Category: reading

Here is what I read this week. Some of the articles/posts may require a subscription to read them. Once again, my article/blog reading was down this week because of my book reading and my renewed focus on fiction writing.

Books

Finished

• The Age of Voltaire: The Story of Civilization, Volume 9 by Will and Ariel Durant.
• This Old Man: All In Pieces by Roger Angell. With Angell’s recent passing, I felt compelled to go back and read his writing. I started with this recent memoir, which I had read once before when it first came out. I ordered a bunch of Angell’s books and plan on continuing to go through them.
• The Dogs of Christmas by W. Bruce Cameron. This one requires some explanation. Each weekday morning, I sit with Grace and we read together. She picks the book. Back in January, she picked out this book, and it took us five months to get through the entire thing, 20 minutes at a time each morning. Since I read the whole thing, I felt that it was okay for me to add it the list of books I have read since 1996.

In Progress

• The Summer Game by Roger Angell. This was Angell’s first baseball book, the book made up of the baseball pieces he wrote for The New Yorker beginning in 1962.
• The Bend at the End of the Road by Barry N. Malzberg. A collection of critical essays on science fiction by a master of the form. Some of these I read in the magazines they were originally published in, but I’m now going through the entire collection as an exercise in admiration of the essay form.

Gave Up

• Rousseau and Revolution by Will and Ariel Durant. I was looking forward to this 10th volume in Will Durant’s Story of Civilization. It is the volume that won the Pulitzer prize. But having just read the previous two volumes (nearly 2,000 pages combined) I was ready for something else, and decided to set this one aside for now. I’ll return to it again in the future.

Articles/posts

• Pandora’s Text Box by Paul Ford (Wired, June 2022)
• A Writer Who Was Around the Game, and of the Fans by Tyler Kepner (New York Times, 5/24/2033)
• How to Marry a Millionaire (1953): “Look at that old fella what’s his name..” by Melanie Novak (Golden Age of Hollywood, 5/25/2022)
• Demo Vaults, PKM History, & an editable graph view by Eleanor Konik (Obsidian Roundup, 5/28/2022)

Any recommendations for books, articles or posts I should read? Let me know in the comments?

Written on May 28, 2022.

Here is what I read this week. Some of the articles/posts may require a subscription to read them. I was heavily focused on book reading this week and so my article reading is down again.

Books

Finished

• The Age of Louis XIV: The Story of Civilization, Volume 8 by Will and Ariel Durant. I went into this book not sure I would like it, but it turned out to be one of my favorite of the series thus far. Eight down, three more to go.

In Progress

• The Age of Voltaire: The Story of Civilization, Volume 9 by Will and Ariel Durant. After making my way through this series intermittantly over the last few decades, I’ve decided I want to finish it up this spring. After The Age of Louis XIV, I was particularly excited for The Age of Voltaire because the book is centered around the 18th century debate between science and religion, which is a fascinating debate.

Articles/posts

• Office Shape by Melanie Novak (blog, 5/15/2022).
• 3P Placement by Mike Dariano (The Waiter’s Pad, 5/20/2022)
• The African Queen (1951): A Rising Souffle by Melanie Novak (The Golden Age of Hollywood, 3/18/2022)

Rest in Peace, Roger Angell

I spent this morning reading obituaries of Roger Angell, who died yesterday at 101. For those who don’t have the joy of knowing who Roger Angell is or what he did: He was the son of Katherine Seargant Angell White, first fiction editor of The New Yorker; we was the stepson of E. B. White; he was a longtime fiction editor for The New Yorker. And he was one of the greatest baseball writers who ever lived. Read a few of the obituaries below to get a sense of him. It will be well worth the time.

• Roger Angell, Who Wrote About Baseball With Passion, Dies at 101 by Dwight Garner (New York Times, 5/21/2022)
• Roger Angell, editor, baseball writer at the New Yorker, dies at 101 by Matt Schudel (Washington Post, 5/21/2022)
• Roger Angell and Succeeding Utterly by Joe Posnanski (Joe Blogs, 5/21/2022).
• Remembering Roger Angell, Hall of Famer by David Remnick (The New Yorker, 5/20/2022).

Any recommendations for books, articles or posts I should read? Let me know in the comments?

Written on May 21, 2022.

