Your Bedside Table Reading

"Reading tangentially tends to make my brain work a bit better" - Kevin Chesters

So we asked him and some other keen readers what's on their bedside table, and why?

Shekhar Deshpande

Head of Strategy EMEA at Facebook UK

"Over the years I seem to have collected a healthy dose of music, sport, comics, business, spirituality and some fiction. Looking at this section of the bookshelf, some offbeat recommendations for a young planner are:

'The power of now' by Eckhart Tolle as well as his second book, 'the new Earth', this makes you rethink the smartphone addiction
Calvin and Hobbes - 10th anniversary book (amazing, hilarious)
'The journey of souls' by Michael Newton - delves into past lives (just saying)
My Gita by Devdutt Pattanaik - it will keep your feet firmly on the ground."

Ben Shaw

Head of Strategy at BBH London

"I'm glad to see what's at my bedside is actually a fair representation of my eclectic interests! Football, veganism, technology, graphic novels, science, work, idioms and the great outdoors!"

Kevin Chesters

(Incoming) Partner/CSO, Harbour

"I’ve never been a big one for “business’ books.
I’ve always found that reading tangentially tends to make my brain work a bit better.
Planners separate the useful from the interesting. But it all starts with interesting.
I don’t read sequentially, and always tend to have a few on the go at the same time.
These are the ones currently sat on my desk.
A mix of modern commentary – Harari, Lewis, Snyder.
A load of stuff that gives you enough anecdotes to get disinvited to dinner parties – Roach, Weisman.
The graphic novel on economics is helping me with my maths anxiety.
The Saatchi book is funny for any alumni.
HG Wells is just ace.

I think you should read work books in work time – spend the rest of your hours having a bit of a brain jacuzzi.
Soichiro Honda always said you find the best ideas at the edges."

Clare Hutchinson

Executive Strategy Director at Havas

"Maternity leave has turned me into a forager! If strategists are geeks, we ain’t got nothin on mycologists..."