Ep. 001 - "Invictus" By William Ernest Henley

"Check yourself before you wreck yourself." Which 1990s rap song was that famous line from? Bookshelf Q. Battler doesn't remember and he's too lazy to look it up, but if you want to, feel free to do so and tweet him @bookshelfbattle or find him on Facebook, @bookshelfqbattler and let him know the answer. It's the first episode of the Bookshelf Battle Cast and epic procrastinator has waited until the last minute - almost literally. Our intrepid nerdventurer has made a New Year's resolution to podcast once a month and there is not much time left on January 31, 2018 as he writes this. Talk about the last minute. William Ernest Henley was a wise man who struggled to overcome adversity and it's no surprise this classic poem inspired Nelson Mandela during his time in a South African prison. Can we control all of the, for lack of a better word, crap that life throws at us? Sometimes, but not always. No matter how hard we try to avoid it, something bad will happen to us. As the old saying goes, "If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans." So no, we can't control all of life's pitfalls, roadblocks, setbacks and disasters, but we can control how we react to them. Fall apart and lose control of your life and your path is likely to get rockier. Stay calm, be cool and stay the course and you'll avoid more rocks. In short, you can't control life, but you can control how you react to it. Know what else you can control? Your book purchasing decisions and BQB thinks that you'd be making a wise choice to purchase a copy of his book, "Bookshelf Q. Battler's Big Book of Badass Writing Prompts." Get some ideas to combat writer's block with this little beauty. https://www.amazon.com/Bookshelf-Battlers-Badass-Writing-Prompts-ebook/dp/B071WNKJ4L/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1517456164&sr=8-1&keywords=bookshelf+q bookshelfbattle.com is the place to go to check out BQB's latest musings, and don't forget you can get more analysis of "Invictus" here: https://bookshelfbattle.com/2018/02/01/bookshelf-battlecast-episode-001-invictus-by-william-ernest-henley-analysis-and-discussion/