A Little Summertime Reading for Self-Storage Operators

It's summertime, and for the younger-than-18 crowd, that often means enjoying a summer vacation. Maybe. It did when I was a kid, but these days, children and their parents are so focused on getting a leg up on their future that it probably means enrolling in a business symposium or a math boot camp or a session of gene-perfection therapy. A friend told me yesterday that her 14-year-old daughter is spending a significant portion of her summer doing volunteer work to boost her "resume," even though what she really wants to do is sleep in every day and watch "Desperate Housewives" re-runs.

When I was growing upbefore I turned 15 and took that summer job at the pizza parlorsummer meant days by the pool with my nose buried in a really good book. Back then I loved Stephen King and Dean Koontz, or whatever inappropriate romance novel I could smuggle out of my mother's collection. Ah, to spend hours indulging in reading was a luxury I didn't fully appreciate.

These days, I'm still an avid reader; but with a hectic schedule, I'm lucky to steal a few precious moments before I pass out at night, never mind a whole glorious afternoon. I'm insanely jealous of my teacher friends who spend their summers prepping their lesson plans and catching up on their own reading lists.

Perhaps, like me, you don't have as much time to read as you would like; but could you justify 20 to 30 minutes during your work day if the book were industry-related? What if it would help you do a better job and make more money? The Inside Self-Storage Store has been expanding its book selection, providing several guilt-free reading options for storage professionals. Add some of these to your library and share them with co-workers. They'll help you sharpen your own skills, and they make great training tools, too.

For many of you, summer is a time when you want to focus on outdoor activities, and maybe you think of reading as a winter-time escape. It's different for us here in Arizona, where the summer sun drives us to seek refuge in the safety of conditioned air. The heat is staggering and sucks out your will to budge.

So, since we're essentially "hibernating," I'm attempting to juggle a mish-mosh of readssome for fun, some to learn specific things and others just to keep me sharp. I scatter them around the house so I can steal moments here and there, when I'm cooking dinner or waiting to pull clothes out of the dryer or walking on the treadmill. I've always been a bibliophile and don't intend to stop when life gets in the way. I've got an added incentive when a book has career benefits.

Whatever fun stuff you're doing this summer, take a little time to polish or pick up some skills with a bit of professional reading. Watch the ISS Store for new releases! Are there specific books you'd like to see for sale in the store? Please post them to the blog comments below. Have you written a book that might suitable our audience? If you're interested in selling through the store, shoot me a note at [email protected].