Here is what I read this week. Some of the articles/posts may require a subscription to read them. As you can see, I managed to read a bunch of books this week, but that ate into article reading time, so my article/post reading was way down this week.

Books

Finished

• A Darkness More Than NIght by Michael Connelly. I needed a break from all of the nonfiction I’d been reading so I decided to continue reading some of Michael Connelly’s “Bosch” series of mysteries.
• City of Bones by Michael Connelly.
• Lost Light by Michael Connelly. This is the best of the Bosch books I’ve read so far. Excellent from start to finish.
• Never Panic Early by Fred Haise. I think it is wonderful that more than 50 years after the first moon landing, the astronauts involved in Apollo are still coming out with memoirs about their experience. Fred Haise, who flew on Apollo 13 and who piloted test landings of the space shuttle Enterprise has a delightful memoir in this book.
• Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel. I came across this book in my sister’s Goodread’s list. I enjoyed it, although it is not a particularly original time travel story in the tropes that it uses. It is the characters that make the book interesting. In some ways, I was reminded of Lauren Beukes The Shining Girls, although this book wasn’t a murder mystery.

In Progress

• The Age of Louis XIV: The Story of Civilization, Volume 8 by Will and Ariel Durant. Sated on fiction, I turned to Will Durant. I’ve read the first 7 volumes of his Story of Civilization (which is my desert island bookshelf) and I’ve been wanting to finish the series.

Gave Up

• The Narrows by Michael Connelly. I started the next book in the Bosch series, but after reading three in a row, I’d had my fill, so I gave up on this one and will return to it eventually.

Articles/posts

• The Secrets Ed Koch Carried by Matt Flegenhiemer and Ross Goldensohn (New York Times, 5/8/2022)
• Their restricted action section – The Waiter’s Pad by Mike Dariano (The Waiter’s Pad, 5/9/2022)
• Young Man With a Horn (1950): Bacall Searches for the Spotlight – Melanie Novak by Melanie Novak (Golden Age of Hollywood, 5/11/2022)

Any recommendations for books, articles or posts I should read? Let me know in the comments?

Written on May 13-14, 2022.

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

• John le Carré: The Biography by Adam Sisman. I’ve only read a few le Carré novels, and his memoir, but he seems like a fascinating person and this biopgraphy confirmed that. It is also always interesting to me to see the evolution of a writer from a nobody to a celebrity.
• The Hawk’s Way: Encounters with Fierce Beauty by Sy Montegomery. I enjoyed Sy Montegomery’s book on the octopus and this short book on falconry was almost as enjoyable.
• All The President’s Men by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward. I have two reasons for reading this book: one is because I recently read Carl Bernstein’s memoir, and the other is that I have a vague idea for a story involving an investigative journalist and so this book could be considered research.

In Progress

• A Darkness More Than Night by Michael Connelly. I was looking for a change of pace, and in particular, something set in L.A. I’ve already read the first 8 of Michael Connelly books, so I settled on another Bosch novel for the weekend.
• In Memory Yet Green: The Autobiography of Isaac Asimov, 1920-1954 by Isaac Asimov. I’m taking my time with this book, which I started last week, luxuriating in it, since it is the first time I’ve read it in a dozen years.

Articles/posts

• Neil Gaiman: ‘Whatever I loved about Enid Blyton isn’t there when I go back as an adult’ by Neil Gaiman (The Guardian, 4/29/2022)
• Breadmaking Fail – Melanie Novak by Melanie Novak (blog, 5/1/2022)
• Design = Action by Mike Dariano (The Waiter’s Pad, 5/3/2022)
• Roe v. Wade May Be Overturned, a Leaked Draft of Supreme Court Opinion Indicates by Jess Bravin and Brent Kendall (Wall Street Journal, 5/3/2022)
• Home Buyers Rushed In as Mortgage Rates Rose, Boosting Housing Prices Across U.S. by Nicole Friedman (Wall Street Journal, 5/3/2022)
• Leaked draft Supreme Court opinion would strike down Roe v. Wade by Robert Barnes and Mike DeBonia (Washington Post, 5/3/2022)
• In a Lonely Place (1950): The Best Bogart Film You’ve Never Heard Of – Melanie Novak by Melanie Novak (Golden Age of Hollywood, 5/4/2022)
• Database Plugins and More New Themes by Christopher Grieser (Obsidian Roundup, 5/7/2022)

Any recommendations for books, articles or posts I should read? Let me know in the comments?

