On the Test Kitchen Bookshelf–What I’m Reading Right Now

Do you remember the days of bookstores, where you’d go in and be immediately faced with a shelf of recommendations from the staff? The “What We’re Reading” section was one of my favorite things about bookstores, as it provided an opportunity to interface with books I may have otherwise not discovered.

Nowadays, I don’t really go to bookstores. It’s not terribly time efficient, and, I’m all about efficacy to keep all the plates of our little world spinning neatly on their assigned sticks. I bought a Kindle Fire a while back, and it has been a welcome foray into the world of digital books.

I can now take a virtual library of information with me in my backpack, and not be weighted down in the slightest. Why the Fire and not an iPad or other e-Reader? Quite simply, I am a huge fan of Amazon. I use Amazon for most everything, and it just made sense to have my e-reader tied to the site where I buy all my music, so it would automatically be synced. Plus, they have a “lending library” for Prime members where you can borrow a book a month, if it’s in the library (a lot are/a lot aren’t, it’s sort of a crapshoot). I really don’t like iTunes and haven’t ever been able to master it, so I usually opt for anything but iTunes! I guess it’s kind of the “I’m a PC” thing (which I totally am).

Anyway, moving on to the point of this post!

I have read/am reading quite a few interesting books lately, so I wanted to share my virtual bookshelf with you. You’ll see a trend here, as I have been reading a lot about health and fitness (my favorite topic). This time, I’ve been researching how to naturally address my hypothyroid issue, which by the way, has dramatically improved in just a month’s time. I’ll talk about how I did this without medication in a later post. I have learned a lot I want to share with you guys, because I have heard from many of you that you face the same issue. I haven’t felt this good since…well, I don’t remember the last time I felt this good. I was probably in high school the last time I had this much energy and pep. It’s a night and day improvement from how I felt in the early fall!

Current Reading List

Clean – Dr. Alejandro Junger

If I could recommend that you read one book before this year is over, it would be this one. If you don’t feel good for any reason, if you’re sluggish, if you’re unhappy, if you can’t sleep, if you sleep too much – whatever it may be – read this book. I have always thought I lead a fairly healthful life, and while I may have been better than the average American in my habits, I had a lot of room for improvement. I have taken so many of the steps in this book, and believe they contributed greatly to just how great I am feeling lately. It’s easy to read and super informative.

Finding Ultra – Rich Roll

I really enjoyed this book, which I talked about in a post a while back. You don’t have to be into sports to get value from it, as this is a story of a man whose life was way off track and how he brought it back around to have a much more fulfilling existence. I learned a lot about plant-based nutrition along the way, as Rich is now totally plant-powered. You just have to see this before and after to want to listen to what he has to say  (yes, that is the same person!).

Revive – Dr. Frank Lipman

As it turns out, Dr. Junger and Dr. Lipman are close colleagues, which I did not know when I started Dr. Lipman’s Be Well Cleanse last month. I felt so good after the cleanse, I decided to read his book. While a lot of the principles are similar to Dr. Junger’s, the book couldn’t be more different in its composition, and it’s broken out into daily lessons – little snippets to digest each day and week, and has a lot of great directions to get your health in order if you are overextended, run down, or, as he calls it, spent.

Wheat Belly – Dr. William Davis

Of all these books, this is the one most people would probably turn their noses up to the most. While easy to read and understand, this book insists that you need to give up wheat to live a better life based on a scientific understanding that wheat as we know it is not the same wheat of even 50-60 years ago, and causes a lot of issues in most people. I have had this one on my reading list for over a year, but am finally getting around to reading it. Since I have gone totally gluten free for about the past month (and don’t have Celiac), I can vouch that removing the wheat does some amazing things. It can be really hard to get your mind around though, if you’re not looking to lose the morning bagel, sandwich at lunch, or pizza for dinner.

Eat and Run – Scott Jurek

Scott Jurek is an amazing athlete that has won pretty much every ultra distance running event (a few times over). The book is a great story of his trek to the top, and has quite a few “real food” recipes interspersed throughout. If you have heard of or read Born to Run, you are likely familiar with Scott. This was a fast and enjoyable read, and has a lot more to do with learning life’s lessons than “just running.”

Burst Workout – Mike O’Donnell
And finally, I have been really looking into Burst Training lately, where you alternate high intensity bursts with periods of recovery to get a quite a workout in a small amount of time. I read this short e-book last week and found it a helpful primer on the subject, but I still have more to learn.

So, there’s my current reading list. What’s yours? If you guys end up enjoying this feature, I will share more in the future, as I usually have a variety of books in the hopper at any given time (and currently have a queue of items I want to start in the new year).

What books should I add to my “to-read” list? I always love to hear from you guys with your suggestions, so please let me know in the comments!