When I wanted to revisit some classics that were forced upon me in school (therefore I didn't enjoy them then), I chose to listen to audiobooks while taking long walks around the neighborhood. Anna Karenina, Great Expectations, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, and the like. Books with many characters and subplots, long-winded chapters, overwrought sentences -- at least by today's standards. I'm pretty sure I don't have the patience or focus to read them on the page while sitting in my chair. But they all fit nicely with my meandering walks. (And got me outside to walk more often!)
Very important, John waters tells us do not f* anyone who does not own any books.
Also, ask everyone you meet for book recommendations. And visit little free libraries. I found a copy of ON EARTH WE’RE BRIEFLY GORGEOUS in a LFL and have reread it three times. Not a fan of his poetry, but ocean vuong writes a poetic biography. Highly recommended.
I ended up marrying a wonderful man who reads few books (just had our 30th anniversary). But he totally supports my reading fixation, so he's a keeper. Years before he and I met, I dated a man who was as passionate about reading as I am and introduced me to Stephen King, Jerry Pournelle, and others. Alas, he was far less faithful to me than he was to his reading, and that was that.
I've found some fun, oddball books at the Little Free Libraries: I just read one I found there by a presidential helicopter pilot for LBJ and Nixon. The only reason I could figure out that the book was there was that his ghost writer lives in my town, Sacramento.
I attend maybe 6-10 estate sales per month. I do enjoy reviewing the library’s of other people. My own library is filled with the books that others left behind.
All five Space Shuttles were assembled in Southern California. The aerospace program employed thousands of engineers who are passing on. The heirs don’t seem to value the books, binders, cheat sheets, manuals, checklists, flight logs or hand written notes left behind.
I love reading engineering notes on the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and Shuttle systems found in the dens and offices of one person’s contribution to space exploration.
Books I’ve found also tend to be sought after by others. I can easily turn $4.00 finds into $50 bills.
It makes me happy to know that other people spend their lives in the middle of reading multiple books on multiple subjects.
I hadn't really thought about the serendipity of the stacks before. That is exactly how I discovered dragon fantasy books when I was in high school. I love that type of story to this day.
Once again, I find my people through your posts, Austin.
I learned to read with my ears when I was younger because I was a slow reader and would get tripped up in my own head. Audiobooks now are getting so fancy that writers almost creating second book, a sort of live version or multimedia experience at times. Plus it’s crazy how many books you can get from Libby the library audiobook app.
Some audiobooks that I loved require me to buy the printed version after I'm done to go back over them, also for my spouse: Overstory, Piranesi, Station Eleven...others....
Along with serendipity, be alert to the efforts of your librarians -- they put books they think you might like out on display. (Was there a once upon a time -- pre-Internet ear when librarians called these kinds of books browsers??) anyway, I've found more than a few fine reads that way.
Libby was a true life-saver during the pandemic! I continue to use it a lot both for listening and reading books... I love putting several books on hold and be surprised by the notification when they’re available for me to start reading.
The Butler quote resonates hard with me as something I discovered a few years ago when doing a mid-life Masters Degree - reading copiously and with breadth across a variety of subjects at the same time leads to synergies and ideas that I wouldn't have had otherwise. Since then I have employed the technique of very intentionally reading from multiple genres/subject areas to generate more interesting writing, as I'm sure it is the key to understanding the universe (eventually).
In terms of current recommendations, Srecko Horvat's recent book After the Apocalypse comes to mind, as does Meghan O'Gieblyn's God, Human, Animal, Machine. I also just re-read Octavia Butler's Earthseed series and would highly recommend the first of those books, Parable of the Sower.
I want to write about this a bit in whatever book comes next: the idea of "input as collage": intentionally consuming or browsing or reading or watching and listening to a bunch of things around the same time. 1+1=3 type stuff. https://austinkleon.com/2021/10/05/input-as-collage/
my first "collage response" to your idea of "input as collage" is "we're all on the same team" and when I'm "defensive to input" from "the others" I'm "anti-collage" with the others on our human team.
That is indeed the question of our times (and one that I am always turning over in my writing.) I do think we will live on, but only with radical shifts in our expectations and behaviours which will not come about by choice.
