READ ALL ABOUT IT
Since 2012, I’ve been writing about books. And the act of reading. And the importance of story and narrative. But, mostly, the underlying theme of all I write is how taking a moment to stop and digest some longform text — instead of scrolling, instead of watching a video, instead of multitasking — can be one of the most grounding things we can do for ourselves. Here’s the one-stop online home for all this writing.
You can read more about me and my work by moseying over here. Want to peruse periodic “essay drops” — excerpts from my work-in-progress essay collection about Homesickness? Here ya go.
The Editor, Having and Being Had, Slow Productivity, The Work of Art
Here’s Part 2 (of 4?) of a roundup of nonfiction I’ve read lately. Some of these I’ve read with an eye toward my own writing (style, subject, etc.), some were just for fun.
North Woods
A bit of …
Lincoln in the Bardo (George Saunders);
The Overstory (Richard Powers);
Hamnet (Maggie O’Farrell);
Her Perfect Symmetry (Audrey Niffenegger);
Swann (Carol Shields)…
ChatGPT vs. Authors
Perhaps you’ve seen the headline that authors such as George Saunders, Jonathan Franzen, and Jodi Picoult are suing OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, for copying authors’ work “wholesale, without permission or consideration.” ChatGPT works by digesting and regurgitating information found online (fair game, I guess), but AI critics have argued that Google, Microsoft, etc. also feed their systems pirated books found online.
Curiosity > Accomplishment
Ahh, New Year’s Eve…the dawn of a New Life ™️. I truly love Jan. 1 — clean slate, fresh start — and do spend time thinking about how I’d like the impending year to unfold. Or rather, how I’d like to respond to how the year unfolds. I love a good quantifiable challenge —which, let’s face it, is what most people’s resolutions are — but I’m more interested in how an outcome might shape my outlook on life instead of just “I lost 5 pounds.” (Or, to tie in to this account: “I read 1,000 books.”)
Booth
If I had to do a mash-up style quickie summary of Booth by Karen Joy Fowler, I’d say this novel about Lincoln assassin John Wilkes Booth and his famously theatrical family is part Hamnet (Maggie O’Farrell), part Shadowplay (Joseph O’Connor), part Lincoln in the Bardo (George Saunders). Stylistically, it reminded me most of Hamnet. (Plus it’s full of Shakespeare references). But Shadowplay is about Victorian theater and Lincoln in the Bardo is about President Lincoln’s grief for his son, so we’ve got points for thematic overlay there.
Apeirogon
In college I took an art history class – for fun, I guess, since I don’t think it fulfilled any requirement. I traipsed over to the Museum of Fine Arts one Saturday with my friend Keith because I had to write a paper on Rothko. I did, and I managed to make it a 10-page paper. Not a BS paper, which I’m sure some would like to think. No, it was actually a magnificent afternoon at the MFA as Keith and I spent about an hour talking about just one solitary painting because nothing in this artist’s work is straightforward, despite surface simplicity. Rothko is tricky like that.
Music to My Eyes: A Lifely Read Wrapped 2019 (aka My Top Books of the Year)
I love to read (obviously), but I also love to listen to music. I’m a Spotify user, and something the Swedish company does toward the end of every year is provide Premium users (fancy!) a graphically appealing “snapshot” of their year via music. Therefore, early December brings a flurry of people sharing factoids about their listening habits.
