Great Reads for January
Ahoy,
Greetings from the great doldrums. January the is worst. In Brooklyn we’ve either get a Narnia winter with all the cold and none of the joy or a moist, warmish half-winter that settles over everything making it not quite pleasant nor quite icky. In short, meh.
I’ve been meditating a bit, trying to think about ways to warm up my brain. It’s difficult. I know this season is short and will be gone soon. But the brain is a tricky beast and it sees what’s in front of it as the past, present, and future combined, with no way out. I try to jolt myself out of that kind of negativity with little things like this:
It’s basically a program that you can run to estimate how many Sundays you have left, given a normal lifespan. Here is the code. Mine runs every day.
It tells me, based on a life expectancy of 80 years, I have 1619 Sundays remaining.
1619 Sundays.
That’s a lot. That’s a lot of late mornings, a lot of biscuits and gravy with the kids, a lot of reading on the couch, of writing in my attic, of playing a little music, of watching a movie at 6pm so we can all get to bed early.
That’s a lot of weekends spend sulking, weekends spent in jubilation. Weekends spent hungover or well-fed or hungry.
It’s a lot of future.
From the vantage of the doldrums, all that feels like a blip, a mere moment, and I’m gone.
From a better place, however, it feels like an opportunity.
I guess I have to try for the latter.
Incidentally, if you’re a PR professional, journalist, or writer interested in AI, I’m running a new newsletter and consulting company with my friend Pete. Check it out.
And now, on to the books.
Devil the White City
Erik Larson
I read this book years ago and forgot how wonderfully Larson writes. Reading it again I noticed how well he weaves multiple stories - including the story of America’s first real serial killer - into a book at is never boring. If you’re looking for a cold weather page turner for the weekend, this could fit the bill.
Finding Meaning in the Second Half of Life
James Hollis
As I said before, the doldrums got me good this year and I’m approaching 50 so I decided it might be time to reassess my whole personality, system of beliefs, and relationship to the universe. Luckily, Hollis has a few solid ideas for entering middle-age without completely cracking up. There isn’t a lot of actionable advice in this book but it’s definitely a calming influence.
The Vaster Wilds: A Novel
Lauren Groff
This was a delight to read. Groff is a wonderful writer and this adventure story is one of the best I read this year. The first image - of a little girl slipping out into the dark woods - is arresting and forced me to read all the way through even though I rarely land on fiction these days. Well worth a look.