Archive

Want to remember more from your reading? Use Day One as a private book journal with an Apple Shortcut that logs notes, ratings, quotes & covers—automatically. New post: why it works + how to set it up. Keep a Book Journal with Day One and Apple Shortcuts 💙📚

Revenge of the Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell: ★★★★☆ | Psychology | Audio | Borrow | StoryGraph | Goodreads Another great Malcolm Gladwell read. I think I’ve read all his books now and even took his Masterclass on writing. I listened to the audiobook, which was the perfect format for this one. Gladwell has an engaging reading voice and …

Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway: ★★★★★ | Literature | Print + Digital | Own | StoryGraph | Goodreads Rereading a book you haven’t read in 40 years is an interesting experience. I remembered only the bleakness but little of the story itself. I enjoyed most of the book, though all the decades of Hemingway parodies and copycats …

Currently reading: The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany by William L. Shirer 💙📚 Seems timely.

Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner: ★★★★★ | Literary Fiction | Print + Digital | Own | StoryGraph | Goodreads | You can plan all you want to. You can lie in your morning bed and fill whole notebooks with schemes and intentions. But within a single afternoon, within hours or minutes, everything you plan and everything you have fought …

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain: 

★★★★☆ | Psychology | Print + Digital | Own | StoryGraph | Goodreads

Fascinating deep dive into the world of introversion and extroversion. Some meaningful parts of our temperament are genetic and passed down from our parents. If you’re a fussy, highly sensitive baby at four months, there’s a good …

Currently reading: Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain 📚💙 This has been an eye-opening book for the ways that extroverts and introverts differ. Bloggers, who Cain suggests are almost all introverts, will share personal details with an online …

Laozi’s Dao De Jing by Lao Tzu: ★★★★★ | Philosophy | Digital | Own | StoryGraph | Goodreads This short book oozes with wisdom with the help of Ken Liu’s wonderful translation and notes. Read this one slowly and set aside time for reflection. So much of the advice is contrary to conventional western views that it can seem …

Om Malik recently launched a separate “daily” blog, which looks like a subdomain off his Wordpress site. For folks who keep a Wordpress blog, have you considered this as an alternative to separate Wordpress/Micro.blog sites for short and long posts? Puzzling through a longer term …

Currently reading: Laozi’s Dao De Jing by Laozi 💙📚 To solve the hard you must begin with the easy; To do something big you must start very small. All difficulties must be resolved through simple steps. All grand deeds must be performed through tiny details.

Creative Nonfiction: The Final Issue by Lee Gutkind: ★★★★☆ | Essays | Print | Own | StoryGraph | Goodreads An interesting selection of essays from the print run of the Creative Nonfiction literary magazine. There were some essays that appeared to stretch the boundaries of truth, but that’s the creative part I guess. Highlights If things could be …

One of my minor complaints about the Matter read-it-later app was addressed in a big way today. “Co-Reader” provides AI assistance at the paragraph level. Tap any paragraph in an article and to see AI-generated questions and answers. All within the app. Immersive reading at its best.

The Age of Napoleon by Will Durant: ★★★★☆ | History | Digital | Own | StoryGraph | Goodreads The eleventh and final volume of the Story of Civilization, covering the years from the beginning of the French Revolution through Waterloo. Napoleon’s rise, dictatorship, stunning victories and ultimate defeat were thrilling to read.

The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway: ★★★★★ | Literature | Audio | Borrow | StoryGraph | Goodreads Donald Sutherland did a wonderful job narrating this audiobook. It was nice to reacquaint myself with Hemingway’s short and simple sentences, yet so full of energy. Made me yearn for the ocean.

Babel by R.F. Kuang: ★★☆☆☆ | Fantasy | Digital | Borrow | StoryGraph | Goodreads I tried to like this book. It has all the elements of a book I would love: etymology, 19th century England, a diverse set of characters, magic, and an academic setting (Oxford, no less!). But I found it slow and repetitive, filled with …

Question for @manton: I notice that sometimes when I make small changes to my site, like changing the category of a post, my website won’t reflect the change. I’ve switched devices, browsers, etc. No difference. The only thing that works is rebuilding the site. Is this normal or a sign …

Wisdom from Kevin Kelly: Productivity is often a distraction. Don’t aim for better ways to get through your tasks as quickly as possible, rather aim for better tasks that you never want to stop doing.

Apple is launching a new product this week — probably an iPhone SE. But what if they unveil an e-reader and a subscription reading service? Books are in the cross-hairs of the intersection between arts and technology. Amazon and e-readers are ripe for Apple-style disruption. A man can dream!

I love my Kindle Oasis, but Amazon is sure making it hard to stay loyal. Maybe Kobo will save the day and release an updated black and white e-reader to replace its discontinued Libra 2. This should be the golden age for e-reader innovation. Kobo? Apple? Sony? Anyone?