This is such a great topic - thank you! I love your tips. 2 thoughts on this subject...
I adopted/adapted the right plant right place metaphor (a garden and book lover) and just know it wasn't the right book at the right time.
I learned as a kid, if there was a book I didn't find interesting, to randomly open it to the middle and start there. If if was engaging and often it was, I'd go back to the beginning and start again and I'd be set.
Now I am wondering if anyone else has experience of God sending them books to read. Often, once I've prayed to ask God for help with a problem or to get to a goal, a book that helps will suddenly come to my attention through some new means.
Once a book literary fell off the shelf at Target in front of me-- I opened it up, read the poem on the first page I saw, and sobbed in the toy aisle while daughter looked at dolls. <3
Yes! Call it God or the Universe or our own internal subconscious. My dreams also work this way. It sharpens my attention and synchronicity happens. ❤️
Some years ago, I began noticing that the universe always finds a way to get me just the right book I need when I'm grappling with something. And these serendipitous finds are always a book I would not have sought out on my own. It helps that I'm in three monthly book clubs, visit my library 1-2x a week, go to book sales as often as I can, browse books stores (brick-and-mortar and online, used and retail), and scan book reviews by Austin and others. Not to mention that one book often leads to many others by references in the text. I try to track what I've read, but I have yet, even after a lifetime of reading, to find an easy tracking method that works consistently for me. The closest is https://www.librarything.com/ which has the feature of letting you scan a book's ISBN tag.
Reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance gave me the outline on how to share my story of pre and post mental breakdown. Just as the author shared his story.
When I'm between books, I like to pick up a short story anthology or book of essays. That's way I can experiment with lots of new voices and find some I want to try. Now I have glasses I find reading more of a challenge, for example I love reading in the bath, but not so easy as my eyes age. Thank heavens for audiobooks in this situation! I used to always finish a book, now I know I don't have enough time, but I do often go back to things I've started and try them again, sometimes they work, sometimes they go back in the shelf. Thanks for a great post.
Great list. I like to have a few books lying around the house in different places, easily digestible. Walking around the house now I see the Young Pueblo poetry book, The Daily Stoic, The War of Art and The Good Immigrant. Can easily sit anywhere and read when it grabs me.
My sister and I often share time in the summer at our family's summer home. One of our great pleasures is for her to read aloud to me while I cook or do the dishes. We particularly like to reread childhood favorites, usually horse stories like Fly By Night or Five Proud Riders. Also loved Little Dog. I'm looking forward to this summer. Not sure what we'll read yet.
That's lovely. Years ago, when I was still in college and my wife Meg (then girlfriend) was working, I'd record a chapter of a book for her to listen to in the car on her commute.
My husband recently spent a year in hospital in another country ... I recorded a tonne of Sherlock Holmes stories and sent them to him once a week or so so he could hear stories and listen to my voice without being taxed by reading something himself.
I'd frequently had the idea to do that with Lisa Feldman Barrett's How Emotions Are Made and then her more recent book Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain. I've finally started doing it with The Matter with Things just this morning.
I believe you got this all right! I keep a stack of books; give books to friends; don’t finish one I don’t like; and love to write in the margins. Thanks.
Oh, oh! Audiobook lovers: check out the New Yorker’s fiction podcasts! I love those. Short stories are perfect for walks, and they're often read by the author. (I wrote a bit more here: https://austinkleon.com/2021/12/20/10-good-books-i-read-this-fall/ )
When I wanted to revisit some classics that were forced upon me in school (therefore I didn't enjoy them then), I chose to listen to audiobooks while taking long walks around the neighborhood. Anna Karenina, Great Expectations, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, and the like. Books with many characters and subplots, long-winded chapters, overwrought sentences -- at least by today's standards. I'm pretty sure I don't have the patience or focus to read them on the page while sitting in my chair. But they all fit nicely with my meandering walks. (And got me outside to walk more often!)
Yes to audiobooks. Love reading and listening at the same time. I just wrote a similar comment.
I have been fantasizing about doing this very thing for years. Perhaps with nicer weather, I'll finally get to finish Jane Eyre.
Very important, John waters tells us do not f* anyone who does not own any books.
