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My list of what I've read. Everything goes in here, even the embarrasing stuff. That way I, (hopefully), don't get duplicates as gifts, and eventually I can be proud of my long list.
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Time for an escape. The Whistler was enjoyable, maybe not as much as something like Sycamore Row, but I have yet to read a truly bad John Grisham novel.
But, I looked at some of the discussion questions at the end of the book and they started to poke some holes in the way some relationships developed over the course of the book. It would be a good exercise to start writing out answers to any discussion points provided by the publisher. It might make me a more critical reader.
Funny lights you see behind your eyes when they’re closed real tight.
I was worried that I was the only person that sees those. They help me fall asleep. Apparently Dan Harris sees them too.
The idea of exercising my mind is interesting, and meditation seems is a common thread among many successful people. 10% Happier seems tis a good introduction to the concept of mindfulness meditation that has its roots in Buddhism. I’ve tried meditation in the past using the Headspace app and 10% Happier got me interested again. Interestingly, even though Dan Harris starts out agnostic, and 10% Happier made me more interested in the “woo-woo” side of meditation. I’ll have to do some more reading.
After some history books it was time for the future. Since the future is unwritten, it was time for fiction. The Martian was pretty great. I like Mark, and he was able to surprise me throughout the book. Other than being left behind on Mars he was pretty lucky. At one point, when he thinks he’s really going to be able to go home, he talks about how it’ll be strange to heave his home, and I thought, “oh no, here comes the PTSD.”
Every time I read a story of survival I’m amazed at what people can put up with and still come out the other side. Unbroken is both a biography and a story of survival. Louis Zamperini’s pre-war life is amazing enough: he was an uncontrollable kid born to an immigrant family, the town troublemaker turned star olympic athlete, and even thief of a flag from Hitler’s house, (a little bit of the troublemaker stuck around).
During the war Zamperini’s bomber had to ditch into the Pacific, but he survived the crash then he and his pilot set a record for time alive in a rubber raft before ending up in the Japanese POW system. Louis seemed to be able to adapt to whatever environment he was in: School, the Army Air Force, a raft, POW camps, and eventually home, (which might have been the toughest). During the war, at least, he made sure to prepare himself for any possible situation, especially the possibility of having to survive at sea, by learning as much as possible.
Unbroken was published in 2010. It may be one of the last great biographies of the greatest generation, and the last war stories that relies on first-hand accounts. In writing Unbroken Laura Hillenbrand was able to interview many of the people featured in the book. By the time the book was published most of those survivors were gone, today I believe they all are.
This isn’t the first environmental book I have read, so there wasn’t a ton of material that I hadn’t already read or heard somewhere, but Give a Sh*t is an easy read, and it’s been a while since I read many of those other books so this was a good reminder how little some of what we do makes sense.
Ms. Piper is a strong believer in veganism yet maintains an encouraging attitude of “do as much as you can” throughout the book without coming across as judgemental as many proponents of veganism do. I had forgotten just how much of a climate change impact animal production has on the world, and while I enjoy a good BLT it should be a luxury, not my staple diet. Give a Sh*t got me thinking more about the food we eat, and the way animal-based food production has changed over the past century makes me angry. Yes, we get more food output per food input than we did a hundred years ago, but we have externalized so much of food production that it’s not a true comparison. At one point animals were a part of a full system on a farm: they are able to dispose of by-products of grain and vegetable production, provide nutritious food, (especially at times of the year when we might be running out of plant-based food), and make fertilizer that helps grow grains and vegetables. The modern food production system has turned this on its head: we use synthetic fertilizers to grow grains to feed animals, then have to dispose of their “by-products” somehow. By prioritizing meat and dairy society has taken what should be a self-reinforcing system of production and turned it into something with many inputs and externalities. The concept of “oil needed to produce a pound of beef” seems wrong, yet it is something measurable.
From an animal welfare side we have mucked up the system as well. Eating meat means killing animals, and eating dairy means taking milk that should probably be going to a baby animal, and we can choose how we feel about eating those products. But eggs are a by-product of a hen’s life. Hens don’t need roosters to produce eggs, and eating an egg doesn’t have to mean we’re snuffing out a potential life. On the 100-years-ago farm chickens would eat bugs & leftovers around the farm, and we would get tasty eggs as a by-product. Today egg-laying hens are caged indoors for their entire lives in horrible little boxes, so a formerly a guilt-free delicious food has become something that causes animal abuse.
Back to the book: Ms. Piper goes through great ways to live well without having a huge impact on the world, and her lists of brands that offer Give a Sh*t compatible products seem like a great resource.