Ah, Patrick O’Brian. He was truly one of a kind. If you haven’t discovered Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin, there’s not a moment to lose. 💙📚

💬 You learn to dance with the limp. Sometimes I’ve thought of grief as missing an amputated limb, but walking with a limp is better. Thank you @chrisheck for sharing this.

My blog had its tenth birthday last July, and I forgot to celebrate: Why Blogs Matter

Think different. 💬

Finished reading: Storyworthy by Matthew Dicks 💙📚 An entertaining book filled with practical advice on how to improve your storytelling, whether in front of a live audience, on a date, or in a written essay. Dicks shares examples of his own stories, then breaks down why they work. ★★★★☆

Incredible update to the Readwise app today. You can now “chat” with your highlights, which uses AI to find connections you probably overlooked or forgot from your reading. Since it only draws from the highlights you saved, the results are astonishingly personal. This is my kind of AI! …

Finished reading: Fallen Leaves by Will Durant 💙📚 In 208 eloquent pages, Durant shares his views on death, religion, education, war, politics, spirituality, and, through it all, the meaning of life. Truly a gift to humanity from a scholar who devoted his long life to the study of history. ★★★★★

Connor would have turned 23 today. The very prime of life. There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t miss him, but these birthdays are tough. Hug your kids. #forever20

Finished reading: Just After Sunset by Stephen King 📚

Read: 2025-01-27 | ★★★★☆ Horror

On a quest to read the few Stephen King books I missed along the way. I forgot how great of a short story writer King is. Probably some of his novels should have been short stories! Gingerbread Girl and N were my …

Finished reading: The Godfather by Mario Puzo 📚 Read: 2025-01-13 | ★★★★☆ | Mystery-Suspense I read the book during a recent visit to New York City and watched the movie on the plane ride home, which made for an immersive experience. The movie stayed very true to the book, though some big sections …

Finished reading: The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper by Roland Allen 📚 What a delightful book. The first chapter reeled me in with the story of how the Moleskin notebook exploded in popularity in the 1990s. The author clearly has been bitten by the same notebook fetish bug. He cites brand …

New post with my favorite books from 2024 along with updates to my reading system. My year in books for 2024.

Finished reading: Rousseau and Revolution by Will Durant 📚 The tenth volume of the Story of Civilization by Will and Ariel Durant. This one provides an immensely readable history of Europe leading up to the French Revolution. This series has been such an education. ★★★★★

Finished reading: The Work of Art by Adam Moss 📚

Finished reading: The Comfort of Crows by Margaret Renkl 📚

Finished reading: The Wood at Midwinter by Susanna Clarke 📚

Finished reading: Thinking on Paper by V.A. Howard, J.H. Barton 📚

Finished reading: James by Percival Everett 📚

Finished reading: A Rage in Harlem (Special Edition) by Chester Himes 📚 What a crazy rollercoaster ride through Harlem in the 1950s. I’m just now catching my breath! ★★★★☆

Finished reading: Needful Things by Stephen King 📚 This one missed the mark for me. Too many characters — almost the entire town of Castle Rock. With so many, I had a hard time connecting with any of them. Any other author would get a two stars, but King gets a pass. ★★★☆☆

Finished reading: A System for Writing by Bob Noto 📚 A guide to the Zettelkasten method of note-taking. Writing and linking atomic notes feels so non-intuitive and…nutty? The examples late in the book of the poor quality of published books compiled from atomic notes did not help the cause. ★★★☆☆

Wrist pain prompted me to set aside my Magic keyboard and Mighty Mouse for more ergonomic options. Enter the KeyChron K15 Max Alice mechanical keyboard and a Logitech vertical mouse. I love the clicky keyboard and more comfortable layout, but sheesh, it’s hard for this old dog to learn a new …

Finished reading: The Age of Voltaire by Will Durant 📚 Continuing my quest to read all eleven volumes of Will Durant’s Opus, The Story of Civilization. Volume IX centers on science and philosophy overtaking religion through thinkers like Voltaire and Diderot. The church did its best to stop it, but …

Finished reading: This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage by Ann Patchett 📚 I came for the essays on the craft of writing, but stayed for her views on RV life, dogs, opera, marriage, friendship, etc. An eclectic collection, but all Ann Patchett. What a writer. ★★★★☆

Finished reading: The Spectator Bird by Wallace Stegner 📚 A poignant novel on retirement, the fleetingness of life, and all those many paths not taken. One to savor. ★★★★★

Finished reading: The Elephant Whisperer by Anthony Lawrence 📚 I enjoyed these episodic adventures in the wilds of South Africa amongst elephants and the incredible struggle to preserve and cohabitate with these massive and intelligent animals. An Immense World by Ed Yong introduced me to the ways …