Also, ask everyone you meet for book recommendations. And visit little free libraries. I found a copy of ON EARTH WE’RE BRIEFLY GORGEOUS in a LFL and have reread it three times. Not a fan of his poetry, but ocean vuong writes a poetic biography. Highly recommended.
I ended up marrying a wonderful man who reads few books (just had our 30th anniversary). But he totally supports my reading fixation, so he's a keeper. Years before he and I met, I dated a man who was as passionate about reading as I am and introduced me to Stephen King, Jerry Pournelle, and others. Alas, he was far less faithful to me than he was to his reading, and that was that.
John Waters instructs us not to f**** anyone who doesn't OWN books, not who doesn't read books. I mean, you have to get laid.
I've found some fun, oddball books at the Little Free Libraries: I just read one I found there by a presidential helicopter pilot for LBJ and Nixon. The only reason I could figure out that the book was there was that his ghost writer lives in my town, Sacramento.
Not only f***ing . . . why really spend any substantial time on a person who doesn't read?
Indeed!
I attend maybe 6-10 estate sales per month. I do enjoy reviewing the library’s of other people. My own library is filled with the books that others left behind.
All five Space Shuttles were assembled in Southern California. The aerospace program employed thousands of engineers who are passing on. The heirs don’t seem to value the books, binders, cheat sheets, manuals, checklists, flight logs or hand written notes left behind.
I love reading engineering notes on the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and Shuttle systems found in the dens and offices of one person’s contribution to space exploration.
Books I’ve found also tend to be sought after by others. I can easily turn $4.00 finds into $50 bills.
Wow! What a treasure trove from aerospace folks. So glad you are rescuing those items from the trash.
It makes me happy to know that other people spend their lives in the middle of reading multiple books on multiple subjects.
I hadn't really thought about the serendipity of the stacks before. That is exactly how I discovered dragon fantasy books when I was in high school. I love that type of story to this day.
Once again, I find my people through your posts, Austin.
Ditto!
I love “serendipity of the stacks.”
I learned to read with my ears when I was younger because I was a slow reader and would get tripped up in my own head. Audiobooks now are getting so fancy that writers almost creating second book, a sort of live version or multimedia experience at times. Plus it’s crazy how many books you can get from Libby the library audiobook app.
I know people who listen to audiobooks just based on the reader! It is a real art. I wrote a little bit about how we recorded the trilogy during the pandemic here: https://austinkleon.com/2020/09/03/recording-an-audiobook-during-a-pandemic/
Some audiobooks that I loved require me to buy the printed version after I'm done to go back over them, also for my spouse: Overstory, Piranesi, Station Eleven...others....
Yes, and there are some books that are absolutely elevated by the reader.
Along with serendipity, be alert to the efforts of your librarians -- they put books they think you might like out on display. (Was there a once upon a time -- pre-Internet ear when librarians called these kinds of books browsers??) anyway, I've found more than a few fine reads that way.
As a librarian who puts great effort in displaying great books, I appreciate the appreciation!
Libby was a true life-saver during the pandemic! I continue to use it a lot both for listening and reading books... I love putting several books on hold and be surprised by the notification when they’re available for me to start reading.
Yes it's like a surprise gift!
Exactly! Sometimes I even forget I had that specific title on hole :)
I have absolutely loved using Libby. 💯
The Butler quote resonates hard with me as something I discovered a few years ago when doing a mid-life Masters Degree - reading copiously and with breadth across a variety of subjects at the same time leads to synergies and ideas that I wouldn't have had otherwise. Since then I have employed the technique of very intentionally reading from multiple genres/subject areas to generate more interesting writing, as I'm sure it is the key to understanding the universe (eventually).
In terms of current recommendations, Srecko Horvat's recent book After the Apocalypse comes to mind, as does Meghan O'Gieblyn's God, Human, Animal, Machine. I also just re-read Octavia Butler's Earthseed series and would highly recommend the first of those books, Parable of the Sower.
I want to write about this a bit in whatever book comes next: the idea of "input as collage": intentionally consuming or browsing or reading or watching and listening to a bunch of things around the same time. 1+1=3 type stuff. https://austinkleon.com/2021/10/05/input-as-collage/
PARABLE OF THE SOWER is intense and great.
my first "collage response" to your idea of "input as collage" is "we're all on the same team" and when I'm "defensive to input" from "the others" I'm "anti-collage" with the others on our human team.
