I often rhapsodize about the virtues of book reading on this blog. Books are the best! But are there downsides to book reading? Can books be dangerous? A recent article in Harper’s magazine enthralled and sickened me. “The Machine Breaker,” by Christopher Ketcham, describes Ketcham’s conversations with an “ecoterrorist” named Stephen McRae. McRae shot up electrical substations and toppled billboards....
A recent report on participation in the arts, by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), says that the percentage of U.S. readers has dropped over the past five years. In 2017, 52.7 percent of U.S. adults were book readers. But in 2022, this figure was only 48.5 percent. In 2017, 44.2 percent of U.S. adults were readers of novels,...
Whenever I hear that a book has been banned, it makes me wonder what’s in that book. What don’t they want me to read? What don’t they want me to learn? Don’t they trust me to make up my own mind about what’s good information and what’s bogus? Check out this infographic created by the American Library Association (ALA). Look...
Did you catch the recent Washington Post article about the dangers of sitting too much? “The negative effects of extended sitting can be so strong, researchers found, that even people who exercise regularly face higher risk if they sit for much of the day.” —Sitting All Day Increases Dementia Risk — Even If You Exercise, The Washington Post Apparently, sitting...
Dear Blog Readers, Clearly, I’m on a nonfiction kick. Eight out of the last nine previewed books have been nonfictional (and most of these have been memoirs). My original concept for this blog was to keep it 50-50 fiction and nonfiction. But there are no rules here, folks. Or rather, there are no unbreakable rules. To any fiction lovers out...
Hello from Florida! I never thought I’d be able to travel in an airplane again, due to symptoms that I recently discovered were due to chronic pain. And yet here I am. In sunny and very hot and very humid Florida, visiting family. My first vacation in over four years. And I’m perfectly well. I used to have post-concussion syndrome,...
I did it! I wrote chapter 1 of my new novel. I don’t know exactly where the book is going, though I have a general outline in my head. But that’s as it should be, at least for me. When I write a book, I like to see where it goes of its own accord. If it goes in a...
Now that my book of poetry is on its way to publication, I know I should start another book. This is common advice given to writers. Once you finish one book, don’t sit around and wait for publication, or for you to become an overnight millionaire. (Right!) Don’t dwell on the specifics of the last book. Start your next book....
The year is half over; how are you doing on your New Year’s Resolutions? (If you made any, of course. I know that not everyone does.) I made six resolutions, and I *may* have already achieved one of them! One of my resolutions was to watch a movie all in one sitting. This is a challenge for me because of...
I was reading about psychiatry and came across something interesting. There is a concept known as the biopsychosocial model—see the short article from the University of Rochester called The Biopsychosocial Approach. According to this model, there are three ways to look at mental health. Each of these perspectives is useful in its own way: Biological Psychological Social So for example,...
I was recently reading stories by Hemingway. The writing was great. But I did not get swept away by the thought of hunting large game. I’ll view my large game from the other side of a strong set of bars, or an unscalable wall, thank you. Just a personal preference. I have never been on a safari, never wanted to...
A bad habit has been sneaking up on me lately. I have noticed that, while reading, I have been checking my phone every page or so. Sometimes I’ll check it after each paragraph. That’s a bad habit that didn’t haunt me for a long time. Especially during the dark days of my post-concussion syndrome, when I had trouble reading more...
My first book is coming out in 2024, and so I’ve been plunged into the exciting and slightly scary world of book publishing. I thought I’d share with you some of the activities going on behind the scenes to move the book through the publishing process. I signed a contract with my publisher, Beltway Editions. I hired a lawyer who...
Have you noticed that notifications, by and large, don’t work properly? Social media notifications will continue popping up after you have cleared them, or they show irrelevant information that aren’t actual notifications. Phone notifications don’t appear when they should. My dating app only notifies me about a new message half the time. Is it really possible that this technology is...
Have you ever been told to “Just be yourself” when you are nervous about an upcoming social situation? I have—I clearly remember this occurring when I was in high school. And I recently heard this advice given on the TV show Ted Lasso. But what does it mean to be yourself? According to Buddhists, there is no self. I believe...
“But why is a healthy, natural attraction to fat bodies so difficult for us collectively to believe? Why do we so readily accept that thin bodies are universally desired and lovable, while so certainly rejecting the same prospect for fat bodies?” —Aubrey Gordon, What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About Fat Anti-fat bias is a huge problem in...
The New Yorker article was so good it made me want to buy the book. So I placed it on hold at the library, and I’m now waiting behind hundreds of people. I’m talking about the New Yorker article “The Ghostwriter” (published online as Notes From Prince Harry’s Ghostwriter), by J. R. Moehringer, who ghostwrote Prince Harry’s memoir, Spare. Moehringer...
I find myself reading a hardcore philosophy book once again. I am drawn to these books. I do not mind working hard to understand a book, but working hard to achieve but little understanding seems futile. And yet, every once in a while, I run across a gem of a quote that I do understand, that I do connect with—and...
