π Reading Stack for September 2023
a rant, un italiano, joan didion, a vietnam novel, another bu-jew, an OG buddha,
What Taylor Swift Can Teach Us
Iβm not ashamed to admit that, according to Spotify, I was in the top 3% of listeners for T-Swiftβs album, Midnights. Iβm also not going to sit here and tell you sheβs the best thing since sliced and the album was hot diamonds.1 I was attached to the album because I was going through it, because it helped me feel something elusive.
When I was a younger cat, before moving to Austin, I was a slave to the Dunbar narrative. In 1990, Robin Dunbar showed that the human mind falls out of balance when one does not belong to a community, generally somewhere from 40-150 humanos.
And in a sort of self-fulfilling turn, I convinced myself: βbecause I do not have a strong community, I must be suffering. I must feel alone.β
Moving to an open-minded city that values community did wonders for resolving the Dunbar narrative, but itβs also showed me something more fundamental.
At the risk of sounding scientifically reductive, the fact is that the entire spectrum of our feelsβfrom connectedness to lust, anger, nostalgia, and beyondβare no more and no less than cocktails of neurochemistry. Thus, loneliness and connection are not strictly environmental. They do not depend on others. They depend most fundamentally on ourselves.2
Isnβt there something palpableβalmost paranormalβabout getting lost in a book that millions also love? Or finding an album that speaks to not just you, but millions of others?
Itβs easy to feel connected when sitting in a class, chatting with friends, holding a loved one. But we also have the powerβbecause all the feels exist inside our brainsβto create a sense of connection when alone in the woods, or traveling, or with a good book in our handsβ¦
Isnβt that connection too?
Connectedness, my fellows, was what had been eluding me. Connectedness is why Austin is πGOAT. And layered beneath her bazillion dollar operation, connectedness is exactly what the church of T-Swift has to offer.
Itβs intangible, yet crucial and instrumental to the human experience.
I think itβs also why Iβve become so drawn to reading and writing. These pursuits are not intellectualization, not my wanting to feel βsmart,β nor seeking prestige.
They derive from a hunger to connect, and to have others do so through my stories. π€
And now, the books.
Book #39 - The Things They Carried by Tim OβBrien
I loved this book for a host of reasons. The prose is darkly beautiful, the story is gripping, but what most striking were OβBrienβs meditations on war, imagination, and the power of storytelling.Β Also, Bryan Cranston (yes, THAT Bryan Cranston) absolutely crushes the narration, so I recommend a hybrid read/listen approach. OβBrien offers workshops for students in my MFA program, and this book was so good Iβm chomping my dentures3 for a chance to work with him.
Taught everywhere from high school classrooms to graduate writing seminars, OβBrienβs classic novel has become semi-required reading in American culture. Set in the Vietnam War, The Things They Carried is not your typical action novel. It both opposes and supports war, challenge readers perceptions of fact vs fiction, and calls us all to question peace, courage, fear, longing, and the entire suite of emotion war presents. Years after winning France's prestigious Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger, the Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize, and landing on the Pulitzer and the National Book Award short lists, this novel has not stopped changing minds.
Want to learn more before diving in? Subscribe to catch the episode on Good Scribes Only
Book #40 - Play it as it Lays by Joan Didion
Though most people think essays4 when talking Joan Didion, Dan and I read her best known novel for the podcast. Play it as it Lays is the story of an actor whose journey oscillates between dizzying and domestic as her career slows and personal life collapses. While running barely 200 pages, the book has a quality of unmoored driftiness echoing the authorβs position that who we are is affected by where we are.
Itβs clear that Didionβs reputation is well earned, and her take on Hollywood is a stinger, but I canβt say Iβll be returning to it any time soon. Like her essays, the novel is fragmented, creating an aspect not of closure but its opposite, a frantic recognition that all stories have holes and flaws and will collapse, eventually. The story mirrors LAβs mix of grimness and glamour, and echoes one of her core beliefs: all of us are in some essential fashion, βworkingβ in the dark. Well crafted but hard to process because of its nihilistic, irredeemable cast, this one is only for those who can stomach runaway hedonism.