Currently reading: This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage by Ann Patchett 📚

Finished reading: Spook Street by Mick Herron 📚 The fourth Slow Horses book was fun. These books follow a formula, yet are so well written. Now I can watch the Apple TV version … ★★★★☆

Finished reading: The Age of Louis XIV by Will Durant: Finished reading: The Age of Louis XIV by Will Durant 📚 My straight-through reading of this mammoth 11-volume history continues. Volume VIII shares a detailed view of Europe in the 17th Century. So much war and bloodshed and atrocity, and yet brilliance too. From Durant: Let us agree that in every …

From this week’s release notes from journaling app Day One: By streamlining the app’s features, we can focus on delivering a better overall experience for all users, regardless of the device they use. Day One has been under fire for removing features and mucking up their intuitive user …

New Index Card Organizer for Notes: I’m trying out a new note-taking method. I’ve switched from Field Notes to this custom index card holder. I prefer taking notes on index cards, but I’m always misplacing them or can’t find one when I need it. This “book” solves that. I moved the ring to the top …

Finished reading: Somehow by Anne Lamott 📚 I loved Lamott’s Bird by Bird memoir on the writing craft. The writing here was good, but forced. Too many similes, too many quotes from others. Great life advice: be kind to yourself & others, all we need is love, etc., but too much …

Book-wrapt — that beneficent feeling of being wholly imbooked, beshelved, inlibriated, circumvolumed, peribibliated … — The Private Library by Reid Byers 📚

What’s the best way to ask for @help on Micro.blog? I tagged @Manton in this post, but didn’t get a response. I know he’s busy, so I posted my question as a reply to the closest topic on the help forum. My reply triggered a temporary account suspension – four days ago. I …

Finished reading: Table for Two by Amor Towles 📚 I’ll read anything that Amor Towles writes. He’s one of my favorite living writers. This collection of six short stories and a novella hit the mark, though each left me wanting more, to know happens next. A master storyteller. ★★★★★

Community is a body of people crying for one another, working together for a common cause, enjoying and overlooking (or grimly tolerating) each other’s foibles; it’s a rough and beautiful quilt sewn of patches that don’t seem to go together at all, and then do. Anne Lamott, Somehow

I was getting tension headaches from too many hours of looking down at a book at night, so I bought this Levo book stand. It holds the book securely and rotates into any position I need, even fully reclined. Expensive, but worth it. Headaches are gone!

For fun, I asked ChatGPT to create a cover image for an essay I wrote. The essay mentions old books and a Kindle: note the hybrid book/eReader lit by candlelight, and how the leather wing chair barricades the door. “Don’t bother me, I’m reading,” it seems to suggest. ❤️❤️❤️

Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone, just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had. Enduring and grounding advice from The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

From Are Bookstores Just a Waste of Space? (New Yorker): Two-thirds of the books released by the top-ten trade publishers sell fewer than a thousand copies, and less than four per cent sell more than twenty thousand. I knew that bestselling authors dominate book sales, but these are humbling …

Currently reading: Somehow by Anne Lamott 📚

Finished reading: The Public Library by Robert Dawson 📚

Currently reading: The Public Library by Robert Dawson 📚

Currently reading: Table for Two by Amor Towles 📚

Finished reading: The Queen’s Gambit by Walter Tevis 📚 Who knew a book about Chess could be so intense! This was a great, great book. ★★★★★

Currently reading: The Queen’s Gambit by Walter Tevis 📚

Finished reading: City of Glass by Paul Auster 📚 A strange meta-detective novel with an unreliable narrator who slowly dissolves into insanity. I followed maybe half of the literary and Biblical allusions. Not at all what I expected, but oddly satisfying.

Currently reading: The Age of Louis XIV by Will Durant 📚

Finished reading: The Age of Reason Begins by Will Durant 📚 My quest to read all eleven volumes of Durant’s Story of Civilization continues. Volume VII has returned to the shelf with hundreds of scribbles and notes and many, many exclamation marks. If you think the world is crazy now, you ought to …

Finished reading: Here is New York by E. B. White

Finished reading: Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver 📚

Finished reading: Move on Down to Mexico by 📚

Finished reading: Real Tigers by Mick Herron 📚

Currently reading: Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver 📚

Currently reading: Real Tigers by Mick Herron 📚

Finished reading: You Like It Darker by Stephen King 📚 This is a wonderful collection of short stories and novellas by our generation’s master storyteller. I enjoyed every piece, but particularly liked Rattlesnakes, a sequel of sorts to Cujo. It’s meditation on the persistent grief of …

Finished reading: Dead Lions by Mick Herron 📚 My second Slow Horses book and just as good as the first. There were a few more departures in this book frm the TV version, which kept me guessing. Herron is a talented writer.

