Reading

Laozi’s Dao De Jing by Lao Tzu

/ ★★★★★, Philosophy, Reading

★★★★★ | Philosophy | Digital | Own | StoryGraph | Goodreads

This short book oozes with wisdom with the help of Ken Liu’s wonderful translation and notes. Read this one slowly and set aside time for reflection. So much of the advice is contrary to conventional western views that it can seem non-sensical. But try, you must. ★★★★★ 

Can you open yourself to your senses—quieting the mind like water?

Death is good. Senescence is good. The beginning is good. The end is good. You are, like all things in the cosmos, swimming in the flux of Dao.

Creative Nonfiction: The Final Issue by Lee Gutkind

/ Essays, Reading

★★★★☆ | Essays | Print | Own | StoryGraph | Goodreads

An interesting selection of essays from the print run of the Creative Nonfiction literary magazine. There were some essays that appeared to stretch the boundaries of truth, but that’s the creative part I guess.

Highlights

If things could be undone, if time could be wound back, like a film, if the past could be kept alive to compensate for the deficiencies of the present: these are the wishes that form character, that grow out of events that form character. It does not take much. The tree bends once, twice, then does not bend again. It grows now as it always will. — Susan Fromberg Schaeffer

There are many things that capitalism produces, and noble behavior on either end of the rich/poor spectrum is not one of them. But we admonish only the poor. — Brian Broome

The Age of Napoleon by Will Durant

/ History, Reading

★★★★☆ | History | Digital | Own | StoryGraph | Goodreads

The eleventh and final volume of the Story of Civilization, covering the years from the beginning of the French Revolution through Waterloo. Napoleon’s rise, dictatorship, stunning victories and ultimate defeat were thrilling to read.

From the sublime to the ridiculous is but a step. — Napoleon

Babel by R.F. Kuang

/ Fantasy, Reading

★★☆☆☆ | Fantasy | Digital | Borrow | StoryGraph | Goodreads

I tried to like this book. It has all the elements of a book I would love: etymology, 19th century England, a diverse set of characters, magic, and an academic setting (Oxford, no less!). But I found it slow and repetitive, filled with one-dimensional, unlikable characters, and lecture after lecture on how the rich and powerful mistreat the poor, especially those who aren’t white and British, except for those that are poor and British. It took me almost two months to finish this, and it was a struggle.

I appreciate the idea behind the story, but not how it was told. Not every book is for every reader.

…

Babel by R.F. KuangRead More »

Storyworthy by Matthew Dicks

/ Reading, Writing Guides

★★★★☆ | Writing | Digital | Own | StoryGraph | Goodreads 

An entertaining book filled with practical advice on how to improve your storytelling, whether in front of a live audience, on a date, or in a written essay. Dicks shares examples of his own stories, then breaks down why they work. ★★★★☆

Quote from Storyworthy by Matthew Dicks: "Storytellers end their stories in the most advantageous place possible. They omit the endings that offer neat little bows and happily-ever-afters. The best stories are a little messy at the end. They offer small steps, marginal progress, questionable results."

The Godfather by Mario Puzo

/ Mystery-Suspense, Reading

★★★★☆ | Mystery-Suspense | Digital | Own | StoryGraph | Goodreads 

I read the book during a recent visit to New York City and watched the movie on the plane ride home, which made for an immersive experience. The movie stayed very true to the book, though some big sections were left out. I loved reading the backstory of how young Vito Corleone eventually became the Don. Yes, some of it is dated, and yes, there were a few choppy parts that felt in need of editing, but I was pleasantly surprised by how really good this book was. If you loved the movie, you’ll enjoy the book.

Highlights

The word “reason” sounded so much better in Italian, ragione, to rejoin. The art of this was to ignore all insults, all threats; to turn the other cheek.

a friend should always underestimate your virtues and an enemy overestimate your faults.

The Notebook by Roland Allen

/ ★★★★★, Reading, Writing Guides

★★★★★ | Writing | Digital | Own | StoryGraph | Goodreads 

What a delightful book. The first chapter reeled me in with the story of how the Moleskin notebook exploded in popularity in the 1990s. The author clearly has been bitten by the same notebook fetish bug. He cites brand names of notebooks that are all too familiar to me. He decided to write a history of the notebook about ten years ago and proceeded to fill four or five notebooks with scribbles and quotes and references that ultimately became this book.

Allen used effective storytelling techniques to share dozens of examples of notebook usage over the past six hundred years from accounting ledgers in the 1400s, artist sketchbooks in the 1500s, Darwin’s field notes, to modern day journaling. Definitely a niche book, but great for any lover of notebooks and journals.

Rousseau and Revolution by Will Durant

/ ★★★★★, History, Reading

★★★★★ | History | Print + Digital | Own | StoryGraph | Goodreads 

The tenth volume of the incredible Story of Civilization series by Will and Ariel Durant. This one, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1968, provides an immensely readable history of Europe leading up to the French Revolution. Reading this series has been such an education. My only wish is that I had read them sooner. 