I love this reframing!
Oh, I hope that is the key to understanding the universe. Think we will live long enough to get there?
That is indeed the question of our times (and one that I am always turning over in my writing.) I do think we will live on, but only with radical shifts in our expectations and behaviours which will not come about by choice.
This is such a great topic - thank you! I love your tips. 2 thoughts on this subject...
I adopted/adapted the right plant right place metaphor (a garden and book lover) and just know it wasn't the right book at the right time.
I learned as a kid, if there was a book I didn't find interesting, to randomly open it to the middle and start there. If if was engaging and often it was, I'd go back to the beginning and start again and I'd be set.
You know I love a gardening metaphor — and the flip to the middle trick is brilliant! :)
Now I am wondering if anyone else has experience of God sending them books to read. Often, once I've prayed to ask God for help with a problem or to get to a goal, a book that helps will suddenly come to my attention through some new means.
See my comment above about how the universe sends me just the book I need when I need it. :-)
Once a book literary fell off the shelf at Target in front of me-- I opened it up, read the poem on the first page I saw, and sobbed in the toy aisle while daughter looked at dolls. <3
Yes! Call it God or the Universe or our own internal subconscious. My dreams also work this way. It sharpens my attention and synchronicity happens. ❤️
Some years ago, I began noticing that the universe always finds a way to get me just the right book I need when I'm grappling with something. And these serendipitous finds are always a book I would not have sought out on my own. It helps that I'm in three monthly book clubs, visit my library 1-2x a week, go to book sales as often as I can, browse books stores (brick-and-mortar and online, used and retail), and scan book reviews by Austin and others. Not to mention that one book often leads to many others by references in the text. I try to track what I've read, but I have yet, even after a lifetime of reading, to find an easy tracking method that works consistently for me. The closest is https://www.librarything.com/ which has the feature of letting you scan a book's ISBN tag.
Reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance gave me the outline on how to share my story of pre and post mental breakdown. Just as the author shared his story.
One of my all time fav books I read in my 20s.
When I'm between books, I like to pick up a short story anthology or book of essays. That's way I can experiment with lots of new voices and find some I want to try. Now I have glasses I find reading more of a challenge, for example I love reading in the bath, but not so easy as my eyes age. Thank heavens for audiobooks in this situation! I used to always finish a book, now I know I don't have enough time, but I do often go back to things I've started and try them again, sometimes they work, sometimes they go back in the shelf. Thanks for a great post.
That's a nice idea about anthology/collections in between. A plus for ebooks: you can blow up the font really big!
I do this too Deb. I also generally have a ‘diary’ type book on the go for the year that I read month by month so I can pick this up too.
Great list. I like to have a few books lying around the house in different places, easily digestible. Walking around the house now I see the Young Pueblo poetry book, The Daily Stoic, The War of Art and The Good Immigrant. Can easily sit anywhere and read when it grabs me.
Visual triggers! Good deal.
Thanks for sharing this. Love the idea of marginalia!
My sister and I often share time in the summer at our family's summer home. One of our great pleasures is for her to read aloud to me while I cook or do the dishes. We particularly like to reread childhood favorites, usually horse stories like Fly By Night or Five Proud Riders. Also loved Little Dog. I'm looking forward to this summer. Not sure what we'll read yet.
That's lovely. Years ago, when I was still in college and my wife Meg (then girlfriend) was working, I'd record a chapter of a book for her to listen to in the car on her commute.
My husband recently spent a year in hospital in another country ... I recorded a tonne of Sherlock Holmes stories and sent them to him once a week or so so he could hear stories and listen to my voice without being taxed by reading something himself.
How caring and inspiring! Thank you for sharing ur caring for ur husband story.
These recording ideas are so lovely 🥰
I'd frequently had the idea to do that with Lisa Feldman Barrett's How Emotions Are Made and then her more recent book Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain. I've finally started doing it with The Matter with Things just this morning.
I believe you got this all right! I keep a stack of books; give books to friends; don’t finish one I don’t like; and love to write in the margins. Thanks.