I’ve seen so many beautiful postcards and photos of Crater Lake over my life. None of them, including this one I took today from the crater’s edge, capture the true beauty of this place. Yowza.

We’re one week into a six-week circuit from Arizona through Nevada and Oregon to Washington State, then down the coast through Oregon and California. We’re staying primarily in National Parks in our little self-contained RV, but we’re not rushing: three days at each stop. We’re at 6,000 feet …

Currently listening: The Fellowship of the Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien 📚 How could it be that my wife of 27 years, a bookworm like me, has never read The Lord of the Rings? We’re heading out on an extended roadtrip in our little RV, and we were struggling to …

Currently reading: Dead Lions by Mick Herron 📚

Finished reading: Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt 📚 I enjoyed the setting of the fictional small town on Puget Sound. I liked the premise of the story. I loved the octopus. But, in the end, the author was too young/naive to be inside the head of a grief-stricken 70-year-old woman. It …

Finished reading: Consolations by David Whyte 📚 Ah, what a treasure. Two to three page poetic essays on 52 commonplace words or themes like Curiousity, Heartbreak, and Forgivness. I’ve been ruminating on this definition of Beauty for the past month: Beauty is the harvest of presence. Whyte often …

Currently reading: Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt 📚

David Whyte: A life’s work is not a series of stepping-stones, onto which we calmly place our feet, but more like an ocean crossing where there is no path, only a heading, a direction, in conversation with the elements. Looking back, we see the wake we have left as only a brief glimmering …

Finished reading: The Regulators by Richard Bachman/Stephen King 📚★★★☆☆ Continuing my quest to read every Stephen King novel … The Regulators was published on the same day as Desperation. Many of the same characters bedeviled by the same evil spirit Tak, but set in a parallel universe. The …

There are 10,000 books in my library, and it will keep growing until I die. This has exasperated my daughters, amused my friends and baffled my accountant. If I had not picked up this habit in the library long ago, I would have more money in the bank today; I would not be richer. — Pete Hamill

Finished reading: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley 📚 This book was nothing like I expected. Frankenstein (the scientist) is arrogant, self-absorbed, and makes incredibly bad decisions. The story itself is unbelievably far-fetched. There were times I wanted to throw my Kindle on the floor at the …

Currently reading: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley 📚 Slow to post this, but I’m doing a group read of this classic on BlueSky (#hotfranksummer).

Currently reading: The Regulators by Richard Bachman 📚

Finished reading: David Copperfield by Charles Dickens 📚 I had an idea that this was a story about the trials of an orphan in Dickensian London. It was about that, but so much more. This novel has warmth and sadness and joy and despair. Characters that will stick with me for a long, long time. I’m …

Currently reading: The Age of Reason Begins by Will Durant 📚 One of the great diseases of this age is the multitude of books that doth so overcharge the world that it is not able to digest the abundance of idle matter that is every day hatched and brought into the world. Barnaby Rich, known …

Currently reading: The Age of Reason Begins by Will Durant 📚 I took a short break in my marathon read of the 11-volume Story of Civilization by Will and Ariel Durant. Back at it with Volume VII.

Reading a Book in 15 Minutes: Interesting and humorous article by Anthony Lane in the New Yorker about the book summary app Blinkist: Can You Read a Book in a Quarter of an Hour?. We’re reading fewer books as a society. Our ever-fascinating smart phones aren’t helping the cause: The most potent enemy of reading, it goes without …

Finished reading: 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff 📚 I know I’ve read this a long time ago, but it was nice to be reacquainted with Helene, the zany book-loving American, and Mr. Frank Doel, the reserved British bookseller. The abrupt ending catches you off guard, but it’s also …

The Booksellers documentary is so, so good. All the bookshelves, rare books, home libraries … and so many kindred spirits talking about their love of books. The whole documentary is beautiful and a little melancholy. Booksellers and librarians are my favorite people. Watch it on Amazon Prime.

Finished reading: Stories of Books and Libraries by Jane Holloway (ed.) 📚 A book of short stories, excerpts and essays about the love of reading and libraries? Of course I’m going to love it. A good father’s day gift for a dad who loves books. ★★★★★

Thank Your Teachers: 

I came across a journal entry I wrote on this day ten years ago. I was reflecting on the people in my life that made a difference on how things have turned out for me. I realized that many of these people couldn’t possibly know the impact they had on me and the countless others they helped.

