Wes Parham: Reading List

I am the author of Be A Hater: A Polemic on the Hater Mindset. I am also a higher education professional and an organizational consultant. I help organizations especially higher education ones to address their organizational cultures, process, and climates. Especially as it relates to critical thinking, individual cognition, innovation, ethical behaviour, and effective relationships. Besides that, I am an avid regular Nintendo player. I can compete with the best on Mario 3. If you could make a living just playing that game that’s what I would do.

The Death of Expertise by Thomas Nichols.

I remember being in the 3rd grade and being in the library at school. I found the Greek Mythology section and fell in love. I read every book in that section. I was particularly fond of Hercules, Perseus, and Apollo.

Oh, just one book? I don’t know if I could pick just one. I would say Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman would be one. Being Wrong by Kathryn Schulz is phenomenal as well. And I also think that my book Be A Hater: A Polemic on the Hater Mindset could be of great benefit to younger people too.

I once had to clean toilets at an outdoor summer camp for kids ages 7-13. That was an interesting experience. I still have terrifying flashbacks of those days.

I don’t think so. I don’t think it is possible for me to read as much as I want to. If I could I would read all day and all night. However, that whole needing to feed my family, and you know, sleep thing cause me to have to do some other things other than reading.

Reframing Organizations by Lee Bolman and Terrence Deal. This book offers great insight into the leadership, structuring, and orientation of organizations. Bolman and Deal do a great job of presenting their four frames. The book is an easy and engaging read. It is a great book for those who want to help organizations of any kind to improve, innovate, and be more efficient.

I actually revisit a lot of books. Some books are just so packed full of information, and so fun to read I have to go back. Some examples are The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt, Curious by Ian Leslie, Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman, Being Wrong by Kathryn Schulz, and Superheroes: The Best of Philosophy and Pop Culture by William Irwin. I love books like these, that mix depth and heavy topics with pop culture or fun narrative writing.

Being Wrong by Kathryn Schulz. This has to be my favourite book to recommend. It is so fun to read and so full of fascinating and challenging theories, ideas, and topics.

Cultural Criticism. I love books that look at our current cultural values, etc. and offer a new perspective on them.

I shudder to think. It would be a world where knowledge would be limited because much of it would have to be discovered and rediscovered over and over again. Since the knowledge discovered before was not captured to be shared with others.

Not yet, but Neil Postman is close.

I don’t think so. I think there is a sense of comfort and accomplishment that comes from reading a hard copy book. Even when I can get an e-book I will still often buy the hard copy just for those feelings.

Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman would be first, but my book Be A Hater: A Polemic on the Hater Mindset would be a close second. Postman’s book speaks heavily about the influence of media on us as humans and how it is changing us as a people. And my book looks at dissent and disagreement and how we can do it more civilly and respectfully. Both seem very needed right now.

The autobiography of Thurgood Marshall would probably be it. I was so young when I read it and it was so powerful in its narrative and its portrayal of Justice Marshall’s life, that it made me really consider what I wanted my life to be early on.

Oh Wow. There are a lot. Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner, Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely, The Narcissism Epidemic by Jean Twenge and Keith Campbell, You Are Not So Smart by David McRaney, Post-Traumatic Slave Syndrome by Joy DeGruy, God Forsaken and Life After Death the Evidence By Dinesh D’Souza, and so many more.

I still haven’t’ looked at Affluenza by John De Graaf.

I don’t know. Ask me again in about 20 years.