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Over the past decade, many of us have been alarmed to learn of the rapidly accelerating extinction of our planet’s diverse flora and fauna. But how many of us know that our human cultural diversity is also going extinct at a shocking rate? Biologists estimate that 18% of mammals and 11% of birds are threatened, while botanists anticipate the loss of 8% of flora. Meanwhile, of the 7,000 languages in the world today, 50% will disappear in our lifetime. Languages are merely the canaries in the coalmine: what of the poetry, songs, knowledge, and ways of seeing encoded in these disappearing voices?

In The Wayfinders, acclaimed anthropologist Wade Davis offers a gripping account of this urgent crisis. He leads us on a fascinating tour through a handful of indigenous cultures and worldviews while reminding us of the encroaching dangers posed by unchecked globalization. An enlightening, awe-inspiring, and cautionary look at vanishing cultures and languages from one of the world’s most celebrated and distinguished anthropologists.

So now I need to change my goal to profitably running a country store/gas station which, in 6 months, should morph to profitably running a country store from far, far away as an absentee owner.
P.S. I’m exhausted with a whole s*load list of things to do!

I’m revising this goal because I’ve thoroughly reviewed the 100 books on the list and found flaws in a collection of individual suggestions of what to read rather than a collaborative list of best reads. It’s not daunting reading a 100 books, but do I really need to read four books by one author to appreciate their work (for example, Charles Dickens)? No. I’m also replacing the Russian authors with some Big Read 200 titles. Russian novels, like their authors are so grim.

Additionally, the titles are all over the place. From looking at the titles, I’m guessing that respondents either chose their “favorite book” because (1) it was a classic that they proudly managed to get through, (2) it was impossibly long and they managed to get through it (or not), and (3) they fondly remember it from childhood or it’s one of their child’s favorites. It doesn’t appear that the selections came from avid readers picking their own favorite from 100s that they’ve personally read.

Don’t get me wrong. There are some great books on the list and I’m looking forward to many of the selections, especially the four books on India. It’s just that I’m a reader & there are so many other non-list books and so little time.