Recipes for happiness
April 3, 2019 at 12:24 am | Posted in Bookshops, creativity, decluttering, libraries, List making, Living creatively, Simplifying | Leave a commentTags: Curatoreum bookshops, Dominique Loreau, Potts Point Bookshop
That warm glow of excitement and satisfaction
It’s been a while since my last blog post and I make no apology. I don’t write them for click-bait – they’re for contemplation and the odd laugh. I’ve been working – writing non-fiction – and, of course, reading. One thing I read expresses precisely my situation about books to be read. New Yorker staff writer Katy Waldman admitted in that journal (4 December 2018) that she was ‘criminally behind on the books I want to read, and my job consists of reading books, so I can only imagine what most readers feel. … The deficit grows by the hour.’
Judging by the towering pile of books on my bedside table, and probably on yours, we know exactly what she means.
Summer books and summer heat
January 21, 2019 at 2:21 am | Posted in capitalism, Common Good, Democracy, libraries, social capital | Leave a commentTags: Carol Tavris & Elliot Aronson, D.B.C. Pierre, Democracy in Chains, Elizabeth Harrower, Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me), Nancy MacLean, Neoliberal history, Public Choice Theory history, Release the Bats
The cover of ‘Mistakes Were Made, But Not by Me!’
After finishing the rewrites of my novel just before Christmas it’s been an orgy of reading. Among recent books that have impressed me are Democracy in Chains by Nancy MacLean; Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me) by Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson; and D.B.C. Pierre’s Release the Bats. There’s also beautiful, strong writing in another of Elizabeth Harrower’s trenchant, insightful and bleak novels about relationships, In Certain Circles. But I’ll focus on the three non-fiction books here.
Democracy in Chains
Democracy in Chains: The deep history of the radical right’s stealth plan for America (Viking, 2018) tells the story behind the subversion of democracy in the United States, a story of dark money and radical right-wing politics, and how ‘liberty’ came to mean liberty for the rich few to concentrate vast wealth and deny basic fairness and rights to the majority. And it all started with racism, back in the 1950s. I can’t hope to summarise it adequately in such a short space but it’s a mesmerising book, understated in tone and jaw-dropping in its implications.
Changing lives – making lists and having fun
December 12, 2017 at 3:19 am | Posted in Christmans presents, libraries, list-making | Leave a commentTags: Andrea Goldsmith, Cathleen Schine, Dave Eggars, Diane Ackerman, Joahn Clanchy, Johann Hari, Judith White, Maggie O'Farrell, Marie Kondo, Patricia Rozema, Peter Timms, Stephanie Buckle
Why write?
‘It is necessary to write, if the days are not to slip emptily by.’ I’ve quoted Vita Sackville West https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vita_Sackville-West before but this bears repeating. Writing or any activity that produces something will prevent that feeling of empty past days. But it should also be remembered that Vita Sackville West probably had servants. So if she didn’t write on a given day, perhaps she could do nothing if she felt like it.
Few of us have that luxury now. The days of most people, even if they’re wealthy, are filled to overflowing with too many things to do. (I’ve met two super wealthy people and even at a dinner out I never saw them relax – they’re always on the mobile, checking some crisis in the China factory or whatever.)
There’s another quotation I like:
‘Lists are the butterfly nets that catch my fleeting thoughts…’ by American blogger Betsy Canas Garmon.
Continue Reading Changing lives – making lists and having fun…
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