…

Rousseau and Revolution by Will DurantRead More »

The Work of Art by Adam Moss

/ Reading, Writing Guides

★★★★☆ | Writing | Print | Own | Goodreads | StoryGraph

It took me months and months to finish this book, and I think that’s the right pace for something like this. This book can only be appreciated in print form. The pictures and notes would not work at all on Kindle.  The challenge of the book is that it’s almost impossible for creative people to articulate how they created their work, and this problem pervades the book.  Moss takes this in stride, but there are few eureka moments that feel at all instructive. Still, it’s alway fun to get a glimpse into how artists work. If there’s a theme here, it’s art is hard. Keep trying.

…

The Work of Art by Adam MossRead More »

The Comfort of Crows by Margaret Renkl

/ Essays, Nature, Reading

★★★☆☆ | Travel and Nature | Print | Own | StoryGraph | Goodreads

This one didn’t meet my high expectations. The essays feel too forced and contrived, like the author is trying too hard. Lots of handwringing.  Her circle of concern is very very large. I don’t know how many essays reference the sad departure of her children from her once full home. I have no patience for mourning the loss of a child who has simply moved across town.  If only.  I read a half dozen of her short essays in the hot sun, wanting to be done with the book and move on to something more comforting. The essays went down easier out of doors, even if I don’t subscribe quite so much to her views.

You can’t come back to something that is gone. — Richard Powers, The Overstory

Sometimes the only cure for homesickness is to enlarge the definition of home.

The Wood at Midwinter by Susanna Clarke

/ Fantasy, Reading

★★★★☆ | Fantasy | Print | Own | StoryGraph | Goodreads 

A wonderful little snippet of a fantasy story. It could have been chapter one of a 500 page fantasy novel. Yet, one to read every Christmas eve.

One should be patient with saints, I suppose. Though the trouble with being patient,” she said, “is that, generally speaking, there’s no one to see you doing it.

Thinking on Paper by V.A. Howard, J.H. Barton

/ Reading, Writing Guides

★★★☆☆ | Writing | Print | Own | StoryGraph | Goodreads

Book Notes

Divide writing time into thirds:

  1. Idea generation
  2. Composition
  3. Editing and style

Three rules for ordering of arguments:

  1. Make concessions to the opposition first
  2. Devote at least one paragraph to every major pro argument in your thesis statement
  3. Save your best argument for last.
…

Thinking on Paper by V.A. Howard, J.H. BartonRead More »

James by Percival Everett

/ Literary Fiction, Reading

★★★★☆ | Literary Fiction | Digital | Own | StoryGraph | Goodreads

An innovative retelling of Huckleberry Finn from the perspective of Jim. There are some brutal, hopeless sections of this book that gutted me.  There is some humor, but mostly this is a dark, dark book.  The ending of vengeance and violence doesn’t feel consistent with Jim’s character, but a man can take only so much.

A Rage in Harlem by Chester Himes

/ Mystery-Suspense, Reading

★★★★☆ | Mystery-Suspense | Digital | Borrow | StoryGraph | Goodreads 

What a crazy rollercoaster ride through Harlem in the 1950s. I’m just now catching my breath!

There were more bars on his itinerary than on any other comparable distance on earth. In every one the jukeboxes blared, honeysuckle-blues voices dripped stickily through jungle cries of wailing saxophones, screaming trumpets, and buckdancing piano-notes; someone was either fighting, or had just stopped fighting, or was just starting to fight, or drinking ruckus-juice and talking about fighting. 

Needful Things by Stephen King

/ Horror, Reading

★★★☆☆ | Horror | Digital | Own | StoryGraph | Goodreads

Another completion in my quest to read every Stephen King book. This one missed the mark for me. To execute the pretty good idea for this horror tale, King had to involve way too many characters — almost the entire town of Castle Rock. With so many characters, I had a hard time connecting with any of them. Any other author would get a two stars, but King gets a pass. 

…

Needful Things by Stephen KingRead More »

A System for Writing by Bob Doto

/ Reading, Writing Guides

★★★☆☆ | Writing.  | Print | Own | StoryGraph | Goodreads

I learned at least one thing from reading this book: I have not been doing the Zettelkasten thing right. Mr. Doto here provides a practical guide on how it’s supposed to be done, and in reading it, it helped me conclude decisively that this kind of note-taking is absurd and in no way how I want to take notes.

…

A System for Writing by Bob DotoRead More »

The Age of Voltaire by Will Durant

/ ★★★★★, History, Reading

★★★★★ | History | Print + Digital | Own | StoryGraph | Goodreads 

Continuing my quest to read all eleven volumes of Will Durant’s Opus, The Story of Civilization. Volume IX centers on science and philosophy overtaking religion through thinkers like Voltaire and Diderot. The church did its best to stop it, but in the end, the French Enlightenment steered the faithful away from religion toward the beginnings of existentialism. While this movement addressed religious corruption and the horrors of inquisitions, there is also a feeling of great loss as civilization let go of its rudder of morality and faith.

…

The Age of Voltaire by Will DurantRead More »

Scroll to Top