The Two Best Pete Maravich Books

Few players have captured the imagination of basketball fans like Pete Maravich. With his floppy socks and shaggy hair, "Pistol Pete" dazzled crowds with between-the-leg dribbles, behind-the-back passes, and dishing the ball off the dribble at full speed. He still holds the NCAA scoring record—3,667 points. John Havlicek called Maravich the best ball handler of all time. Maravich died at age 40, just months after being inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame. Here are the two best books about the amazing Pistol Pete.

1. Pistol: The Life of Pete Maravich by Mark Kriegel. 

Softcover, 393 pages. Veteran sportswriter Mark Kreigel (who also wrote a biography on Joe Namath) does a superb job laying out all the triumphs and the heartaches in Maravich's unique life. Well-researched and insightful. 

2. Pete Maravich: The Authorized Biography of Pistol Pete by Wayne Federman and Marshall Terrill, with Jackie Maravich.

Softcover, 459 pages. Provides a glimpse into the heart and mind of Pete Maravich as he grew into a basketball phenomenon under the shadow of his intense and demanding father, and then as he struggled to find satisfaction despite enjoying amazing success on the basketball court. After his career was over Maravich found contentment following a conversion to Christianity. This book is an evenhanded treatment of Maravich. 

Four Essential Leadership Books You Can Read in (almost) One Sitting

Want to become a better leader? Here are four books you can read in a short time that will help you improve your leadership skills.

1. Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time by Brian Tracy. Soft cover 144 pages. Brian Tracy lays out 21 bite-sized productivity techniques you can start using right away to accomplish the most important tasks you face. If you want to beat procrastination, accomplish more, and have more energy at the end of the day, you need this book. 

2. The New One Minute Manager by Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson. Hardcover 112 pages. Excellent tips on how to use short interactions with people to clarify and motivate . Learn the skills of goal setting, praising, and redirecting behavior when necessary. You will be able to use these principles at work and also in your home. Updated in 2015 with tips for working with millennials. 

3. Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us by Seth Godin. Hardcover 160 page. Godin argues there are groups of people (tribes) waiting for someone to step up and take a leadership role to help make change happen. Godin issues the challenge to step outside the status quo, become a leader, and find your own tribe which shares your views. 

4. How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life by Scott Adams. Soft cover 256 pages. This book is Scott Adams’s observations on what works and what doesn’t in the game of life. Adams found ridiculous success as the Dilbert cartoonist by applying a few simple concepts that most people could use. The most powerful concept in the book is captured by Adams’s quote, “Goals are for losers; systems are for winners.” What he means is, chasing after goals can be unsatisfying since the time frame is somewhere in the future. (Example: "I want to lose 20 pounds by Christmas.") A system is when you decide to do several things on a regular basis that will increase your odds of future success. If you follow your system, your happiness will improve as you engage in your regular behaviors, and your odds of becoming successful will also improve. Grasping this concept alone is more than worth the price of the book.

Now reading: "Moby-Dick" by Herman Melville

It’s been a long time since I’ve tackled a long book, but I’m going to give it a shot. I just started reading "Moby-Dick" by Herman Melville. It’s more than 600 pages but I hope to have it read by the end of this month. (I have the softcover Penguin classic edition.)  

Happy Birthday, G. K. Chesterton

Today is the 144th anniversary of the birth of Gilbert Keith Chesterton, the influential English writer, poet, novelist, biographer, social critic and Christian apologist of the last century.   

  

One of the most prolific writers of all time, Chesterton wrote thousands of essays, several hundred poems, two hundred short stories, eighty books (including five biographies), and several plays. He may be best known for his fictional priest/detective series, Father Brown.
  
As an essayist, Chesterton often addressed damaging forces he saw at work in the world—modernism, communism, modernism, eugenics—yet he did so with humor and good cheer. In these days of vitriolic social media, we could use a lot more people like Chesterton.

  

Though not as well known as many of his contemporaries, Chesterton’s influence is still vast. His works played a major role in the conversion of C. S. Lewis from atheism to Christianity. J.R.R. Tolkien said he was inspired by Chesterton’s remarkable ability to help people see things “as they are meant to be seen.” Larry Norman, the “father of Christian rock music,” cited Chesterton as a particular inspiration.

  

(It is fascinating to note that Larry Norman is the one who first suggested to Dale Ahlquist, the co-founder of the American Chesterton Society, that he should read books by Chesterton. “Chesterton is a lot better than C.S. Lewis,” Norman told a young Ahlquist. He added that that if Ahlquist read Chesterton, he wouldn’t need to read Lewis at all “because all of Lewis is in Chesterton.” Ahlquist took Norman’s advice and began reading Chesterton, eventually becoming so captivated he co-founded the American Chesterton Society. So we have Jesus rocker Larry Norman to thank for helping spark the Chesterton renaissance which has been led by Dale Ahlquist and the ACS.)
  
Happy birthday, G.K. Chesterton.