I kept …

David Copperfield and the Magic of Amazon WhisperSync: I’m currently reading the classic David Copperfield by Charles Dickens 📚 for the first time. I’m reading it on my Kindle with an add-on $3 splurge of the Audible audiobook. I experimented with WhisperSync many years ago when it was first released and found it buggy. For such a low fee, I thought I …

Currently reading: David Copperfield by Charles Dickens 📚

Finished reading: The Death of Grass by John Christopher 📚 A short 1950s SciFi novel about a virus that kills grasses. Starvation and violence breaks out. Governments fall. Civilization crumbles. Except for the very dated portrayal of women, the story felt current. ★★★★☆

Finished reading: The Reformation by Will Durant 📚

Currently reading: The Death of Grass by John Christopher 📚

📷 April 2024 Micro.Blog photo challenge, Day 30: Hometown Vashon Island will always be my hometown.

Finished reading: To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf 📚 An absolute masterpiece. Totally gutted by the end. I can’t believe it took me this long to read it. ★★★★★

Finished reading: Sibley’s Birding Basics by David Allen Sibley 📚 Ah, the inevitable slide into birdwatching. Great introductory guide to help me get started. ★★★★☆

📷 April 2024 Micro.Blog photo challenge, Day 29: Drift

📷 April 2024 Micro.Blog photo challenge, Day 28: Community Of all the communities I’ve been a part of - industry leader, islander, 55+ retirement living - liveaboard boat life was the most incredible. We all had a little extra salt water in our veins that compelled us to a life afloat. Good …

📷 April 2024 Micro.Blog photo challenge, Day 27: Surprise My all-time favorite Surprise. In fact, all twenty volumes of this Aubrey/Maturin series by Patrick O’Brian are wonderful. I am perpetually rereading them. I think I’m on my fourth circumnavigation after my first voyage some 20 …

📷 April 2024 Micro.Blog photo challenge, Day 26: Critters

📷 April 2024 Micro.Blog photo challenge, Day 25: Spine The spine of this tattered old book tells a story of how loved it is. I must have read these stories a dozen times over the past thirty years. Scribbles and underlines and exclamation marks scattered throughout. A life in marginalia.

📷 April 2024 Micro.Blog photo challenge, Day 24: Light Is there anything more mesmerizing than the shifting light and shapes of a campfire under a blanket of stars?

📷 April 2024 Micro.Blog photo challenge, Day 23: Dreamy

Currently reading: To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf 📚

Finished reading: The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin 📚 Characters who love books and reading, lots of fun literary references, a bookstore set on an island … this one could have been written just for me. ★★★★☆

📷 April 2024 Micro.Blog photo challenge, Day 22: Blue Crossing the Strait of Juan de Fuca on a clear, calm day.

📷 April 2024 Micro.Blog photo challenge, Day 21: Mountain Mount Rainier while under sail in Commencement Bay (2006).

📷 April 2024 Micro.Blog photo challenge, Day 20: Ice The winter before we moved full time to Arizona.

Currently reading: The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin 📚

Finished reading: Desperation by Stephen King 📚 Maybe not one of Mr. King’s best efforts, but it was entertaining, and the ending came together better than I expected. ★★★☆☆

📷 April 2024 Micro.Blog photo challenge, Day 19: Birthday A puppy for my son’s 13th birthday back in 2015. Happy memories.

📷 April 2024 Micro.Blog photo challenge, Day 18: Mood Tonight’s camp site here in the Mojave National Preserve has put me in a good mood. It doesn’t get much better than this.

📷 April 2024 Micro.Blog photo challenge, Day 17: Transcendence La Ventana Arch, New Mexico

📷 April 2024 Micro.Blog photo challenge, Day 16: **flâneur**: 📷 April 2024 Micro.Blog photo challenge, Day 16: flâneur Today’s photo theme reminds me of Vacilando, which I learned from this passage in Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck: In Spanish there is a word for which I can’t find a counterword in English. It is the verb vacilar, present …

📷 April 2024 Micro.Blog photo challenge, Day 15: Small I’ve never felt quite so small or felt part of something quite so large as when standing on the lip of the Grand Canyon. It truly is one of Earth’s wonders.

📷 April 2024 Micro.Blog photo challenge, Day 14: Cactus

📷 April 2024 Micro.Blog photo challenge, Day 13: Page A random page from The House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski. Definitely the trippiest book I’ve ever read, yet poignant and incredibly memorable. In sailing, we say it’s the journey, not the destination that matters. Same with House of Leaves.

📷 April 2024 Micro.Blog photo challenge, Day 12: Magic

📷 April 2024 Micro.Blog photo challenge, Day 11: Sky

📷 April 2024 Micro.Blog photo challenge, Day 10: Train Hobo bunnies waiting on a train in Ladysmith, British Columbia.