Written on May 07, 2022.

Here is what I read this week. Some of the articles/posts may require a subscription to read them.

Books

Finished

• George Marshall: Defender of the Republic by David L. Roll. An interesting biography of Marshall’s life.
• Chasing History: A Kid in the Newsroom by Carl Bernstein. This was a fantastic look at the making of a journalist, rich in detail. I’ll have more to say about this in a post coming in the next couple of weeks.

In Progress

• John le Carré: The Biography by Adam Sisman. I’ve had this book since 2015 and am finally getting around to reading it.
• In Memory Yet Green: The Autobiography of Isaac Asimov, 1920-1954 by Isaac Asimov. I’ve read Asimov’s memoirs 14 times, but the last time I read his first two volumes was 12 years ago. I felt an urge to come back to them, and I’ll have a lot more to say about them in some posts I plan on writing.

Articles/posts

• I Finally Reached Computing Nirvana. What Was It All For? | WIRED by Paul Ford (WIRED, 4/1/2022)
• Disney should leave Florida. It’s time for DeSantis’s own theme park.  by Dana Milbank (Washington Post, 4/22/2022). I think this line from the piece says it all: “DeSanty World would make the Carousel of Progress turn in reverse.”
• Ron DeSantis’s war on Disney points to an ominous GOP future by Greg Sargent (Washington Post, 4/21/2022)
• How To Choose The Perfect Bookmark by Melanie Novak (blog, 4/24/2022). I tend to use my business cards as bookmarks, as they don’t really get used for anything else these days.
• Orrin Hatch, Seven-Term Senator and a Republican Force, Dies at 88 by Robert D. MacFadden (NY Times, 4/23/2022). A strangely uneven and contradictory obit, I thought.
• Jack Higgins, best-selling author of ‘The Eagle Has Landed,’ dies at 92 by Phil Davison (WaPo, 4/11/2022)
• Macron May Keep the Presidency, but Le Pen Has Already Won by Rachel Danadio (NY Times, 4/22/2022)
• I Spoke to the Experts. Bitcoin Isn’t Going to Change by Peter Coy (New York Times, 4/20/2022)
• The American retirement system is built for the rich by Daniel Hemel (Washington Post, 4/20/2022)
• Book review of Making History: The Storytellers Who Shaped the Past by Richard Cohen by Douglas Brinkley (Washington Post, 4/22/2022)
• Arlington County Board approves Amazon plans for PenPlace at HQ2 by Teo Armus (Washington Post, 4/23/2022)
• Copilot Is Like GPT-3 but for Code—Fun, Fast, and Full of Flaws | WIRED by Clive Thompson (WIRED, April 2022)
• Reading Around New York by Anika Burgess (New York Times, 11/4/2021). A great photo essay of New Yorkers reading books in public.
• How Jordan Calhoun, Lifehacker Editor, Spends His Sundays by Tammy La Gorce (New York Times, 4/22/2022)
• The Limits of ‘Lived Experience’ by Pamela Paul (New York Times, 4/24/2022). I was saddened when I learned that Pamela Paul gave up her position as editor of the Times book review. But now I see she has become an opinion writer for the Times and I am happy once again.
• Vaccine ease by Mike Dariano (The Waiter’s Pad, 4/25/2022)
• A 63-Year-Old Runner Changed the Way I Think About Regret by Lindsay Crouse (New York Times, 4/24/2022)
• Key Largo (1948): Bogart & Bacall & Huston by Melanie Novak (Golden Age of Hollywood, 4/27/2022)
• Henry Winkler Breaks the Curse of Stardom by Matthew Clam (New York Times, 4/27/2022)

Any recommendations for books, articles or posts I should read? Let me know in the comments?

Written on April 30, 2022.

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

• Traitor to His Class: The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt by H. W. Brands. I don’t know what it is about FDR but I could read about him all day. This must be the third or fourth biography I’ve read of him. I think the next one I will tackle in the James MacGregor Burns 2-volume biography of Roosevelt.

In Progress

• George Marshall: Defender of the Republic by David L. Roll. George Marshall was mentioned so much and so highly in Brands’ biography of Roosevelt that I decided I had to read a biography of him.

