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.
Reading = Humanly Possible
From Newsletter Issue No. 24:
“Helena Kim, a stay-at-home mother in Chula Vista, Calif., decided that when she turned 59, she no longer wanted to cook. ‘I was getting groceries delivered anyway,’ she said, ‘so if I am going to order groceries I may as well order the whole meal.’ She tips well and gives drivers high ratings… Ms. Kim, now 60, adores her automated life. ‘I get Amazon delivery, I get food delivery, I get grocery delivery, I get pet food delivery,’ she said. When she does leave the house, ‘I drive a Tesla and I use self-driving mode. If I could get a robot housekeeper, that would be perfect.’”
Beep-boop, beep-boop, let’s hear it for an automated life.
Birthday Book Recs 37/50 : A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
Birthday Book Recs: 37/50
A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
Birthday Book Recs 34/50 : The World According to Garp by John Irving
Birthday Book Recs: 34/50
The World According to Garp by John Irving
Building Thoreau’s Cabin
Front page of Sunday’s NYT: “They’re Not Alone in Copying Thoreau’s Cabin in the Woods.” Henry David Thoreau and his Walden cabin are as American as it gets. Rugged individualism? Check. Pioneering spirit? Check. Having to tell everyone about it? Check. (Just kidding…maybe?)
On Social Captal & AI
From Newsletter Issue No. 23:
On New Year’s Eve, we got together with friends. Aside from the general joviality of a post-Christmas catch-up with some of our favorite people, we played a game called Priorities. It’s fast and easy, and the basic gist is that one player at a time is given five cards, each with a very specific “thing” on it, and then proceeds to prioritize them in order of how much they value/like these things.
How Fashion Embraced the Book Nerds (and why?)
Reading is cool. The fashion world can’t get enough. This is what GQ says, and the rag would like to know why. I admit I wanted to hate this article that was fed to me by way of Algorithm (this would be a good name for a print pub, btw), but it turned out to be pretty good! (It’s free to read here.) Sorry to come in so preemptively annoyed and jaded, but a lot of discourse around books is as trite as those “reading socks” that B&N sells. (I do have a pair. But I just call them…slippers.)
Let’s Tax About It: Denmark Wants Kids to Read More
What we choose to spend our money on is what we value. In Charlotte, election day revealed that more people than not value a multi-pronged transportation plan that aims to alleviate car traffic and expand public transportation via a one-cent sales tax increase.
Robert Munsch, Not Celebs
What makes a good children’s book?
Ordinary People
A novel that reads like a play that was, actually, made into an extremely popular movie directed by Robert Redford…
Special Books
What makes a book (meaning, the object itself) special?
The Secret Apartments Hidden Above Carnegie Libraries
What does it mean to live in a library? There’s sort of a cachet to co-habitating with so much art, culture, and knowledge, á la From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, isn’t there? In the 21-st century this would take the form of a quick-edit video posted to social media: “Come with me as I tour a library-turned-apartment!” Or “POV: You live in an old library.” (And then cue all the book-lovers responding with 😍😍😍 [🙄])
Stay True, Between Two Kingdoms, Group Living, American Bulk
Here’s Part 3 (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.
Reading Our Way to Better Taste
From Newsletter Issue No. 19:
In July, the New York Times published a comprehensive roundup of “The Best Books of the First Quarter of the 21st Century.” How were these titles agreed upon? Well, they were “voted on by 503 novelists, nonfiction writers, poets, critics and other book lovers — with a little help from the staff of The New York Times Book Review.
The Buddha in the Attic
I’m sure you know about author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s wildly popular 2009 TED Talk “The Danger of a Single Story.”
Reading as Work
Writer Mireille Silcoff has done just as the NYT Opinion headline says — bribed her 12-year-old daughter with $100 to read The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han — and I mostly do not have a problem with that. (I know you — or she — didn’t ask, but oh well.) Silcoff admits right off the bat that the payoff is “excessive” (it is) and that she felt like a “parenting failure” when she acknowledged that her daughter didn’t read for pleasure (she’s not).
The Old-School Library at OpenAI
A prevailing sentiment among “book people” is that ChatGPT should cause consternation and hand-wringing. I get that. But while technology and automation may be replacing some jobs, I still don’t think it can replace the job of a novelist. Well, let me rephrase: There are some sorts of books that, yes, could likely be written using AI. Mostly, the dubious part in my eyes is copyright infringement. (And also that you can’t cut-and-paste emotion!)
Connecting With Tommy Orange
I read There There by Tommy Orange soon after it was released in 2018. If you’re not familiar, Orange’s novel about “Urban Indians” in Oakland was a Pulitzer finalist and a National Book Award longlister. The historical Occupation of Alcatraz, a 19-month occupation of Alcatraz by 89 Native Americans from 1969-1971, plays a large role. (This was new history to me.) It’s richly layered, cleverly derivative — the novel’s title comes from the Gertrude Stein line “There is no there there” — and made me want to learn more about urban-based Native populations.
I Love LA
Recent headline in the NYT: “Why the LA Public Library Acquired a Book Publisher.” The owners of Angel City Press — a small, 32-year-old shop dedicated to LA-specific books that are “drenched in nostalgia but undeniably cool” (yessssss!) — were ready to retire so offered up the whole shebang to the local library system.
Bookshelf Wealth
Here we go again! And here I am eating it all up!
Barnes & Noble is Back
Hello from a loyal fan of Barnes & Noble, a place that occupies the sweet spot between superstore-of-abundant-choice and “third place” congregating spot. There’s an ever-building protest against Amazon, but who’s protesting good ol’ B&N? I’m guessing no one, unless you’re reenacting You’ve Got Mail…or you are Peter Sagal from Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me.
