ideas : People : stories.
the Human Being stuff
As always, my goal for the year was 30 books. I finished with 34.
My Top Five Recommendations from the Year, in no particular order:
5. On Mental Toughness, by Harvard Business Review
4. Why Courage Matters : The Way to a Braver Life, by John McCain
3. When: the Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing, by Daniel Pink
2. Where the Crawdads Sing, by Delia Owens
1. Get Out There : Normalize Greatness
Honorable Mentions:
For more on . . .
-N- Stuff : Books : Reading Log
Kottke wrote this, and I like it better than what I was thinking:
"The School of Life on four uses of literature. I especially liked this bit:
We’re weirder than we’re allowed to admit. We often can’t say what’s really on our minds, but in books, we find descriptions of who we genuinely are and what events are actually like described with an honesty quite different from what ordinary conversation allows for. In the best books, it’s as if the writer knows us better than we know ourselves. They find the words to describe the fragile and weird special experiences of our inner lives: the light on a summer morning, the anxiety we felt at a gathering, the sensations of a first kiss, the envy when a friend told us of their new business, the longing we experienced on the train looking at the profile of another passenger we never dare to speak to. Writers open our hearts and minds and give us maps to our own selves, so that we can travel in them more reliably and with less of a feeling of paranoia and persecution. As the writer Emerson remarked, “In the works of great writers, we find our own neglected thoughts.”
I would argue these points also apply, in one degree or another, to not just literature but to any artful endeavor: film, TV, comics, theater, painting, etc" (via).
But I'll add this, "Literature is a tool that will help us live and die with a little bit more goodness, wisdom, and sanity."
For more on . . .
-N- Stuff : On Stories : Books
