Adam
Sometimes a book comes along with exactly what you need when you need it. This one helped me reflect to on my own mindset about productivity and make adjustments to be happier and healthier.
The main premise of the book is stated early (on page 8):
A philosophy for organizing knowledge work efforts in a sustainable and meaningful manner based on the following three principles.
- Do fewer things.
- Work at a natural pace.
- Obsess over quality.
After reading a few other magic school books this year (The Will of the Many, The Scholomance), I wasn’t sure this one would live up to the hype of being the #1 trending book on Hardcover. Turns out it did.
Forth Wing takes place in a cutthroat school for dragon riders. Students learn the skills needed to defend their homeland from invading forces and protect society.
At times it reminded me of The Hunger Games, LOTR and others in the dark-academia genre while still managing to be original enough to keep me wondering. Sign me up for the next in the series.
Last year when visiting Seattle my wife and I were walking through Uwajimaya, a giant asian supermarket. Being a long-time anime fan since the '90s, when I saw a book about the impact of Japans cultural history I had to snag it.
I wasn't expecting much, but what I got was an in depth history of Japans rise to global cultural superpower. Each cultural touchstone has it's own chapter - physical toys in the years after WWII, the karaoke machine, anime, kawaii culture, video games and more.
Growing up in the '80s Japanese culture was just starting to break out into the US. The first international breakthrough wasn't I expected. Rather than Mario, Astroboy or Hello Kitty, who was the first international superstar? Space Invaders. Others would follow in rapid succession through the video and anime filled 90s.
There are so many in depth historic stories in this book, and each of them could be it's own entire book. How performers who entertained guests in bars tried to stop the karaoke machine. How Hello Kitty started out as coin purse and grew to an international icon. How after the economic crash of the '80s it gave way for teenage self expression and girl power.
Even as someone who considered myself knowledgeable about most of these topics, this helped put it into a perspective I hadn't ever considered before.
Galatea is an incredible short story. The story is based on a Greek tale Metamorphoses. A (male) sculptor creates a (woman) sculpture so beautiful it comes to life and they live happily ever after. She has no agency, nor a name.
Millers version is told from the woman’s point of view living with a controlling man. It feels like it could be a Colleen Hoover story, yet keeps its fantastical tone of Millers other works.
The afterward ties directly to this theme:
For millennia there have been men who react with horror and disgust to women's independence, men who desire women yet hate them, and who take refuge in fantasies of purity and control. What would it be like to live with such a man as your husband?
Probably my favorite science fiction book (and series) I've ever read. Hyperion is written in a style similar to The Canterbury Tales, in which a series of stories are told by the main characters. Each story is a gem in itself, but alude to the larger storyline. The scope of the story is ambitious - spanning time, planets religion and love.
Even 6 books I'm surprised by how much I laughed out loud while reading the latest in the Magic 2.0 series. Every book in this series has been pure fun. Somehow by introducing a handful of new characters all at once, the series gets new energy while also helping to bridge some of the odd time gaps created. Like all of the others in the series, this is a standalone book, but is best read in order. I only hope Meyer keeps writing these because I love reading them.
I've never considered myself to have a good memory. I'll remember places, directions and programming concepts, but can't remember a phone number of the name of someone I just met. This look into the competitive memory circuit around the world helped me put an image in my head of not just what's possible, but how people actually go about remembering 10,000 digits of pi. While I don't plan to exercise this muscle to the extent of people in this book, I do want to try using some of these concepts to put a few names to faces.
Your Money or Your Life is very much a financial independence classic. This focuses more your life than your money – showing the strong thread that money has on your time, your relationships and your options in life. One area that stands out to me is the idea of understanding the value of your time as it relates to money. When you buy lunch out, or even grab a latte, how many minutes/hours of your time are you paying for that experience – and is it worth it? Knowing that you're spending on what brings you the most happiness for the buck is how you drive your expenses down while driving your happiness-per-dollar up.
I didn't watch Mr. Rogers Neighborhood when I was a kid. I have no idea why – it seems like an amazing show. I've watched a few episodes since as an adult and have been amazed. Reading this had me tearing up in places at the empathy displayed by Fred Rogers throughout his life. There's something to just listening to people and telling them they're important just the way they are.
If you're looking for a book of highlights around the park, this is a great reference book. It's organized into a collection of “focused days” each revolving around a specific topic: animals, photography, kids, birdwatching, fishing, geothermal features and more. As we drove around the park, we had this book handy and combined various days to create our own schedule.
I've always been fascinated by Tibet – especially pre-takeover by China in the 1950s. Seven Years is an exploration into that coupled with a book on war (escaping it), travel, mountaineering and making friends along the way. It's quickly become one of my favorite books. While Heinrich the man is obviously shown in the best light in this book, it's hard to forget his background. He was a Nazi and husband who ran away from both to climb mountains in the Himalayas. Seven Years is in many ways the “Eat, Prey, Love” of the 50s – both with characters dashing off to adventures. In Harrer's case, he ate whatever he could find (or be given), pray to not be caught and dragged back to internment in India and fall in love with Tibet. In many ways Tibet is the main character and the cause for all good and bad within his time there.
A memoir of mother going through a breakup and talking to a therapist about it? Yeah, like I'll enjoy that. But... it was a great story! It kept me entertained, drawn to the characters and wanting to learn more. Lori writes about her past and future through the lens of person in therapy, while also exploring different timelines with different patients. This allows the story to jump around - at one time talking about death, another addiction, another grief and another loss. I don't have much experience with therapy, but this look into that world was both informative and made me want to learn more about therapy in general.
The Renegades series sounded somewhat shallow at first – from a storyline perspective. A world where various people have superpowers that form up into good and evil groups? I enjoyed how much this one expanded on the first, while starting to advance into how the groups in charge shaped society (or tried to). If I had the third book today I'd start on it immediately.
The 2nd book in the series, but the first movie to be made, The DaVinci code follows a similar line of religion vs science vs conspiracy theory as the first. In many ways I liked how many different parties there were in the conspiracy for this one, each with their own motives. The slow draw out in what could have been ended faster left me waiting a long time for the next shoe would drop.