book

Finished reading: I enjoyed My Effin' Life by Geddy Lee more than I expected. A great testament to hard working, talented friends. Also a great excuse to revisit Rush’s music. I’d missed their last few albums and it was a pleasant surprise to discover them📚

Finished reading: Although I’m far from having a crisis, I’m well into midlife. So, Midlife by Kieran Setiya was a powerful book.

I could relate, when Setiya describes what he expects to feel after he finishes writing the book:

If experience is anything to go by, the hole will be filled soon enough. There will be another project: a class to teach, a book to read, an article to write. I will move on. But the movement is like running on a treadmill. Life is a succession of projects, each one left behind, their numbers slowly adding up. What the future holds is only more of the achievements, and the failures, that make up my past. It will differ only in quantity from the life I have already lived, a mere accumulation of deeds.

I won’t spoil the outcome. Suffice it to say that this book has lots of good advice, written clearly and with humour.

Setiya also has a good session on Waking Up.

📚

📚 These Wheel of Time books are long! I only got 1/3 of the way through The Shadow Rising before the library loan ended

Finished reading: The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury is rather strange. Some really lovely, poetic passages about the tranquility and beauty of Mars, coupled with buffoonish characters from Earth. I totally get this could be intentional, though it is jarring 📚

Finished reading: Against the Grain by James C. Scott is a really interesting exploration of the links between agriculture and state building. Definitely changed my mind about early state formation 📚

Finished reading: I’ll admit that I was hesitant to read Mistborn: Secret History by Brandon Sanderson. The original Mistborn trilogy came to a satisfying end for me and I knew that reading this book would open up to the whole Cosmere universe. I’ve simply decided that I don’t need to be a completionist. And, I’m glad, because this was a fun story that paired well with the trilogy 📚

Finished reading: American Moonshot by Douglas Brinkley. I’ve read several books about the Apollo missions, all of them focused on the science and engineering. This book is a fascinating look at the politics and JFK’s indispensable leadership. 🚀📚

Non-default apps

As a follow up to my list of default apps, I have a few non-default apps that weren’t on the original list from Hemispheric Views. 🏃‍♂️Fitness: As I wrote about recently, I use HealthFit (mostly) instead of Apple Fitness 🧘 Meditation: Waking Up, instead of Mindfulness 📓 Journal: Doesn’t count yet, since Apple hasn’t released their journalling app. Soon, though, DayOne instead of the default 📚 Books: Libby instead of Apple Books, mostly because of the public library integration 🎸 Listen later: MusicBox instead of the Apple Music library

Continue reading →

Finished reading: The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson is fun. A nice break from the epic storytelling of the previous series. The Sherlock Holmes meets Western lawman vibe fits in well with the allomancy 📚

Finished reading: I really enjoyed Hands of Time by Rebecca Struthers. Although notionally about mechanical watches, there’s also interesting ideas about time, building things by hand, and focusing on what really matters.

The book also resurrected an internal debate about the Apple Watch vs mechanical watches. For now, I’m going to take this as inspiration to reconsider my watch faces 📚

Finished reading: Blue Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson finishes the remarkable trilogy. Robinson’s meticulous detail (though occasionally overwhelming) really brings Mars to life, along with compelling characters and ideas. Although I sympathize with the “reds”, I think the series ended appropriately 📚