GRIZZLY PEAR

written snapshots

Category: Books

  • Sorting out our library

    After half a decade of buying cheap books at the friends of the library store, we now have enough volumes to fill up six slots of the Ikea Kallax shelves. So the girl and I sorted out our own private library this weekend.

    The first division we made was fiction and non-fiction, which were then sorted the rest out by author’s last name. Apart from confusing the illustrators and authors, and a child’s tendency to get distracted it went really smoothly. Some highlights from the exercise included:

    • She immediately decided talking animals were unreal and they all went into the fiction pile.
    • Human slice of life books generally ended up in the non-fiction pile.
    • ABC books ended up in the non-fiction pile, except for one which had talking animals. I guess she takes linguistics pretty seriously.
    • Maurice Sendak’s In the Night Kitchen also ended up in the non-fiction pile. Even though most of the contents are quite fantastical, my daughter pointed out the book is a dream sequence, thus for real. Somehow, Where the Wild Things Are did not get the same treatment and went into fiction.
    • A book on Noah’s Ark ended up in the non-fiction pile. I thought about discussing the myth of Gilgamesh but thought better of it.
    • An illustrated copy of the Night Before Christmas also ended up in non-fiction. I pointed out the drawing of flying reindeer, but she responded that they must have flown in the past. We have never pushed the Santa myth (all our Christmas presents come from humans) but I decided this was not the time to do a hard debunk of old Saint Nick.

    In all, it was a fun exercise. It was quite interesting to go through all the books we’ve collected over the past few years, and even better to plumb the depths of a five year old mind.

  • Checklists, Atul Gawande, 2009

    One of my favorite books is Atul Gawande’s Checklist Manifesto.

    The other day I had to pull some photos off the phone so I decided to write one up so my wife could do so later.

    Yikes, what a convoluted process.

    I mean, I always knew it was a convoluted process, but this exercise really highlighted how convoluted it is.

    Looks like I have some streamlining to do.

    Or maybe not. Could be that this extra effort is worth not buying another computer or hard drive.

  • Dao De Jing, Laozi, (Ursula K. Le Guin) and Zhuangzi, (Thomas Merton)

    With my recent dive into the Dao De Jing and the Zhuangzi I’ve been been reminded that some authors are just better at writing in english than others.

    Admittedly the goals of these different translations were divergent – some of them are actual translations while others are only renditions.

    Not surprisingly however, the books that gave up fidelity to the original text gained the freedom to really write fluently in the new language.

    I’m certain the imprimatur of a famous author didn’t hurt my reception of Ursula K. Le Guin’s Tao Te Ching or Thomas Merton’s Chuang Tzu. But then again higher expectations often lead to greater disappointment.

    In these two cases, they did not disappoint. Their years of writing for a popular audiences prepared them with the subtle tools to excel in their craft, and it shows.

  • Tao Te Ching, Laozi

    As you may have noticed, I’ve been dabbling with reading the Tao Te Ching, borrowing all the copies available at the library and reading the liner notes and introduction.

    After all, the Tao Te Ching is somewhat impenetrable.

    And then I had this sudden inspiration, let’s start buying copies of this book! I’ll start a collection!

    Old habits die hard.

  • Graham Oakley

    I’ve always been a big fan of Graham Oakley’s cheeky Church Mice Series. The illustrations are great, and the stories are really fun. My sister and I loved reading his books at the library.

    But they are out of print and you can’t find any copies at the library. Though oddly enough, they do have some taiwanese translations that reformatted his books to a portrait format.

    It’s a sad tale of what can be discarded with the ebbs and flow of fashion. Or reframed more optimistically, a tale of what the internet enables — a couple clicks of a button and I’ve got a copy headed home.

  • This Present Moment, Gary Snyder, 2015

    Recently, I connected with a former professor and he mentioned the poetry of Gary Snyder, so I trundled off to the library and picked up the one book of his work that they have in the Clark County system.

    I’ve never been much of a poetry guy, but I have subscribed to the excellent American Life in Poetry email newsletter for a few years now.