A quotation by Descartes popped up twice in my reading for the week, in two different sources. I feel like the universe is trying to tell me something. The quotation in question is the second of four points that Descartes made in 1637 in part II of his work Discourse on Method: “The second, to divide each of the difficulties...
I feel like a total warrior. I have increased my TV watching time from almost 30 minutes (as described in this post from last December) to over an hour and 40 minutes. Who ever thought that TV watching could be such a demanding sport? I subscribed to Apple TV+ (this blog post is not endorsed by Apple or anyone else),...
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Books previewed
Stuart: A Life Backwards Alexander Masters
The Girls / The Guest Emma Cline
Bottoms Up and the Devil Laughs Kerry Howley
The Collected Tales of Nikolai Gogol Nikolai Gogol
I’m Glad My Mom Died Jennette McCurdy
Unlearn Your Pain Howard Schubiner with Michael Betzold
The Way Out Alan Gordon with Alon Ziv
The Best Minds Jonathan Rosen
Monsters Claire Dederer
Spare Prince Harry
As I Lay Dying William Faulkner
Rebuilt Michael Chorost
Losing Music John Cotter
Kokoro Natsume Sōseki
Party Going / Living / Loving Henry Green
Chatter Ethan Kross
Tender Is the Night F. Scott Fitzgerald
Stay True Hua Hsu
The Invisible Kingdom Meghan O’Rourke
How to Be Perfect Michael Schur
Orfeo Richard Powers
Unwinding Anxiety Judson Brewer
The Confidence Men Margalit Fox
Liberation Day George Saunders
Pandora’s Jar Natalie Haynes
Night of the Living Rez Morgan Talty
The Journalist and the Murderer Janet Malcolm
Mislaid Nell Zink
Exercised Daniel E. Lieberman
Lapvona Ottessa Moshfegh
Empire of Pain Patrick Radden Keefe
Furious Hours Casey Cep
First Person Singular Haruki Murakami
Klara and the Sun Kazuo Ishiguro
Dead Souls Sam Riviere
The Pale King David Foster Wallace
Lightning Flowers Katherine E. Standefer
Beautiful World, Where Are You / Normal People / Conversations With Friends Sally Rooney
Swan Dive Georgina Pazcoguin
A Passage North Anuk Arudpragasam
Lucky Jim Kingsley Amis
Projections Karl Deisseroth
The Indian Lawyer James Welch
Atomic Habits James Clear
The History of Philosophy A. C. Grayling
Dusk, Night, Dawn Anne Lamott
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Philip K. Dick
Nothing to See Here Kevin Wilson
Change Damon Centola
Homeland Elegies Ayad Akhtar
Becoming Attached Robert Karen
Piranesi Susanna Clarke
Don Quixote Miguel de Cervantes
Solitary Albert Woodfox
Girl, Woman, Other Bernardine Evaristo
Enlightenment by Trial and Error Jay Michaelson
Death in Her Hands Ottessa Moshfegh
The Cooking Gene Michael W. Twitty
The First Bad Man Miranda July
Upheaval Jared Diamond
A Journal of the Plague Year Daniel Defoe
Creatures Crissy Van Meter
Indelicacy Amina Cain
Say What You Mean Oren Jay Sofer
Habits of a Happy Brain Loretta Graziano Breuning
Bad Behavior, This Is Pleasure Mary Gaitskill
The Brother Gardeners Andrea Wulf
Severance Ling Ma
How to Be an Antiracist Ibram X. Kendi
The Museum of Modern Love Heather Rose
Why I Write George Orwell
The Woman Destroyed Simone de Beauvoir
Educated Tara Westover
The Gift Hafiz
The Collected Schizophrenias Esmé Weijun Wang
Your Duck Is My Duck Deborah Eisenberg
Sapiens Yuval Noah Harari
Milkman Anna Burns
Under the Banner of Heaven Jon Krakauer
Waiting for Bojangles Olivier Bourdeaut
A Mind Unraveled Kurt Eichenwald
Eugénie Grandet Honoré de Balzac
The Body Keeps the Score Bessel van der Kolk, M.D.