🥓 Day 9: Crispy | prompt submitted by @rom As an antidote to yesterday’s prevention theme, here’s a flashback to breakfast aboard our boat with crispy bacon and donuts from the Lyme Kiln Cafe in Roche Harbor. Yum!

📷 April 2024 Micro.Blog photo challenge, Day 8: Prevention

📷 April 2024 Micro.Blog photo challenge, Day 7: Well-being

Currently reading: Desperation by Stephen King 📚 Tackling the remaining Stephen King books I haven’t read. I usually read fiction on my Kindle, but I have the hardback of this one. I forgot how heavy and unwieldy some of Stephen King books can be!

📷 April 2024 Micro.Blog photo challenge, Day 6: Windy Gale force winds aboard MV Indiscretion.

Finished reading: Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan 📚 I loved this short, spare novella. In 109 pages, Keegan puts you squarely in the mind and body of its protagonist, Furlong. You feel the pangs of long-ago childhood angst, the chill of an Irish cold spell, the ugliness of small town …

📷 April 2024 Micro.Blog photo challenge, Day 5: Serene Toba Inlet, British Columbia, aboard MV Indiscretion.

📷 April 2024 Micro.Blog photo challenge, Day 4: Foliage

Currently reading: Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan 📚

📷 April 2024 Micro.Blog photo challenge, Day 3: Card A Father’s Day card from my son Connor in 2020 before he left home for college. He died in a motorcycle accident two years later. I usually toss cards, but I kept this one, and I treasure it. Hug your kids tonight.

📷 April 2024 Micro.Blog photo challenge, Day 2: Flowers

📷 Day01 : toy (@pcora)

Currently reading: Slow Horses by Mick Herron 📚 Lamb’s laugh wasn’t a genuine surrender to amusement; more of a temporary derangement. Not a laugh you’d want to hear from anyone holding a stick. I enjoyed the TV series, but the book is even better.

Finished reading: The Peace of Wild Things by Wendell Berry 📚★★★★★ Better than any argument is to rise at dawn and pick dew-wet red berries in a cup.

Currently reading: Sibley’s Birding Basics by David Allen Sibley 📚

Finished reading: Dune by Frank Herbert 📚 ★★★★★

There is no better teacher than history in determining the future. There are answers worth billions of dollars in a $30 history book.📚 Charlie Munger

Camped along the Colorado River here at Davis Camp on the Arizona-Nevada border. Smaller rigs can nose right up to the edge of the river. This is my kind of camping.

Currently reading: Dune by Frank Herbert 📚 Rereading ahead of seeing the movie. I had forgotten how much I loved this book.

Finished reading: I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh 📚 ★★★☆☆

After three good years with Craft, I’ve moved my reading notes and PKM to Bear. I really love Bear’s simplicity and hidden power on both Mac and iOS. No futzing, just my words. Blog post: Bear 2 for Writing and Thinking.

Currently reading: I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh 📚

Finished reading: Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin 📚 This was a good book. I liked the characters and the storyline. The reasons Sam and Sadie found to be mad at the other were a little frustrating, but I think that’s ultimately the lesson they each needed to learn. The …

Mac-only Apps: 

I’ve been evaluating Bear 2 to replace Craft for my reading notes and quasi-Zettelkasten for the past few weeks. I’ve used Craft for over three years, but that tool has morphed into a team note-taking and document-sharing platform that doesn’t mesh well with my needs anymore.

My …

Finished reading: The Master & Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov 📚

Currently reading: The Reformation by Will Durant 📚

Finished reading: The Renaissance by Will Durant 📚

Steinbeck captures my basic attitude towards New Years Resolutions here in the third week of January: It is very strange that when you set a goal for yourself, it is hard not to hold toward it even if it is inconvenient and not even desirable.

It’s been a couple years since I finished In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust. I read all six volumes with an amazing Twitter book group over the course of a year. I struggled with the serpentine sentences and French society references at the time, but passages like these stuck with me. 📚

Currently reading: The Master & Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov 📚

Finished reading: Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree 📚

Finished reading: Wednesday’s Child by Yiyun Li 📚 My 75th book of 2023, which is a new personal record for the most books I’ve read in a single year. Many of the stories in this collection touch on the hard to articulate grief of losing a child, which hit home for me. ★★★★☆

Currently reading: An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us by Ed Yong 📚

Finished reading: Holly by Stephen King 📚

I found this lovely bookmark in my Christmas stocking. Santa knows me so well! 📚

The Private Library by Reid Byers: Finished reading: The Private Library by Reid Byers 📚 Book-wrapt — that beneficient feeling of being wholly imbooked, beshelved, inlibriated, circumvolumed, peribibliated … it implies the traditional library wrapped in shelves of books, and the condition of rapt attention to a particular …

Currently reading: Holly by Stephen King 📚

Finished reading: Writing Tools by Roy Peter Clark 📚 A slow read over the course of a few months, one chapter/writing tool per sitting. Lots of great tips and advice to improve your writing.

