Here is what I read this week. Some of the articles/posts may require a subscription to read them. I also share my recommended reads on Pocket for anyone who wants to follow along there.
Books
Finished Reading
- The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson by Robert A. Caro. This was, by far, the best and most interesting book of the 5-volume series so far. I have some more thoughts about the book coming on Thursday’s post.
- How To Take Smart Notes by Ahrens Sönke. This was an interesting read that focused on the Zettelkasten method of notetaking. I was hoping for more concrete examples of how notes like these work and look, but it was a good broad introduction to the method.
- The Founders’ Fortunes: How Money Shaped the Birth of America by Willard Sterne Randall. A unique history of the American Revolution, looking at the founders, their wealth, how they obtained it, and how that wealth impacted and shaped the revolution and the birth of the United States.
In Progress
- Never by Ken Follett. Years ago, I tried reading The Pillars of the Earth, but didn’t finish it. More recently, I read Follett’s short work on Notre Dame. This past week, Stephen King tweeted about this new book, and after that, I just had to read it.
Articles/posts
- Joe Rogan Apologizes for ‘Shameful’ Past Use of Racial Slur by Ben Sisario (NY Times, 2/5/22)
- Both Sides Now by Melanie Novak (blog, 2/6/22) #libraries #museums
- Decoding Dickens’s Secret Notes to Himself, One Symbol at a Time by Jenny Gross (NY Times, 2/8/22). A fascinating mixture of literature and computer science working together to solve a long-standing mystery. #literature #cryptography
- Peloton says its C.E.O. will step down and announces 2,800 layoffs by Lauren Hirsch (NY Times, 2/8/22) #business
- 100 Years Ago, a Quantum Experiment Explained Why We Don’t Fall through Our Chairs by Davide Castelvecchi (Scientific American, 2/8/22) #physics
- Where Language Policing Leads in Education by Conor Friedersdorf (The Atlantic, 2/7/22). #censorship
- McConnell, GOP senators criticize RNC for censuring Cheney, Kinzinger by Melissa Quinn (CBS News, 2/8/22) #politics
- Obsidian: Understanding its Core Design Principles by TfTHacker (Medium, 2/6/22). A look inside the thinking behind the design of Obsidian.md. #apps #software
- More Thoughts on America’s Feel-Bad Boom by Paul Krugman (NY Times, 2/3/22) #economics
- ‘Framing the News’: An Update by James Fallows (Substack, 2/10/22). A follow-up the piece that Fallow’s wrote last week on “framing” in the news, with additional examples. #media #reporting
- Vacancies in Top Health and Science Jobs May Threaten Biden’s Agenda by Sheryl Gay Stolberg (NY Times, 2/10/22)
- What Is Spacetime Really Made Of? – Scientific American by Adam Becker (Scientific American, Feb. 2022). This piece pushed the limit of my comprehension, but it was fascinating nonetheless to consider what might lie beneath space and time. #cosmology #astrophyics
- Is The Division Bell the Best Album of All Time? (What’s Mark Reading, 2/11/22). I don’t think it is their best album, but it holds a special place in my heart. #music
- Saratoga Trunk (1945): “Two Impecunious Rascals” – Melanie Novak by Melanie Novak (blog, 2/9/22) #film
- Back to Normal? by James W Harris (Auxiliary Memory, 2/7/22)
- How Obsidian.md Replaced Video Games & Helped Me Publish by Eleanor Konik (Obsidian Roundup, 11/16/21). A lot of what Eleanor writes in this piece resonated with me as someone who wrote and sold short fiction, but didn’t want to write novels, and turned to nonfiction and blogging. And Obsidian. #writing
Any recommendations for books, articles or posts I should read? Let me know in the comments?
Written on February 12, 2022.
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How To Take Smart Notes by Sönke Ahrens – was this a re-read?
If not, you’re an impressive distance down the Obsidian path having not read it – that was the book that really sparked everything off for me 🙂
Adam, it was not a re-read. I came across it in a reference in Andy Matuschak’s note-writing systems. There is good stuff in there but I am still looking for more real-world examples to cement the concepts in my mind.