    I can see why he is such an acclaimed poet. The writing was so sharp, that it just sliced through the clutter of my mind. I could only read a couple poems at a time before doing something else.

    I suspect it’s poking and prodding into the dark recesses of my brain that doesn’t want to be illuminated. I suspect that’s a reason I really need to keep reading.

  • 5 is the Perfect Number, Igort, 2002

    It’s a pretty prime number, well balanced.

    And its half a decade.

    A college career plus one.

    You got five fingers on a hand.

    You got head, two arms, and two legs. What else do you need?

    And it’s the title of one of my favorite graphic novels by Igort.

    I wonder if will hold up to a reread, it’s been twenty years since I bought it in a comic shop in LA and so much has changed in the last five years.

  • A few books on Leadership

    The other day I came across a request for leadership books on a forum and here are four that came to mind

    “Leaders eat Last,” by Simon Sinek, was a really nice overview of leadership from a biological and evolutionary lens. The basic thesis is that humans are biologically motivated to form groups via several chemicals, some of which emphasize personal achievement and others which emphasize group cohesion. Our society has gone out of whack favoring individual glory and the book is a polemic for balance. I am not a big fan of his “Start with Why Book” (it felt like a pamphlet dragged out to book length) but I thought this one was excellent.

    “Leadership Pipeline,” by Ram Charan and Stephen Drotter, is a great overview of the different levels of leadership in management and the different challenges and mindsets required to succeed at each level. With seven levels, most of them won’t apply to one’s specific position, but it’s really useful to see the overall set to contextualize one’s own challenges.

    “Extreme Ownership” and “Dichotomy of Leadership”, by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin. These books could be read individually but I think of the pair as an single work. It’s an easy read with a mix of stories from their military service and in the business world, with practical lessons to consider throughout the book, both as leaders and for one’s own individual mindset and performance.

    “Tribes” and “This is Marketing”, by Seth Godin. I’m a huge fan of Seth’s Blog, but not as much of his books. But still he is a great provocateur and these two books deal directly with leadership. Well “This is Marketing” doesn’t exactly deal with leadership per se, but it sets a framework of how we are trying to improve the world in such a way that I consider it a leadership book. And “Tribes” is a good book on dynamics in the digital age and pushes one to take advantage of the opportunities we have in front of us.

  • A delightful romp thru existential possibilities.

    A very short review of Sum by David Eagleman, 2009.

    (I think I came up with that line myself, but I can’t be sure I did.)

  • QBQ, John G. Miller, 2001

    Self-help books are my comfort food of non-fiction prose. Generally, I find them easy reads, tackle practical issues, and good for getting me fired up for a few days, occasionally leaving a nugget that will stay for a while. I’m only writing this review a week after I first read QBQ by John G. Miller, but I’m pretty certain this one is a keeper, which is a little surprising since this book is centered on the oft trod concept of “personal accountability”, without even trying to come up with some gimmicky counter-intuitive approach.

    The genius in this book its a concise memorable formula for a good self-question: “Who/How” + “I” + “Action”. I follow the news, so I know things out there can be really complex, but for any issue that directly affects me day to day, I agree with author’s basic black and white premise that there are incorrect self-questions (that result in inaction) and good self-questions (that get me moving forward). This clarity of this dichotomy and the simplicity of the QBQ formula is perfect for what this book is trying to do – catalyze action among its readers.

    Along with this basic clear formulation, there are two additional items which further recommend this book. The first is context – as America continues to lean further towards a service economy, this book will become increasingly relevant for those of us working in it. His examples highlight how excellence is accomplished in mundane interactions. Second, the book is succinct, and I mean that as a high compliment. I recently read another book that had a simple premise which was stretched out to three times its necessary length. Mr. Miller respects our time; his message is simple (though not easy) and he doesn’t wear out his welcome – this is a book you can give to a friend without hesitation.

    In all, it’s certainly worthy of a 5-star review. While there are folks in the world who are truly enslaved in circumstances beyond their control, if you’ve got the wherewithal to be reading customer reviews on Amazon, you’re most likely not one of them. This book is highly recommended.