Beginners

dismantle the core of his being?
 
Just then, a woman appeared at his side, bearing a small carton of chocolate milk. She kissed him on the head, said, Good luck, and flashed me an owlish smile. Ryan, my opponent, was eight years old. With admirable composure, and an occasional sniffle, he dispatched me somewhere after the thirtieth move. I congratulated him, and as I went to inform the tournament director of the result, I saw him in the hallway, ego intact, proudly relaying the news to his mother.
 
Ryan and I were among those gathered for a Sunday morning Rated Beginner Open at New York City s Marshall Chess Club. Occupying several floors of a historic town house on one of Greenwich Village s most handsome blocks, the Marshall is a delightful anachronism, a relic of the days when any number of chess teams, collegiate and otherwise, battled across the region, their exploits recorded in the sports sections of newspapers.
 
That it exists here today, nestled amid some of the most expensive real estate in the country, is only thanks to a plot twist worthy of Dickens.
 
In 1931, at the height of the Depression, a group of wealthy benefactors, chess enthusiasts all, bought the building on behalf of the club s namesake, Frank Marshall. A grandmaster and U.S. champion who d once operated an oceanfront chess emporium in Atlantic City where he sometimes played passersby for money Marshall had for decades piloted his eponymous club through a number of iconic Manhattan locales, from Keens Chophouse to the Chelsea Hotel. The Marshall now had a home for life.
 
The place has lost a bit of its old-school luster there are no longer jacketed waiters to serve coffee or tea but playing chess at the Marshall today, you s

moment they ve put it down.  An engaging perspective on the joys of embarking on the process of learning something new. Shelf Awareness
 
Vanderbilt makes a compelling case that learning something new has myriad advantages, including promoting the brain s ability to rewire itself, connecting you to new people and new communities, and reengaging our innate curiosity and open-mindedness.
Outside

Tom Vanderbilt takes up pursuits that are actually fun surfing, chess, even juggling and finds power in being a novice.  
Bloomberg
 
Vanderbilt s book is, above all, a call to action.
CNN Health
 
Beginners belongs with David Epstein s Range on the list of books that have changed the way I understand my own limitations.
Malcolm Gladwell, bestselling author of Outliers
 
Tom Vanderbilt s book explores how to learn completely new skills, how to change our world even after we re supposed to be done with schooling. This is a book about how to become a beginner again, and it makes you want to plunge in with both feet.  
Charles Duhigg, author of The Power of Habit and Smarter Faster Better
 
A thoughtful and stirring look into the art and science of lifelong learning. Currently, I m learning Gaelic, dressmaking and how to lay floors. Last year, it was knitting and coding. I m 50, and not supposed to be a beginner any more according to society s conventions but Tom Vanderbilt turns that flawed assumption on its head with the grace with which he learns to reach a high note or surf a wave.
Rose George, author of Ninety Percent of Everything

A great book about the power of being a beginner.
Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project

Tom Vanderbilt shows us why it s never too late to be a beginner, and that there should be no shame associated with the word dilettante. Now I m off to learn how to play the trombone, speak Portuguese and bake soufflés
A.J. Jacobs, bestselling author of The Year of Living Biblically

A wonderful and inspirational book. The only thing that will make you put it down is a burning desire to try something new. It s full of the sort of encouragement and wisdom that bridges the small, tricky gulf between enthusiasm and action. A book that will launch thousands of journeys that might not otherwise have happened and prove life-changing for many who take those first steps.
Tristan Gooley, author of The Natural Navigator

You don t have to try all the activities that Tom Vanderbilt took on in his heroic, self-sacrificial effort to persuade us of the benefits of learning throughout life. After you read this invigorating book, you might want to take a nap. But then you ll get up, refreshed, ready to learn a new skill. You ll be ready to begin.
Carol Tavris, Ph.D., co-author of Mistakes Were Made (But Not By Me)

An uplifting, fascinating book about the value and addictive pleasure of returning to the status of a beginner. Vanderbilt is a fantastic writer. . . . Delightful.
Barbara Oakley, Ph.D, co-author of Uncommon Sense Teaching

Witty, well-researched, myth-busting and curiously of the moment. Vanderbilt tells a compelling tale. Eighty pages in, I joined a choir.  
Robert Penn, author of It s All About the Bike: The Pursuit of Happiness on Two Wheels

It s impossible to pick up a book by Tom Vanderbilt without learning something. An engaging and fascinating mix of the personal and the general. I never thought I d read a book that could persuade me to take up juggling, but this one did it.
Robert Colvile

[Vanderbilt] composes lucid prose and explains concepts . . . with relative ease, and his thesis is practical and worthwhile. . . . Compelling. . . . A solid beginner s guide to beginning.
Kirkus
 
[A] charming celebration of lifelong learning. . . . [Vanderbilt] makes a persuasive case for the benefits cognitive, physical, emotional, and social of being a beginner. This enjoyable reminder to embrace the small acts of reinvention, at any age, that can make life seem magical will appeal to those who enjoyed Robert Pirsig s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.
Publishers Weekly