@manton OK, thanks. I'll go through and edit the dates. Appreciate you checking into this.
@robertk Oh, I'm a sucker for books on notes and notebooks. I've just ordered it. Thank you!
Finished reading: Table for Two by Amor Towles 📚
I’ll read anything that Amor Towles writes. He’s one of my favorite living writers. This collection of six short stories and a novella hit the mark, though each left me wanting more, to know happens next. A master storyteller. ★★★★★
Community is a body of people crying for one another, working together for a common cause, enjoying and overlooking (or grimly tolerating) each other’s foibles; it’s a rough and beautiful quilt sewn of patches that don’t seem to go together at all, and then do.
Anne Lamott, Somehow
I was getting tension headaches from too many hours of looking down at a book at night, so I bought this Levo book stand. It holds the book securely and rotates into any position I need, even fully reclined. Expensive, but worth it. Headaches are gone!
For fun, I asked ChatGPT to create a cover image for an essay I wrote. The essay mentions old books and a Kindle: note the hybrid book/eReader lit by candlelight, and how the leather wing chair barricades the door. “Don’t bother me, I’m reading,” it seems to suggest. ❤️❤️❤️
@lmika I wish the Safari extension wouldn't continually ask me for my master password. I just spent an inordinate amount of time deleting, installing, reinstalling, restarting, etc. only to find that this problem is a bug affecting everyone (Reddit thread). I Could switch to Chrome, I guess. But Apple's Passwords manager coming soon is sounding better and better.
Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone, just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.
Enduring and grounding advice from The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
From Are Bookstores Just a Waste of Space? (New Yorker):
Two-thirds of the books released by the top-ten trade publishers sell fewer than a thousand copies, and less than four per cent sell more than twenty thousand.
I knew that bestselling authors dominate book sales, but these are humbling statistics for anyone contemplating the Herculean effort of writing and publishing a first book.
Currently reading: Somehow by Anne Lamott 📚
Finished reading: The Public Library by Robert Dawson 📚
Currently reading: The Public Library by Robert Dawson 📚
Currently reading: Table for Two by Amor Towles 📚
Finished reading: The Queen’s Gambit by Walter Tevis 📚
Who knew a book about Chess could be so intense! This was a great, great book. ★★★★★
Currently reading: The Queen’s Gambit by Walter Tevis 📚
Finished reading: City of Glass by Paul Auster 📚
A strange meta-detective novel with an unreliable narrator who slowly dissolves into insanity. I followed maybe half of the literary and Biblical allusions. Not at all what I expected, but oddly satisfying.
Currently reading: The Age of Louis XIV by Will Durant 📚
Finished reading: Here is New York by E. B. White
@adam Thank you so much for sharing your notes and observations. What a treasure you've created here! And it was a brilliant idea to read the books simultaneously.
I don't care what book you choose next summer, I will join you!
@adam I knew going in that Demon Copperhead is a loose retelling of David Copperfield. I read the Dickens classic earlier this year, and at least for me, it diminished my reading of Kingsolver. It felt like really well written fan fiction rather than an original story. If I hadn’t read Dickens first, I’m sure I would have enjoyed it more.
Finished reading: Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver 📚
Finished reading: Move on Down to Mexico by 📚
Finished reading: Real Tigers by Mick Herron 📚
Currently reading: Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver 📚
Currently reading: Real Tigers by Mick Herron 📚
Finished reading: Dead Lions by Mick Herron 📚
My second Slow Horses book and just as good as the first. There were a few more departures in this book frm the TV version, which kept me guessing. Herron is a talented writer.
@7robots Oh, that’s good to know about The Passenger and Stella Maris. I put down the Passenger after about 30 or 40 pages. I could not get into the writing style. It felt too indulgent on the part of McCarthy, kind of like he ignore all the rules of writing without any consequence. But, I recall having the same difficulty with Blood Meridian, which eventually turned out to be incredible. I’ll give these final two another chance. Thank you!
@paulmccafferty It must be close to twenty years since I read The Road, and I’m still haunted by it. Blood Meridian had a similar effect on me. McCarthy was one of a kind.
@rscottjones That does not look like Arizona!
@manton I bought a Boox Palma to replace my Kindle Oasis, but I returned it. I thought I would carry it around with me in place of my iPhone, but I found myself carrying both, which seemed silly because my iPhone has the same reading apps, and I don’t read for long stretches when I’m out and about. I tried reading on the Palma at night in bed like I do with my Oasis, but the ergonomics were wrong. After an hour, my hand ached, and my thumb hurt from the hard-to-press page-turn buttons. Going back to the Oasis felt like a warm, fuzzy blanket. I could focus on the words instead of the cramp in my hand. Just one person’s experience, but if you pick one up, make sure there’s a good return policy in case you don’t take to it.
@thestevepbrady Patience is a virtue with Libby, especially when you first use it. Put holds on lots of books that you’d like to read, then any time you find a book you might want to read, put a hold on it in Libby. After a few months, you’ll have more books ready to check out than you could possibly read. It’s super easy manage a loan if you’re not ready to read a book when it becomes available. Libby also supports multiple library cards, so your area has more than one library (i.e. city and county), you can add both cards. Libby will pick the library with the shortest line automatically. Enjoy!
@rscottjones Wow! Beautiful! I might just play this on loop for the day. Thank you for sharing.
@adam What a great newsletter! I’ve got some back issues to savor, and the promise of more to land in my RSS feed. Well done!
@adam Thanks for pointing out the connections between Regulators and Desperation. I had no idea!
@writingslowly That’s the one I read — in print! The footnotes were longer than the book!
@manton Welcome to Arizona. We’ve brought warm temperatures to greet you! We moved to Phoenix two years ago from Seattle and are still adjusting to the summer heat.
@adam Ahhh, The Stand is one of favorite Stephen King novels. I re-read it a couple years ago, otherwise I would definitely join you. Fun choice!
@adam A summer read-along project is such a great idea! I like your selections of past books. Which Stephen King book are you considering for this summer?
@adam I just started The Regulators, and now I understand why you asked about this when I was reading Desperation. It's always fun when the same characters pop up in different SK novels!
@rscottjones Thank you for reading and sharing!
@drewbelf Oh, I love that book. I think it found me at the exact right time and place. I hope you enjoy it.
@JohnBrady Thanks and congratulations!
@jean Yay for you, Jean!
@dgreene196 It’s a classic. I read Bleak House last year, which was also amazing, but much, much darker.
@ovr Oh, the irony! Honestly, if time travel were ever invented, we should only go back in time, never forward. We can laugh about what old Barnaby might think today, but I’m pretty sure my head would literally explode if I tried to process the technological landscape of the year 2424.
@paulmccafferty i love your taste in books!