Slow Productivity

By Cal Newport

Do less.

Work at a natural pace

Obsess over quality.

Newport covers the way genius grow there ideas.

Now, do I want to grow my ideas? Different question. 

Alison Roman

Nothing Fancy and Something From Nothing.

So, these cook books are fancy, and the recipes are not from nothing. Either that or Roman’s pantry is much more exotic than mine.

The recipes are wonderful. The techniques are never complicated, which is nice.

I want to keep them as a reference. 

Five Little Piggies

By Agatha Christie

As alway's, Christie's writing is high quality.

I appreciate her drive to vary the form of her mysteries, clues and characters without lowering quality or bringing in bizarre twists. After one writes dozens murder mysteries, it would be easy to stop caring. 

Feal Free

 by Zadie Smith

Amongst other things, Zadie takes pop culture and applies philosophy to it. 

"To be truly free, we had to rid ourselves of all bitterness and resentment too. How was this possible when bitterness and resentment are generated afresh every day?" -- This is open and unanswered.

"In Britain we are always doing this-- mistaking an esthetic choice for an ethical one"

"People can be too precious about their heritage, about their tradition-- writers especially. Preservation and protection have their place but they shouldn't block freedom or theft." Smith and cultural appropriation, not the theft of objects.

"There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist though any other medium." --Martha Graham on the drive to create.

"Compassion helps. You may not sleep the deep unruffled sleep of Hero Boy, but in Kaufman's (And Schopenhauer's) that's about as good as it gets. 

"Like so many of us, he remains stuck between those twin poles of want and boredom."  

"One way of dealing with the border of our own needs is to complicate them unnecessarily, so as to always have something new to desire."

World of Wonders

By Robertson Davis

A worthy conclusion to Davis’s Deptford series.

There is a theme in this book about how different people can have different perspectives on the same thing. To one person, a rock is a reminder of how small things may have big consequences. To another that rock is evidence of a grudge harbored over decades. These perspectives color, our choices and actions where the actual facts may suggest the situation is somewhere between the two. 

Davis uses these dueling perspectives to explore various topics, including Canada. Is it the backwaters of a dying empire? A blank canvas, full of new possibilities? 

The Voyager's Handbook: The Essential Guide to Blue Water CruisiNg

By Beth A. Leonard

Sometimes I dream of buying a boat and sailing away from it all.

It is a commitment. This book prepares you for that commitment-- the time, the money, the planning, the execution. 

The reality of that commitment always dampens my dream. 

The Plague

By Albert Camus

More reading for my philsophy explorations. A story of the outbreak of bubonic plague in Orman. 

How does one deal with senseless, persistent suffering or evil, be-it war, death, facism or plague? There are ways...

• Quiet persistent resistance. Fight the evil without hope of final victory.
• Reject the judgement. Revolt. Organize for the greater good.
• Humility. Moral value is found in persistent and small human acts
• Faith-- struggle to reconcile belief with senseless evil
• Understand your part-- individualism and personal happiness vs the greater good and moral duty.

Meaning is not found in the universe or in the afterlife, but in our actions. 

Evil retreats and evil returns. Never forget that. Be vigilant. 

"On this earth there are pestilences and there are victims, and it's up to us, so far as possible, not to join forces with the pestilences. That may sound simple to the point of childishness; I can't judge if it's simple, but I know it's true. You see, I'd heard such quantities of arguments, which very nearly turn my head, and turned other people's heads enough to make them approve of murder; and I'd come to realize that all our troubles spring from the failure to use plain clear-cut language. So I resolved always to speak-- and to act-- quite clearly, as this was the only way of setting myself on the right track." 

"the doctor raised himself a little in his chair and asked if Taro and an idea of the path to follow for attaining peace.

"Yes", he replied. "The path of sympathy."

"A man should fight for the victims, but if he ceases caring for anything outside that, what's the use of his fighting?"