Want to learn more before diving in? Subscribe to catch the episode on Good Scribes Only
Book #41 - The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
Though I did not care for this book while reading, I have growing respect for the author Umberto Eco, historian and novelist. The man knew seven languages, owned over 10,000 books, and might be the closest thing to a Renaissance thinker the world has seen in a while. Not to mention, Iβm obsessed with his idea of keeping an Anti-library.5
Hereβs the rub, The Name of the Rose is one of the highest selling books ever. Ever! It sold more copies than The Great Gatsby and To Kill a Mockingbird, and yet it is hard to fathom how. The book is extraordinarily dense, so fraught with allusions and references that 50% of the its subtext sails quietly past, like a ship in the night. On the podcast we discuss a few theories how this could be. To us, it seems that Eco essentially wrote two novels in oneβa detective thriller for the common man6, and a critical commentary for the 20th century post-modernist. At bottom itβs a medieval detective whodunnit whose principle characters are not investigators but 13th century christian monks. Church thrillers are not my jam, but I sure as h-e-c-k admire its commentary, and the manβs hustle π§ π«‘.
Want to learn more before diving in? Subscribe to catch the episode on Good Scribes Only
Book #42 - Three Steps to Awakening by Larry Rosenberg
Last month, I read Larry Rosenbergβs best known mindfulness book and enjoyed it so much, I picked up another. While both are helpful, low-pressure, relatable and conjure a reflective mindset, the Harvard-scientist-turned-monkβs other book edged out this monthβs read.
Captured in Three Steps to Awakening is exactly as it sounds, and refreshingly simple. Rosenberg promotes a meditation practice that can be worked with for a lifetime, looking to Zen, Insight Meditation, and the teachings of J. Krishnamurti7 for background. His three ways to waking up are:
breath awareness
breath as anchor
choiceless awareness
Iβm a student endeavoring to bring awareness into my daily life, not a teacher, so if you want to learn more about the above, check out one of Rosenbergβs books. I like to listen to them on walks β theyβre free with an Audible subscription.
Book #43 - The Dhammapada by Eknath Easwaran
Dhammapada means "the path of dharma," and whatβs translated here is regarded as the original words of the Buddha himself, Siddhartha Gautama. Iβm not sure if I buy that, but it was interesting reading the collection of verses, gathered more probably from his disciples. Without the comments from the translator, Eknath Easwaran, it may not have been as clear and accessible for lay-people like me. Easwaranβs and stories make for a moving, relevant read.
I wouldnβt say this book lit my brain up in the same way as its contemporaries from recent months, but I would recommend reading it if youβre interested in primary sources, mindfulness, or eastern philosophy generally.
Years ago
I had a realization that freed me up to explore books of all kinds, not just the greats. It occurred to me that no matter how much time I dedicate to reading, I wonβt come close to reading all the great books out there. Though reading time gets more scarce every day, committing to a life of books has led me to view reading as a privilege and a practice. Now, I pickup whatever sounds compelling, and write whenever I can free up a moment to own the alone time.
Books are magic. Learning is magic. And my biggest wish is that you treat your mind with the books it deserves.
Vale, amigos! Thatβs all for now.
Feel free to email me questions or thoughts for discussion, should any come to mind. Likewise, if you have a good book to recommend, please pass it along. Itβs always great to hear back, especially if one of these books comes to mean something to you.
βJ
Next month
Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maude Montague
Moving Target poems by WS Merwin
Consider the Lobster by David Foster Wallace
Consolations by David Whyte
The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
Dao de Jing by Laozi
Itβs a very good album, but the amount I listened to it was more a reflection of what I was dealing with than of its quality
And that doesnβt make them any less real or important. If anything, it empowers us to evoke them tactically.
Thatβs how you spell it?!?!? π¦·
Slouching Towards Bethlehem, The Year of Magical Thinking, etcβ¦
Ironically, because of this substack and the podcast, I finish just about everything I start, even when I donβt care for it.
Krishnamurti is an absolutely fascinating story, if you havenβt heard of him. I accidentally stayed at his home in Ojai, California (now an airbnb) and the host gave me one of his books. Compelling person, worth checking out.
Just introduced to Krishnamurti and enthralled with his messaging. You stayed at his home, many cottages there. Curious which one, how exciting. Picked up some others, many thanks!