Articles/posts

• The Art of Letting Go by Robert Breen (blog, 4/21/2022). I bumped this one up to the top even though I read it on Thursday evening because it is one of the best things I’ve read in a long time. I highly recommend this thoughtful piece on life.
• Talking Talkies  by Melanie Novak (blog, 4/17/2022). I missed my Golden Age of Hollywood post this week.
• Woody Guthrie’s Notebooks (Notebook Storie, 4/19/2022). Anything about notebooks catches my eye.
• Two April Appreciations: Beach, Schell  by James Fallows (Breaking the News, 4/18/2022)
• Two New Possibilities for the ‘Times’ by James Fallows (Breaking the News, 4/20/2022). Some interesting suggestions for The New York Times
• MacOS Setup in 2022 for Minimal Mouse interaction by Decoded Bytes (Medium, 3/3/2022). Since I’ve been trying to use Vim mode everywhere, I thought this would be an interesting read.
• How To Balance Fun and Ambition by Ian Frazier (Outside Magazine, print edition, March/April 2022). This line resonated with me: “You must balance fun and ambition, and care passionately and dispassionately at the same time.”
• Field Testing My Cheechako by Stephanie Joyce (Outside Magazine, print edition, March/April 2022)
• The Greatest Game Ever Played by Alex Hutchinson (Outside Magazine, print edition, March/April 2022)
• Is This What John Denver Meant By “Dancing with the Mountains”? by Bill Gifford (Outside Magazine, print edition, March/April 2022)
• There’s No Better Place to Flirt Than Outside by Allison Braden (Outside Magazine, print edition, March/April 2022)
• Take a Flying Leap by Bruce Handy (Outside Magazine, print edition, March/April 2022)
• Let’s Turn the faun Back On by Mary Turner (Outside Magazine, print edition, March/April 2022). Resonated quote from this one: “Fun, unlike happiness, is an action, something we can actually pursue”
• A Winslow Homer for the 21st Century by Susan Tallman (Atlantic, May 2022). Homer’s name came up once or twice in Shirer’s memoir so I was interesting in learning more.
• Student-Loan Reparations by The Editorial Board (Wall Street Journal, 4/21/2022). I came out of college with $16,000 in student loan debt, which is far less than what graduates 30+ years later find themselves with. I managed to pay off all my debt. Still, I’m not sure what the WSJ editorial board is so upset about. The government has bailed out banks, airlines, to say nothing of other countries. Why not help out with student debt. It helps everyone in the long run.
• Framing: In Honor of Eric Boehlert by James Fallows (Breaking the News, 4/6/2022). More in James Fallows continuing series on the “framing” of news stories in the media.
• Writer Samuel R. Delaney Reading in His Library (NY Times, 4/21/2022). Chip Delany and libraries in one piece!
• Escaping from ‘Flatland’ – by James Fallows by James Fallows (Breaking the News, 4/14/2022)
• Bring on the Pitch Clock! – by Joe Posnanski – JoeBlogs by Joe Posnanski (JoeBlogs, 4/19/2022). After seeing them in action in the minor leagues, Joe is in favor of pitch clocks. I’m still a skeptic. Introducing a clock on any kind into a clockless sport is a slippery slope. I’ll have more to say on my ideas for fixing baseball in a post in early May.
• Revolt in Disney’s Florida Kingdom – WSJ by The Editorial Board (Wall Street Journal, 4/22/2022). I’ve got to wonder: is going after big business–from which both parties get enormous amounts of funding–a sound strategy? If a corporation is treated by law as a “person,” why can’t it have an opinion?
• Alexandria home prices got boost near housing projects, study shows by Marissa L. Lang (Washington Post, 4/22/2022)
• Apollo 16 astronaut reflects on life and God on landing anniversary by Earl Swift (Washington Post, 4/21/2022). An interesting look at the dramatic transformation in Duke’s belief system from the time he roamed the surface of the moon to decades later.
• Obsidian Publish Improvements & Task Management Tips by Eleanor Konik (Obsidian Roundup, 4/23/2022). The Paste Image Rename plug-in caught my attention this week.
• How to Fix Quantum Computing Bugs – Scientific American by Zaria Nazario (Scientific American, May 2022). I have to admit that while I have a fairly good handle of traditional error correction functionality, as well as the basics of quantum entanglement, this article pass the bounds of my ability to understand the mechanics of quantum error correction.
• Can Sanctions Really Stop Putin? by The Editorial Board (NY Times, 4/22/2022). What are the limits of sanctions and how long should they last?
• Why Did We Stop Believing That People Can Change? by Rebecca Solnit (NY Times, 4/22/2022). Reading this, I thought of that article on Charlie Duke above, and how much he had changed.
• Covid Drugs Save Lives But Americans Can’t Get Then by Zeynep Tufekci (NY Times, 4/22/2022)
• How a Recession Might–and Might Not–Happen by Paul Krugman (NY Times, 4/22/2022). Isn’t there a joke about never getting a straight answer from economists?
• Democrats, You Can’t Ignore Culture Wars Any Longer by Jamelle Bouie (NY Times, 4/22/2022)
• What Makes a Good Job Good by Peter Coy (NY Times, 4/22/2022). It will be interesting to see what metrics are ultimately used to measure this.
• What You Don’t Know About Amazon by Moira Weigel (NY Times, 4/22/2022)

