Reading Rabbit loves his books. So does this Central California artist, just a regionalist from Quaintsville.

Bet you are just dying to know how I can read while I paint. Or maybe you are wondering how in the world I can paint in solitude and stay motivated, hour after hour, day after week after month after year.

Audio books!

1. No Excuses by Brian Tracy is motivational reading to help you identify, set and reach goals. Sometimes I feel as if I’m sort of like the rabbit above, and it takes some simply worded motivational kicks-in-the-pants to get me going. After listening to the first several chapters, I stopped and made a list of paintings to finish for the upcoming fall shows. On purpose, not willy-nilly as I am sometimes prone to do.

2. Five Smooth Stones by Ann Fairbairn was published in 1966 and is the story of a black man from New Orleans who escaped that Jim Crow place, became highly educated and returned. You can’t tell at all that it was written in 1966 (except the term “black” is not used). I wish it was on tape, because I’d rather sit and read this book than do my work.

3.  Rich Habits by Tom Corley is also not an audio book for me, but I’ve listened to a couple of wonderful interviews with the author. Here is a link to one of the interviews: Tom Corley at Matt McWilliams Tom did a study on really wealthy people to see if he could find consistent patterns. Instead of writing it as a dry study with facts and charts, he wrote the book as a a bunch of short stories. It is surprisingly good in addition to being really interesting (and easy peasey to read).

Here are the links. If you order through Amazon, I get a few cents.