📚 The Reading Journal #029

Poverty, Brief Answers and Aging Backwards

January 23, 2023

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The book Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes, first published in 1605, is considered one of the most important and influential works of literature in the world, and is often referred to as the first modern novel. It has been translated into more than 60 languages and is one of the most widely read books in history. It is also considered a masterpiece of satire and has had a profound impact on literature and popular culture.

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📚 Staff Pick of the Week

Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World by Cal Newport

In Digital Minimalism, the bestselling author of "Deep Work" introduces a philosophy for technology use that helps individuals take back control of their technological lives. The book explains the idea of digital minimalism, which is the art of knowing how much technology is just enough in order to live a focused life in an increasingly noisy world. The author shares common sense tips, like turning off notifications, and occasional rituals like observing a digital sabbath, but also emphasizes the need for a thoughtful method to decide what tools to use, for what purposes, and under what conditions. The book draws on real-life examples and shares strategies for integrating the practices of digital minimalism into one's life, starting with a thirty-day "digital declutter" process. The author argues that technology is neither good nor bad and that the key is using it to support personal goals and values, rather than letting it use you.

🎥 Reading Talk's

📈 Rising Quickly - Week of January 16, 2022

The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin

“I set out to write a book about what to do to make a great work of art. Instead, it revealed itself to be a book on how to be.” —Rick Rubin

Many famed music producers are known for a particular sound that has its day. Rick Rubin is known for something else: creating a space where artists of all different genres and traditions can home in on who they really are and what they really offer. He has made a practice of helping people transcend their self-imposed expectations in order to reconnect with a state of innocence from which the surprising becomes inevitable. Over the years, as he has thought deeply about where creativity comes from and where it doesn’t, he has learned that being an artist isn’t about your specific output, it’s about your relationship to the world. Creativity has a place in everyone’s life, and everyone can make that place larger. In fact, there are few more important responsibilities.

The Creative Act is a beautiful and generous course of study that illuminates the path of the artist as a road we all can follow. It distills the wisdom gleaned from a lifetime’s work into a luminous reading experience that puts the power to create moments—and lifetimes—of exhilaration and transcendence within closer reach for all of us.

🪄 Most Talked About Fiction - Week of January 16, 2022

On the Road by Jack Kerouac

Inspired by Jack Kerouac's adventures with Neal Cassady, On the Road tells the story of two friends whose cross-country road trips are a quest for meaning and true experience. Written with a mixture of sad-eyed naiveté and wild ambition and imbued with Kerouac's love of America, his compassion for humanity, and his sense of language as jazz, On the Road is the quintessential American vision of freedom and hope, a book that changed American literature and changed anyone who has ever picked it up.

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📚 Most Talked About Non-Fiction - Week of January 16, 2022

Leadership: Six Studies in World Strategy by Henry Kissinger

In Leadership, Henry Kissinger analyzes the lives of six extraordinary leaders through the distinctive strategies of statecraft, which he believes they embodied. He examines the strategies of Konrad Adenauer, Charles de Gaulle, Richard Nixon, Anwar Sadat, Lee Kuan Yew and Margaret Thatcher. Kissinger brings historical perception, public experience and personal knowledge to each of these studies and concludes with his reflections on world order and the importance of leadership today.

🆕 New and Noteworthy

The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann

The Wager is a book about the survivors of His Majesty’s Ship the Wager, a British vessel that had left England in 1740 on a secret mission during an imperial war with Spain. The survivors washed up on the coast of Brazil with a tale of being marooned on a desolate island off the coast of Patagonia and building a flimsy craft to sail for more than a hundred days, traversing nearly 3,000 miles of storm-wracked seas. However, six months later, another group of survivors landed on the coast of Chile with a very different story, leading to a court martial to determine who was telling the truth. The book is written by one of our greatest nonfiction writers, David Grann, and is a grand tale of human behavior at the extremes with the portrayal of the castaways’ desperate straits, the hidden world on a British warship and the court martial having the savvy of a Scott Turow thriller.

👀 In Case You Missed It

Good Books on Instagram: "Many famed music producers are known for a particular sound that has its day and then ages out. Rick Rubin is known for something else: creating a space where artists of all different genres and traditions can home in on who they really are and what they really offer. He has made a practice of helping people transcend their self-imposed expectations in order to reconnect with a state of innocence from which the surprising becomes inevitable. Over the years, as he has thought deeply about where creativity comes from and where it doesn’t, he has learned that being an artist isn’t about your specific output; it’s about your relationship to the world. Creativity has a place in everyone’s life, and everyone can make that place larger. In fact, there are few more important responsibilities. The Creative Act is a beautiful and generous course of study that illuminates the path of the artist as a road we all can follow. It distils the wisdom gleaned from a lifetime’s work into a luminous reading experience that puts the power to create moments – and lifetimes – of exhilaration and transcendence within closer reach for all of us."

Good Books shared a post on Instagram: "Many famed music producers are known for a particular sound that has its day and then ages out. Rick Rubin is known for something else: creating a space where artists of all different genres and traditions can home in on who they really are and what they really offer. He has made a practice of helping people transcend their self-imposed expectations in order to reconnect with a state of innocence from which the surprising becomes inevitable. Over the years, as he has thought deeply about where creativity comes from and where it doesn’t, he has learned that being an artist isn’t about your specific output; it’s about your relationship to the world. Creativity has a place in everyone’s life, and everyone can make that place larger. In fact, there are few more important responsibilities. The Creative Act is a beautiful and generous course of study that illuminates the path of the artist as a road we all can follow. It distils the wisdom gleaned from a lifetime’s work into a luminous reading experience that puts the power to create moments – and lifetimes – of exhilaration and transcendence within closer reach for all of us.". Follow their account to see 91 posts.

Alex & Books | Non-fiction book reviews on Instagram: "How To Take Notes While Reading A Book: 📝 -Highlight key insights/lessons that resonate with you -Write down the page # of the highlight inside the front cover of the book -Repeat this process until you finished the book -Review the highlights and jot down the most important lessons in the back left-hand side of the book -Then write down ways you can apply those lessons on the back right-hand side of the book PS: For more reading tips follow @alexandbooks_ 👈"

Alex & Books | Non-fiction book reviews shared a post on Instagram: "How To Take Notes While Reading A Book: 📝 -Highlight key insights/lessons that resonate with you -Write down the page # of the highlight inside the front cover of the book -Repeat this process until you finished the book -Review the highlights and jot down the most important lessons in the back left-hand side of the book -Then write down ways you can apply those lessons on the back right-hand side of the book PS: For more reading tips follow @alexandbooks_ 👈". Follow their account to see 913 posts.

✍️ Quote of the Week

Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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