Any recommendations for books, articles or posts I should read? Let me know in the comments?

Written on April 22-23, 2022.

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

• The Trials of Harry S. Truman: The Extraordinary Presidency of an Ordinary Man, 1945-1953 by Jeffrey Frank. This was interesting, but not nearly as engaging a read as McCullough’s Truman. The focus of Frank’s book was on Truman’s years as president, but I think there is some context lost in understanding some of his behavior and decisions without seeing the life that led up to the presidency.
• The Joy of X: A Guided Tour of Math from One to Infinity by Steven Strogatz. This was a fun read that toured mathematics in the same way it is typically taught to us in school, begin with arithmetic and working up through algebra, geometry, trig, calculus, statistics and number theory.

In Progress

• Traitor to His Class: The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt by H. W. Brands. I’ve read several biographies of FDR and always find them entertaining. This one is no different. It is in-depth and covers some areas of his life that I haven’t seen covered in depth in some of the other bios I’ve read.

Articles/posts

• Moonlighting as a Tow Boat by Melanie Novak (blog, 4/10/2022). I need to find some kind of exercise I really enjoy.
• Baseball’s Next Battle: Making the Game Exciting Again by Jared Diamond (Wall Street Journal, 4/7/2022) #sports/baseball
• Major League Baseball’s Respect Problem by Andy Kessler (Wall Street Journal, 4/10/2022) #sports/baseball
• To Sell is Human (book review) by Mike Dariano (The Waiter’s Pad, 4/11/2022)
• A 4-Year Degree Isn’t Quite the Job Requirement It Used to Be by Steve Lohr (NY Times, 4/8/2022)
• How to write great copy by Mike Dariano (Waiter’s Pad, 4/13/2022)
• Let’s Erase This Unwritten Rule by Joe Posnanski (JoeBlogs, 4/13/2022). I grew up with baseball and its unwritten rules went mostly unquestioned by me until this great piece by Posnanski. #sports/baseball
• Bill Gates: We Must Develop Drugs Much Faster in the Next Pandemic by Bill Gates (NY Times, 4/15/2022)
• Back from the dead? Elusive ivory-billed woodpecker not extinct, researchers say by Oliver Milman (Guardian, 4/13/2022)
• The Kids Are Right About Email, Too by Margaret Renki (NY Times, 4/4/2022)
• Why The Past 10 Years Of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid by Jonathan Haidt (The Atlantic, May 2022). All about how social media has fractured our society. It is rather bleak, but my own observations would seem to confirm a lot of what this piece is saying. #longreads
• Drag & Drop Blocks and Create Notionesque Tables by Eleanor Konik (Obsidian Roundup, 4/16/2022)

Any recommendations for books, articles or posts I should read? Let me know in the comments?

Written on April 16, 2022.

Here is what I read this week. Some of the articles/posts may require a subscription to read them. This was a busy week with a lot going on. I did manage to finish two books, but my article reading was down from its normal levels because things were busy.

Books

Finished

• Twentieth Century Journey: The Nightmare Years: 1930-1940 by William L. Shirer. Of the three volumes this one was my least favorite. It wasn’t a bad book, but it rehashed a lot of what I had just read in The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, so it felt repetitive. I did like the parts where he described how he became a broadcaster for CBS and working with Edward R. Murrow.
• Twentieth Century Journey: A Native’s Return: 1945-1988 by William L. Shirer. I enjoyed this volume as much as the first. Both served as excellent bookends for Shirer’s life.

