2023 Reading/Listening
I make no claims to finish the entirety of every book here but I sometimes do. The following is a list of what I’m digging into this year and some short thoughts on whatever happens to catch my interest.
- Tibetan Peach Pie– Tom Robbins
- Hilarious. I picked this book up because it stared me down in the library on base. knew of friends who loved his fiction work which I picked up but didn’t finish so I decided to try out his nonfiction instead. This is a common theme, I feel the same way about Steinbeck and Stephen King as well, enjoying their nonfiction more than their fiction thus far (though, to be fair I haven’t tried out much of King’s novels). Sentences to Tom Robbins are like a chisel in the hands of Michelangelo. He takes words and turns them into a work of art. He crafts sentences unlike any I have ever read and I enjoyed the heck out of them. I found myself taking pictures fo pages and sentences just to show them off and I laughed on multiple occasions while reading the book. This is an autobiography but it is distinctly and uniquely unlike any other autobiography/memoir I have ever consumed (I have read/listened to lots). He has lived an intriguing life and has a skill for crafting sentences that is unequivocally his own.
- The Anthropocene Reviewed– John Green
- A collection of essays from John Green, many of which appear to be written throughout the early stages of COVID. He writes about different subjects and gives them a tongue-in-cheek rating out of five stars. Green is another author who I have yet to read his fiction novels but I am a big fan of his crash course videos with his brother Hank. Their humor, creativity, and wit are the sole reason I passed AP World History my senior year. These essays range from topic such as sunsets to quiz bowl to the opening scene of Penguins of Madagascar. He is insightful, nostalgic, and kind. He has an uncanny knack for talking about aspects of life that are extremely difficult to put into words.
- Beyond the Mountain– Steve House
- I’ve done my fair share of armchair adventuring and am decently familiar with House being one of the most accomplished ice climbers in the USA if not the world. I chose to check out this book after Jack Kuenzle recommended it on a podcast as one of his favorites and fresh off of revisiting House’s Training for the Uphill Athlete collaboration with Kilian and Scott Johnston. This book effectively captures the cascade of emotions that athletes at the top of a dangerous sport like mountaineering have to endure if they outlive their partners and peers. House does a terrific job of explaining the appeal of such a lifelong endeavor and the balance of coming to terms with your decisions when having to attend the funerals of so many friends. How can a sport that makes so many people feel so alive so frequently bring them to an early death? It’s a tough question to answer and I don’t feel I can truly appreciate it unless I were to pursue climbing with the tenacity and focus that House does. House has the nuance and patience to bring the reader closer to understanding the answer.
- What’s Wrong With Us?- Tim Urban
- In my opinion, likely the most important thing I’ve read coming into an election year and out of the strange world that followed Covid. Tim Urban is such a clear, insightful, and clever thinker. He has a beautiful skill for creating analogies for complicated concepts through his illustrations. This book does a wonderful job of doing just that, taking the political and social environment that we’ve seen evolve throughout our lifetime and putting his touch on it. He proposes a concept of “high rung” vs “low rung” political thinking and makes a strong case for suggesting that a lot of what we criticize on either side of politics is really “low rung” thinking of that sides members. His proposes that we as citizens need to be pushing for a return to “high rung” discussions that move us towards liberal thinking (not politically liberal but liberal in the classical sense). Important Caveat: Regardless of how you prefer reading/consuming books this book is BY FAR best consumed on a colored E-reader of some type (I used my Ipad and Apple Books). Also switch your settings from flipping pages to scrolling (to be read like a blog) and then you can enjoy it to the fullest. You can preview one or two chapters on his blog to see if you fancy it. I have been a big Tim Urban fan since at least 2018 and it saddened me to him go silent for a big chunk of time from 2018-2023 but this book was a phenomenal undertaking and well worth the wait. He always challenges my thinking and I love it.
- On Writing-Stephen King
- A reread for me but just as enjoyable the second time around. King creates a journey that is one part autobiography and one part writing principles that he has leaned on throughout his undeniably prolific writing career. This book was fun to revisit now that I am taking my own writing seriously and trying to build better habits around creating the space, environment, and opportunities to improve my creative output. He talks about his first and second draft principles (Second=first-10%), his hate for adverbs (like my use of undeniably two sentences ago), how he develops his characters, where his ideas come from, and writing for one reader in particular (in his case his longtime wife Tabitha). He also talks about writing with a closed door (first draft) versus opened door (second draft) and how soon is too soon to share your ideas with the world/how it might affect your process. He credits his wife for digging his first draft of Carrie out of the wastebasket and encouraging him that he was onto something and to write more. Carrie was his breakout novel and went on to be purchased for $400,000 at time when his family was living paycheck to paycheck. The most recent version I read included books he enjoyed in the three decades from 1990-2019 (one of his lessons is that a good writer is always reading and he claims to always bring books wherever he goes, even Red Sox games) as well as an interview with both of his sons. Both of his sons turned out to be quite skilled writers, one of which (Joe Hill) has a book with over 11,000 reviews on Amazon. I am notoriously poor at cracking open fiction books and as of this writing I have only listened to one of King’s fiction novels (The Long Walk), which I did not finish. Shame on me.
- Never Finished- David Goggins
- Just as good as the first. Saved listening to this for tough workouts in my marathon block and speed sessions. Provides more insight into aspects of his life when you thought you knew everything but there was still a lot left out. Well worth the listen.
- Salinger: A Life– Paul Alexander
- I was a big fan of Salinger and read a lot of his works when studying in Switzerland. His skills with dialogue are astonishing and it felt so easy for me to romanticize his characters and relate to them as a young adult. This biography is an interesting and thorough look into the life behind the writer and a decent job at attempting to explain the enigma that was J.D. Salinger. He had many quirks and shortcomings. This book left me feeling conflicted in my emotions towards him but was a very quick and enjoyable read.
- The Storyteller-Dave Grohl
- Training Essentials for ultrarunning Second Edition-Jason Koop
- Essentialism-Greg Mckeown
- Die With Zero– Bill Perkins
- Anything You Want-Derek Sivers
- Figures in a Landscape-Paul Theroux
- Not Taco Bell Material– Adam Carolla
- The Art of Memoir -Mary Karr
- A Mother’s Reckoning-Sue Klebold
- To Shake a Sleeping Self- Jedidiah Jenkins
- Nowhere for Long-Brianna Madia
- Training for the Uphill Athlete-Scott Johnston, Kilian Jornet, Steve House
- Training Manual. Brilliant. Complicated. Worth putting on your coffee table and coming back to time and again and again. Going to attempt to use it as effectively as possible as an outline for my 2023 training and racing schedule. Lots of good athlete stories in here as well as plethora of training GOLD hard mined through years of experience thanks to the authors being insanely dedicated to performing at such high levels. In Kilian we trust.
- Running the Dream-Matt Fitzgerald
- Down and Out in Paris and London-George Orwell
- Govt Cheese- Stephen Pressfield
- I H❤️te Running and You Can Too-Brendan Leonard
- Fresh Air Fiend- Paul Theroux
- How to Live– Derek Sivers