Interview with Jordi Nadal

1. Where did the idea for Book Therapy come from? How did you go from initial idea to writing the entire book?
 

The Human Resources Director of one of the biggest banks in Spain, after a first meeting, said to me: “Jordi, among managers, you're regarded as a well read guy; and among intellectuals and cultured people, you're seen as a manager. That's very unusual, why don’t you prepare a talk for the managers of our bank, (this bank has 30,000 employees) so that they might become better readers, managers and human beings through using and acknowledging the value of literature?”
 
I took the challenge and prepared a small first version of BOOK THERAPY with 12 authors I admired. I bought a website domain and registered a Trade mark. Then I prepared the reading course, and when the Summer was over, I came back to him and said: “Your great idea created a lot of work for me, and in return I'd appreciate if you wrote me a Foreword”
 
He did and afterwards commissioned my two talks on the subject, READING IS LIFE, for, each time, over 250 people in the bank. This led me to continue work on the book, expanding to thirty three authors in total.
 
 
2. What was your process for selecting authors to include in Book Therapy?
 
When I was 16 years old, back in 1978, I started to make a small note about every book I read. With time, these hand-written notes became something more serious, and I still do this today. I am about to reach book number 2000. 

For BOOK THERAPY I have chosen books that meant a lot to me. Books that are different. No strategy, just a sign of mutual love. I looked at my shelves with my 500 most liked books and they were reaching one to each other and to me it was as easy as breathing.
 
 
3.What does reading mean to you? How do you think reading has shaped you as a person – both professionally and personally?
 
The way reading reminds us to to have a sincere talk. The great opportunity to live other lives. The unique chance to be astonished, sad, happy, concerned, dismantled, enchanted, high or low…
 
It's a real talk. A great balsam against the harshness of life. A way of feeling less lonely.
 
4. How does your day job as an editor influence your writing, if at all?
 
When I'm writing I know there are the big ones. I don't pretend to be among them. I have been in love, but writers such as James Salter, F S Fitzgerald or Elena Ferrante wrote a million times better about love than I can.
 
5. What do you hope readers will take away from your book?
 
The certainty that we are alone and together in this. Call it life. Call it learning. Call it feeling. Call it thinking. I wrote this to give back in gratitude the joy of being a reader. And to say this silently and truthfully.
 
6. And finally…what are you currently reading? Do you have any book recommendations for our online community of writers?
 
I am always rereading a poem, be it by Larkin, or Ungaretti….

I very much enjoyed M: Son of the Century by Antonio Scurati, on Mussolini. I am reading Oliver Twist aloud with my daughter Clare, who is 9 years old. We read to her aloud, every second night with her mum, a book each, so she's also reading Little Women.
 

Jordi Nadal is a distinguished Publisher, Editor and Founder at Plataforma Editorial in Barcelona, regular writer for the National Spanish Newspaper, La Vanguardia, and author of the soon to be published, Book Therapy. Having given lectures to employees at a number of companies and banks, including Credit Suisse, about the power of reading, Jordi is an evangelist for the book as a promoter of mental and physical health as well as an enhancer of people’s personal and business life. Book Therapy is an extremely diverse and intriguing collection of stories that have provided Nadal with lessons in life and living in times of difficulty and stress.