In Progress

• The Trials of Harry S. Truman: The Extraordinary Presidency of an Ordinary Man, 1945-1953 by Jeffrey Frank. I read about this book first in a review in the New York Times, which called it the first biography of Truman since David McCullough’s massive volume a few decades ago. I loved McCullough’s bio of Truman (I’ve read it twice!) so I was naturally curious about this one, which focuses primarily on his years as President.

Articles/posts

• More Than A Name On a Wall by Melanie Novak (blog, 4/3/2022)
• Come See Me Speak! – Melanie Novak by Melanie Novak (4/4/2022)
• Book Banning Efforts Surged in 2021. These Titles Were the Most Targeted by Elizabeth A. Harris and Alexandra Alter (NY Times, 4/5/2022)
• Scar tissue/this time is different – The Waiter’s Pad by Mike Dariano (The Waiter’s Pad, 4/4/2022)
• Users are taking the internet back (Protocol)
• Bobby Rydell, Teenage Idol With Enduring Appeal, Dies at 79 by Michael Pollak (NY Times, 4/5/2022)
• Dark Passage (1947): Happiness Against All Odds – Melanie Novak by Melanie Novak (Golden Age of Hollywood, 4/6/2022)
• Nehemiah Persoff, one of Hollywood’s busiest actors, dies at 102 – The Washington Post by Adam Bernstein (Washington Post, 4/6/2022)
• Personal Knowledge Management Workflow for a Deeper Life — as a Computer Scientist |
• Jackson Confirmed as First Black Woman to Sit on Supreme Court by Carl Hulse and Annie Karmi (NY Times, 4/8/2022)

Any recommendations for books, articles or posts I should read? Let me know in the comments?

Written on April 08, 2022.

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

• Twentieth Century Journey, Vol 1: The Start: 1904-1930 by William L. Shirer. As I mentioned last week, I am always fascinated with the writer’s behind great works (like The Rise of Fall of the Third Reich). So far, Shirer’s memoir is fascinating, both from the perspective of a journalist in Europe and for all of the people he meets along the way.

In Progress

• Twentieth Century Journey, Vol 2: The Nightmare Years: 1930-1940 by William L. Shirer. Now into Volume 2.

Articles/posts

• The Madison Avenue Effect by Mike Dariano (The Waiter’s Pad, 3/28/2022)
• Speeding up for the red light by Seth Godin (Seth’s blog, 3/28/2022)
• Academy Condemns Will Smith for Slap at Oscars and Opens Inquiry by Nichole Sperling, Matt Steven’s and Julia Jacobs (NY Times, 3/28/2022)
• Welcome to Pozeroski Baseball! by Joe Posnanski (JoeBlogs, 3/28/2022)
• Ned Johnson, who built Fidelity Investments into a juggernaut, dies at 91 – The Washington Post via Bloomberg News (Washington Post, 3/24/2022)
• Jimmy Lydon, who starred as young Henry Aldrich, dies at 98 – The Washington Post by Harrison Smith (Washington Post, 3/24/2022)
• The Big Sleep (1946): Who killed the chauffeur? by Melanie Novak (The Golden Age of Hollywood, 3/30/2022)
• You Got Richer During the Pandemic. Early Retirement Is Still Risky by Anne Tugesen (Wall Street Journal, 2/11/2022)
• Michael Dirda’s TBR list is the quirkiest selection you’ll find on the Web by Michael Dirda (Washington Post, 3/30/2022)
• Bruce Willis Has Aphasia and Is ‘Stepping Away’ From His Career by Maya Salam (NY Times, 3/30/2022)
• Money problems – The Waiter’s Pad by Mike Dariano (The Waiter’s Pad, 4/1/2022)
• Obsidian Roundup: Plugin Indexes, Help Updates, & Discounts by Eleanor Konik (Obsidian Roundup, 4/2/2022)

Any recommendations for books, articles or posts I should read? Let me know in the comments?

Written on April 02, 2022.

Here is what I read this week. Some of the articles/posts may require a subscription to read them. This number in parentheses after the books are as follows: # of books I’ve read so far this year / # of books I’ve read since 1996.