The Bookshop Penelope Fitzgerald
Digital Minimalism Cal Newport
The Sisters Brothers Patrick deWitt
Dare to Lead Brené Brown
My Year of Rest and Relaxation Ottessa Moshfegh
Almost Everything Anne Lamott
Born to Run Christopher McDougall, Bruce Springsteen
The Ladies’ Paradise Émile Zola
The World Beyond Your Head Matthew B. Crawford
All the Birds, Singing Evie Wyld
Barracoon Zora Neale Hurston
Dandelion Wine Ray Bradbury
JavaScript & jQuery Jon Duckett
Home Fire Kamila Shamsie
The Weather Detective Peter Wohlleben
Play It As It Lays Joan Didion
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck Mark Manson
Convenience Store Woman Sayaka Murata
Perfect Me Heather Widdows
Sorry to Disrupt the Peace Patty Yumi Cottrell
Why Buddhism Is True Robert Wright
What Is Real? Adam Becker
Kudos Rachel Cusk
The Days of Abandonment Elena Ferrante
F*cked Corinne Fisher & Krystyna Hutchinson
Searching for Stars on an Island in Maine Alan Lightman
Wide Sargasso Sea Jean Rhys
Infinite Jest David Foster Wallace
A Room of One’s Own Virginia Woolf
The Girls / The Guest Emma Cline
Bottoms Up and the Devil Laughs Kerry Howley
The Collected Tales of Nikolai Gogol Nikolai Gogol
I’m Glad My Mom Died Jennette McCurdy
Unlearn Your Pain Howard Schubiner with Michael Betzold
The Way Out Alan Gordon with Alon Ziv
The Best Minds Jonathan Rosen
Monsters Claire Dederer
Spare Prince Harry
As I Lay Dying William Faulkner
Rebuilt Michael Chorost
Losing Music John Cotter
Kokoro Natsume Sōseki
Party Going / Living / Loving Henry Green
Chatter Ethan Kross
Tender Is the Night F. Scott Fitzgerald
Stay True Hua Hsu
The Invisible Kingdom Meghan O’Rourke
How to Be Perfect Michael Schur
Orfeo Richard Powers
Unwinding Anxiety Judson Brewer
The Confidence Men Margalit Fox
Liberation Day George Saunders
Pandora’s Jar Natalie Haynes
Night of the Living Rez Morgan Talty
The Journalist and the Murderer Janet Malcolm
Mislaid Nell Zink
Exercised Daniel E. Lieberman
Lapvona Ottessa Moshfegh
Empire of Pain Patrick Radden Keefe
Furious Hours Casey Cep
First Person Singular Haruki Murakami
Klara and the Sun Kazuo Ishiguro
Dead Souls Sam Riviere
The Pale King David Foster Wallace
Lightning Flowers Katherine E. Standefer
Beautiful World, Where Are You / Normal People / Conversations With Friends Sally Rooney
Swan Dive Georgina Pazcoguin
A Passage North Anuk Arudpragasam
Lucky Jim Kingsley Amis
Projections Karl Deisseroth
The Indian Lawyer James Welch
Atomic Habits James Clear
The History of Philosophy A. C. Grayling
Dusk, Night, Dawn Anne Lamott
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Philip K. Dick
Nothing to See Here Kevin Wilson
Change Damon Centola
Homeland Elegies Ayad Akhtar
Becoming Attached Robert Karen
Piranesi Susanna Clarke
Don Quixote Miguel de Cervantes
Solitary Albert Woodfox
Girl, Woman, Other Bernardine Evaristo
Enlightenment by Trial and Error Jay Michaelson
Death in Her Hands Ottessa Moshfegh
The Cooking Gene Michael W. Twitty
The First Bad Man Miranda July
Upheaval Jared Diamond
A Journal of the Plague Year Daniel Defoe
Creatures Crissy Van Meter
Indelicacy Amina Cain
Say What You Mean Oren Jay Sofer
Habits of a Happy Brain Loretta Graziano Breuning
Bad Behavior, This Is Pleasure Mary Gaitskill
The Brother Gardeners Andrea Wulf
Severance Ling Ma
How to Be an Antiracist Ibram X. Kendi
The Museum of Modern Love Heather Rose
Why I Write George Orwell
The Woman Destroyed Simone de Beauvoir
Educated Tara Westover
The Gift Hafiz
The Collected Schizophrenias Esmé Weijun Wang
Your Duck Is My Duck Deborah Eisenberg
Sapiens Yuval Noah Harari
Milkman Anna Burns
Under the Banner of Heaven Jon Krakauer
Waiting for Bojangles Olivier Bourdeaut
A Mind Unraveled Kurt Eichenwald
Eugénie Grandet Honoré de Balzac
The Body Keeps the Score Bessel van der Kolk, M.D.
The Bookshop Penelope Fitzgerald
Digital Minimalism Cal Newport
The Sisters Brothers Patrick deWitt
Dare to Lead Brené Brown
My Year of Rest and Relaxation Ottessa Moshfegh
Almost Everything Anne Lamott
Born to Run Christopher McDougall, Bruce Springsteen
The Ladies’ Paradise Émile Zola
The World Beyond Your Head Matthew B. Crawford
All the Birds, Singing Evie Wyld
Barracoon Zora Neale Hurston
Dandelion Wine Ray Bradbury
JavaScript & jQuery Jon Duckett
Home Fire Kamila Shamsie
The Weather Detective Peter Wohlleben
Play It As It Lays Joan Didion
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck Mark Manson
Convenience Store Woman Sayaka Murata
Perfect Me Heather Widdows
Sorry to Disrupt the Peace Patty Yumi Cottrell
Why Buddhism Is True Robert Wright
What Is Real? Adam Becker
Kudos Rachel Cusk
The Days of Abandonment Elena Ferrante
F*cked Corinne Fisher & Krystyna Hutchinson
Searching for Stars on an Island in Maine Alan Lightman
Wide Sargasso Sea Jean Rhys
Infinite Jest David Foster Wallace
A Room of One’s Own Virginia Woolf
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