Things I've Read and One Thing I'm Writing - October 2014
Dear Reader,
So, three newsletters in, and I think I've figured out why I'm doing this. It's not because I love reading—although I do. It's because I love recommending books. It lights me up inside. I love when other people have picked up a book that I recommended and enjoyed, or dare I say, even loved it. That moment of the mutuality of shared love is priceless to me.
At this moment, I'm in a space where I get the luxury to read more than most, which puts me in a good position to recommend things. I tweeted last month that it's weird to me when people recommend things based on "I liked it", rather than "I think you'd like it."
Now, all of that's more difficult when you're emailing out to a bunch of people—recommendations have to be broad ranging. I can at least give you the taste of what books might appeal, or argue why books that don't initially sound like they appeal are actually worth reading. In some ways, this is a long way round of saying: if you would ever like particular recommendations around a certain topic, or for a certain person let me know. I'd love to help.
Onward to the books!
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente
Mary asked me what this was about, and I said it was like if Murakami wrote Alice in Wonderland. I usually hate those kind of descriptions (and am now resolving to not use one ever again) but what I'm trying to get at is that it's a post-modern fairy story with both self-awareness and a lightness of touch.
Most of all though, it delights in language and in its own journey, giving us intensely likeable, improbably-named characters while pausing every so often to scatter lovely wisdom like:
"As all mothers know, children travel faster than kisses."
and
"He was still too shy to suggest anything without wrapping it up tight to keep it safe."
and
"But no one may know the shape of the tale in which they move. And, perhaps, we do not truly know what sort of beast it is, either. Stories have a way of changing faces."
(Mary later read it and said it's one of her favourite books ever, so.)
Lexicon by Max Barry
This is a thriller by an Australian author about a secret society that has the power to use words as a kind of magic. It was both a little better than I thought it would be, and not as good as it could have been, given the premise.
Still, it was fun enough, and if you like your thrillers to not be completely brain-dead a la Dan Brown, this could be a good holiday read.
Also, as far as I know, it's the only bestseller to prominently feature Broken Hill.
Don't Make Me Think by Steve Krug
This is a web book about usability, which are possibly four of the most consciousness deadening words in the language. This is a very good one though, written in a friendly, breezy tone and full of the kind of common sense that doesn't often get applied by the website-by-committee decision makers. I read it for my occasional work in web development, but it's very much worth reading for anyone involved in the front-facing work of making websites, as, increasingly, many of us are.
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Just one review with Eternity in the past month, of the strangely necessary What's Best Next.
Feel free to forward this to others. And, if you're reading this because it has been forwarded to you, you can subscribe too.
Thanks for reading,
Guan