Finished reading: The Book on the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are by Alan W. Watts 📚 Another compelling argument for being present in our lives, and paying close attention to the marvels that surround us. How is it possible that a being with such sensitive jewels as the eyes, such enchanted …

Currently reading: Wednesday’s Child by Yiyun Li 📚

Finished reading: The Vagabond’s Way by Rolf Potts 📚

Stephen King: Finished reading: Christine and Blaze by Stephen King 📚 Continuing my quest to read the Stephen King books I missed along the way. With these two, I’ve now read thirteen King books this year. The 700-page Christine book flew by on my Kindle. Lots of supernatural fun mixed in with nostalgia for my …

The Age of Faith by Will Durant: Finished reading: The Age of Faith by Will Durant 📚 I finished this fourth installment of Will Durant’s Story of Civilization after three months of slow, careful reading. The Age of Faith begins with the fall of Rome and carries through the end of the Middle Ages. The writing is clear, …

Finished reading: Your Brain on Art by Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross 📚 Your Brain on Art is the latest selection from the Next Big Idea Club. The authors did a nice job of gathering scientific evidence of how art making and appreciation physically changes your brain. I loved the part where a scientist …

Finished reading: The Art of Living: Peace and Freedom in the Here and Now by Thich Nhat Hanh 📚 Impermanence is something wonderful. If things were not impermanent, life would not be possible. A seed could never become a plant of corn; the child couldn’t grow into a young adult; there could never …

Currently reading: The Art of Living: Peace and Freedom in the Here and Now by Thich Nhat Hanh 📚

Finished reading: The Eyes of the Dragon by Stephen King 📚 Continuing my quest to go back and read the Stephen King books I’ve missed along the way. I listened to the audiobook of this one, narrated by actor Bronson Pinchot. I’ve listened to hundreds of audiobooks, but the narration of …

Finished reading: The Silentiary by Antonio Di Benedetto 📚 What a strange little book. The narrator is slowly driven insane by all the commercial sounds encroaching on his family home: an auto repair shop next door, a nightclub across the street, an idling bus outside his bedroom window, all told in …

Started reading: Your Brain on Art by Susan Magsamen 📚

Enjoying a pint of Athletic Brewing non-alcoholic beer tonight. I gave up alcohol a few years ago, but still enjoy great beer thanks to this wonderful brewer. I subscribe to their monthly club, which gives me a sample of their pilot beers - this month’s Oregon Strata Web Hop IPA is terrific. 🍻

Finished reading: Skeleton Crew by Stephen King 📚 Working through the few books of Stephen King I haven’t read. This is a collection of his early stories. A few are dated, and a few are exceptional. There is a bleakness that pervades many of these stories. I hoped for a good outcome for the …

Replace “book” with “blog” and you’ve captured what makes a community like Micro.blog so special: Even the oddest, most particular book was written with that kind of crazy courage—the writer’s belief that someone would find his or her book important to read. I was …

Fascinating article in The Economist this week about the effort underway by computer scientists to use machine language models and a particle accelerator (!) to decipher the petrified remains of 500 scrolls from a Roman library buried in the Vesuvius eruption. The impact on classical studies and …

🍿Went to see Killers of the Flower Moon last night. Parts of the movie were extraordinary. Such a sad, sad story. But gosh, the 3 1/2 hour length was too long. With better editing, this could have been a 2 1/2 hour movie that held me on the edge of my seat.

Currently reading: Skeleton Crew by Stephen King 📚 Working my way through the backlog of Stephen King books I haven’t read (I’ve read over 50 of his books!?!). What a gifted and prolific storyteller he is!

Getting some culture today at the Phoenix Art Museum. Since moving to the area last December, we try to see something new each week on what we call our Adventure Thursdays (and eat: lunch at Welcome Diner was delicious). Any Phoenicians here with recommendations on places we should visit?

The first lesson of philosophy is that we cannot be wise about everything. We are fragments in infinity and moments in eternity; for such forked atoms to describe the universe, or the Supreme Being, must make the planets tremble with mirth. Will Durant, The Story of Civilization Volume III: Caesar …

Finished reading: The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride 📚 A good premise perhaps weakened by too many characters and side stories. The depression era setting, poor living conditions, and the horrors of racism and cruel treatment of people with disabilities felt Dickensian. McBride …

The English word lost derives from the Old Norse los, which refers to the disbanding of an army. This etymology implies that losing one’s way is less about being in the wrong place than it is about letting go of planned endeavors, and embracing surprises rather than avoiding them. Rolf Potts, The …

Finished reading: Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane 📚 Mary Pat Fennessy is one of the most compelling characters I’ve encountered in a while. She made the bleakness of the story worth it. And yes, the story is bleak! Dennis Lehane is a terrific storyteller.