Books

Finished

• The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William L. Shirer (17/1145). This was an outstanding history of the Second World War from inside the Third Reich. Much of the information comes from captured documents that the Allies obtained, many of which were used at Nuremberg. It is the first Shirer book that I’ve read, and I was delighted to discover that his writing style is remarkably similar to Will Durant, a favorite of mine. That really shouldn’t come as a surprise, since both came up the same age.

In Progress

• Twentieth Century Journey, Vol 1: The Start: 1904-1930 by William L. Shirer. I am always fascinated by the person behind a great work. Shirer, beginning in the 1970s, published a 3-volume memoir, of which, The Start is the first volume.

Articles/posts

• Planners Battle Over Marking U.S. 250th Anniversary by Jess Bravin (Wall Street Journal, 3/19/2022). I have vague memories of the celebrations surrouneded America’s bicentennial. But actually, the 250th is of more interest to me because it also markes the 200th anniversary of the death of both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. I wonder if that will be lost in the overall celebration?
• The Curse of Imposter Syndrome by Susan Orlean (Medium, Mar. 2022). This is something I feel almost daily, from the work I do at my day job (I can’t possibly be a real programmer since my degree isn’t in C.S. or software engineering) to my writing, even here on this blog.
• Does Not Compute by Melanie Novak (blog, 3/20/2022). Yeah, I have a drawer full of old flip phones that I keep saying I’ll get rid of someday.
• Why every software engineer should use vim | Level Up Coding by Rajob Raihan (Medium, 1/30/2022). I’ve been forcing myself to use Vim keyboard mappings in Obsidian and in Visual Studio Code so that I can finally use a single set of keyboard mappings instead of having to remember different ones for different applications.
• Why I dislike open-source by Leo Liou (Medium, 9/30/2021). This is one of those trolling posts that appear now and then on Medium. I like open source for all of the reasons that this guys dislikes it.
• What everyone is missing regarding Brandon Sanderson’s Kickstarter by MIchael J. Sullivan (blog, 3/21/2022). Michael, who has also run many successfull Kickstarter campaigns, highlights the importance of building email lists from a fanbase.
• Thinking fast, associations by Mike Dariano (The Waiter’s Pad, 3/21/2022)
• Dolly Parton Just Did ‘The Most Punk Rock Thing You Could Imagine’ by Margaret Renki (NY Times, 3/21/2022)
• Fewer hot showers, less meat: How retirees on fixed incomes are dealing with inflation by Agu Bhattarai (Washington Post, 3/21/2022)
• To Have and Have Not (1944): Tabula Rasa by Melanie Novak (blog, 3/23/2022)
• The power of TK by Seth Godwin (Seth’s blog, 3/24/2022). I’ve occasionally used the TK trick in manuscripts to keep from getting distracted.
• Fun Stuff Coming by Joe Posnanski (JoeBlogs, 3/23/2022)
• Humans and ratings – The Waiter’s Pad by Mike Dariano (The Waiter’s Pad, 3/23/2022). Although I’m not a fan of rating systems, I like Mike’s idea that sometimes, we need a way to break out of the mold we are presented with to get our views across.
• How To Quickly Delete Words While In Insert Mode In Vim by braindead (Medium, 1/20/2022)
• Where do symbols live? by Seth Godin (Seth’s blog, 3/25/2022)
• The Secret of Lasting Friendships by David Brooks (NY Times, 3/24/2022)
• How High Inflation Will Come Down by Paul Krugman (NY Times, 3/24/2022)
• Mayor Eric Adams Turns NYC Vaccine Mandate into Farce with Ruling that Benefits Yankees, Mets by Molly Knight (The Long Game, 3/24/2022). Molly captured my anger over this move by Eric Adams perfectly. This is a stark and blatent example of privilege in professional sports and stardom.
• Obsidian Roundup: Differentiate file versions & embed web apps by Eleanor Konik (Obsidian Roundup, 3/26/2022)
• We Aren’t Just Watching the Decline of the Oscars. We’re Watching the End of the Movies by Ross Douthat (NY Times, 3/24/2022). This long piece by Douthat really had me thinking about why I don’t watch movies and television shows much anymore. It had me thinking about my own personal heyday of movies and television, which was probably around the same time as his–the latge 1990s. I suspect you’ll see a post on this from me in the next couple of weeks.

Any recommendations for books, articles or posts I should read? Let me know in the comments?

Written on March 26, 2022.

