occurred to YHC that other brothers might find themselves in similar circumstances and be willing to challenge each other to exercise their minds and become stronger mentally.

In order to allow consistent comparisons and to foster accountability YHC proposes a few guidelines:

1. Commit to a specific number of books completed within a specific time frame.
   (YHC is committing to completing 1 book per week through the rest of this year.)
2. Reading can be physical books, e-books, or books on tape. The important thing is to experience new thoughts and different perspectives.
   (YHC has a pristine Kindle library of free books just begging to be read, and a current library card, so he has no excuses.)
3. Report at the end of each time period you’ve committed to.
   (YHC will commit to providing a synopsis/critique via Twitter within the week after completing each book.)
4. YHC suggests #F3ReadingChallenge as a tag for all social media posts so that we can challenge and support each other.
5. That’s it.

YHC has some philosophy, history, biography, mathematics, and chick lit (aka “opposition research”) on his reading list, but welcomes any suggestions. If you are interested, but don’t know where to start: Art of Manliness, GoodReads or Esquire can be a good jumping-off place.

Don’t disappoint Jocko…