Currently reading: The Age of Faith by Will Durant 📚

I’ve wanted to see the Grand Canyon for as long I could remember. I think it was a Brady Bunch episode from the early 70s that first caught my imagination. They described the canyon as mountains lying down. Last week, we drove up from Phoenix and camped on the South Rim. We took our electric …

Is there anything better in life than being the captain of your own little ship? Is there any better way to greet the day than casting off at dawn?

An Early morning departure across the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Watching the sun rise from the wheelhouse is a unique trawler life delight. Calm seas, light wind, a favorable current. Feeling especially blessed this morning.

Our first ever stern tie aboard Indiscretion here in Prideaux Haven! That was quite the experience. We learned so much about what not to do! Oh, and swear words come through loud and clear on our wireless Eartec headsets even when one member of the crew is on shore.

We’ve lived aboard Indiscretion now for 75 days. Other than the comical annoyance that anything you need is ALWAYS under or behind other awkward things that you must first haul out, life on this trawler has been amazing. And now that we’re underway, home takes on a richer meaning. In one …

We had such good intentions … We left Shilshole Marina on 6/1 with the northern reaches of British Columbia on our minds. This is the year to revisit Canada: the Sunshine Coast, The Broughtons, a slow cruise down the West Coast of Vancouver Island. We’d skip the San Juans altogether. …

Shilshole Marina on Sunday night.

Fall cruising in the Pacific Northwest brings such a variety of weather conditions. Full sun, clouds, rain, blustery winds, even hail and thunderstorms. We canceled many cruising opportunities on our sailboats when the forecast was iffy, but not anymore. This trawler provides a comfortable sanctuary …

Sometimes all it takes is a few quiet days and nights at anchor in some secluded bay. Any stress you might have brought aboard fell away in the wake of the voyage, but soon you rediscover a deeper level of relaxation and peace that you only seem to find on a boat. You slip into that easily misplaced …

Back to reality: the lawn needs mowing, the deck needs pressure washing, the bills need paying … but a part of me is still afloat, feeling the gentle sway and rock, marveling at the colors and hush of twilight on a boat in the islands.

I can’t tell you how lucky I feel to be adventuring with this beautiful woman. She’s been putting up with me for almost 25 years, raising children, managing a career, and making the best of the challenges in life. Through it all it seems like she’s always smiling. I snapped this …

It’s that moment before a cruise when you sit back and consider. Everything is stowed. We have more food than we will likely have a chance to eat. My maintenance list is checked off. The engine room check just now was fine. All systems are go. The boat is literally tugging at her lines to go. …

We said goodbye to this young man this morning and have started our drive back home - 1,400 miles away. Every parent must face this, but holy smokes this was hard. Felt like a punch in the gut to walk out of that dorm room. It’s a new chapter for all of us and I know I should be excited, but …

What an amazing Father’s Day present! MV Indiscretion at anchor captured by the amazing artist (and my niece!) Sara Breen. Whoa!

These two. My pride and joy. What amazing adults they have become, right before my eyes. In the midst of this pandemic with the whole world out of balance, they are both set to achieve big milestones in their lives without the fanfare they deserve. Connor, a high school graduate bound for the …

Our Nordhavn trawler can take us to incredibly remote parts of the world. But what if something breaks down so far away from everything? I’ve spent most my life believing that outsourcing tasks to experts is the best model for life. Shoot, I even lead the strategy function of a multi-billion …

There is nothing so magical and comforting as the wheelhouse of a trawler at night. Words fail. Pictures can’t capture it. The gentle rocking, the warm light, the sense of adventure and impending expedition, the saltwater soaking into already salty veins. Some people spend their whole lives …

With all our usual park trails now off limits, Franklin and I have taken to the backroads of Vashon for our daily constitutional. I am reminded that most of this island could be considered one giant park, andI feel especially thankful to call this our home in times like these. On today’s five …

This for me is what’s great about boating. Anchored in a small bay surrounded by wilderness, birdsong, cackling geese, a faint cooling breeze. Far, far away from bustle and strife. Fellow boaters passing by in dinghies with smiles and waves. A sense of shared fraternity that we all found this …

Luana Beach Road. Or maybe the Shire.

Not many sailing nights like this left this year. Beautiful moon. Feeling blessed.

I’ve been playing baseball with Connor since he was five years old. First tossing baseballs underhanded into a tiny red mitt, later playing catch out in the yard, most every night in the summer. A couple years ago we started a Sunday routine of taking a bucket of baseballs up to the high …

Downwind sailing