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

• The Rising Sun by John Toland (16/1144). A fascinating and engaging read, and my first specifically on the war in the Pacific with an emphasis on the Japanese point of view. I wrote about my inital thoughts on the first half of the book. Next week I’ll have a more comprehensive post on my notes on this book.

In Progress

• The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William L. Shirer. Another long book, but an appropriate follow-on to The Rising Sun.

Articles/posts

• Commuting with Audiobooks by Melanie Novak (blog, 3/13/2022). I wish I’d taken advantage of audiobooks back when I was commuting in L.A. Coincidentally, I also wrote about audiobooks this week. #books #reading
• Canoes by Eleanor Konik (Eleanor’s Iceberg, 1/26/2021). An interesting piece on research about canoes. It reminded me of John McPhee’s wonderful book The Survival of the Bark Canoe.
• A Tale of Survival Surfaces as an 1891 Shipwreck Is Found in Lake Superior by Christine Haydee (NYT, 3/15/2022). It has been a month for discovered shipwrecks, what with Shackleton’s Endurance being located as well. #exploration
• Three Problen-Solving Prompts by Mike Dariano (The Waiter’s Pad, 3/14/2022)
• 24 Years by Jason Kottke (kottke.org, 3/14/2022). I thought I had some longevity with this blog of mine, now into its 17th year, but Jason has at least 7 years on me. How I haven’t already discovered his blog is beyond me, but I’ve found it now, at least. #blogging
• Casablanca (1942): “No one ever loved me that much.” by Melanie Novak (The Golden Age of Hollywood, 3/16/2022). Casablanca, the Bartlett’s Quotations of golden age Hollywood film. #film
• How Migrating Birds Use Quantum Effects to Navigate By Peter J. Hore and Henrik Mouritsen (Scientific American, April 2022). Reading this article, trying to imagine birds “seeing” the magnetic lines of the earth, I couldn’t help but picture “the path of the beam” as depicted in Stephen King’s Dark Tower novels. #science
• A Taxonomy of Video Game Difficulty by Jason Kottke (kottke.org, 3/15/2022). I’m all about taxonomy, and I liked how the various levels of difficult were broken down in this piece. #videogames
• Do You Really Need A Zettelkasten? | Curious by Matt Giaro (Medium, 3/2/2022) #themes/theory-of-notes
• Fed raises rates and projects six more increases in 2022. – The New York Times by Jeanna Smialek (NY Times, 3/16/2022)
• Spark Creativity with Thomas Edison’s Napping Technique by Bret Stetka (Scientific American, April 2022). I’m always happy with articles that justify my daily naps. #science
• What Joe Biden Can Learn From Harry Truman by John Dickerson (Atlantic, April 2022). I don’t think schools provide enough practical lessons, and I’ve recently argued that biographies are a great way to do this. Here, Dickerson is taking lessons from a new Truman biography and asking what Biden can learn from them. I already have this biography queued up in my TBR list. #history #biography
• Some FAQs You Might Enjoy by Brandon Sanderson (blog, 3/16/2022). For anyone looking for inside baseball on the publishing industru, Brandon provides a great look behind the curtain here, in response to his massively successful Kickstarter. #publishing
• Stop Feeling Guilty — Rebrand your TBR List by Eleanor Konik. I don’t stress about my TBR list anymore in part because I’d never want it to be empty, in the same way I’d never want to have read every book on my bookshelves. I agree with Umberto Eco that we all need an anti-library. #reading #books
• Vim: a waste of time, isn’t it ? by Nizar Ayed (Medium, Feb. 2022). I’ve re-enabeld Vim keyboard mappings in Obsidian, forcing myself to use the keyboard as much as possible, so I’ve been reading posts about Vim that appear in my various sources.
• Why Vim is better than VSCode by Sean Warman (Medium, Feb. 2022).
• The Code that took Astronauts to the Moon is full of Comedy and Heroism by David Goudet (Geek Culture, Feb 2022). This is a great piece, not just because it combines several passions of mine (coding and the Apollo program) but because of some of the glimpses it gives into the thought process around the code. The code is all assembly, but the comments are what really matter in this piece. #coding
• Better Citations Workflows & Native Callout Boxes by Eleanor Konik (Obsidian Roundup, 3/19/2022). Hey! Ctrl-W finally works correctly in Vim mode in Obsidian!

Any recommendations for books, articles or posts I should read? Let me know in the comments?

Written on March 19, 2022.