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I want to be able to read books. Trust me, I do. It will help me get even better as a writer ā to cultivate my already strong ability. But it is increasingly hard for me to finish them. I am halfway through Moby Dick, and like fifty pages through Emma Clineās The Guest. Somehow, I can only finish The Jordan Rules, a spectacular book about Michael Jordan being a maniac and the quest for a championship by the 1990-1991 Bulls. (I highly recommend it. Sam Smith is a great sportswriter). For some reason, my brain doesnāt have enough discipline. My friend Naomi thinks āIām just a young man figuring out art and lifeā, but I want to be able to read. The infamous How Long Gone podcast believes that it is thirsty to read, and I honestly donāt disagree with Mr. Black and Mr. Stewart, but it is objectively a good thing to be able to read. Kanye didnāt read, and look what happened to him. He literally got dumber and more mentally ill as the years went on. So, I recommend fake reading. At least, the ten pages a day you read will allow you to feel like you read something. Articles arenāt enough: fake read a book, and youāll do your community service for a day.
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not an avid reader (~3-4 books / year, trying to get that number up) but the things that have really invigorated my reading when it feels like a chore to get started:
- reading books that arenāt challenging to start off. all about love and the will to change by bell hooks were the first books i was able to successfully finish in like, years bc her writing style is very colloquial despite the subject matter being very dense. similarly, finding a fun fantasy book (or other genre fiction) to get back in the practice of turning pages and āwanting to find out what comes nextā is gonna be paramount to being able to do that for books that are gonna require a little more give from you down the line (havenāt read a physical book in over six months so personally going to start legends and lattes soon to try and trick my brain into not thinking books are time-consuming and scary)
- audiobooks; for me at least reading requires too much visual processing + āsitting stillā time that i canāt multi-task and read, so i have to schedule when iām gonna try and do it (unlike tv where you can have it on in the background as you do dishes or working from home or something and can look up periodically) - taking a chunk of podcast + music time and replacing it with audiobooks has been a game changer bc i now read at the gym, at the office, and in transit <30 min long bc i have to track what station iām at or see where iām going
Mar 28, 2024
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I like to pretend Iām a learned citizen who only enjoys quality literary fiction, but many times a book a few steps down from that is what I really enjoy. I stay focused on an easier book because thereās more plot and the pages go faster.
You might practice meditation, too. It will train you to notice when your mind wanders and help you get it back on track
Feb 9, 2025
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Iām always worried that Iām not reading enough or not reading the right things. Creating a set of laws about how and what I read that has no relationship to my immediate impulses or desires helps me feel like Iām making progress through everything I want to absorb. For the past four years itās looked like this:
Iām always reading three books: one novel, one non-fiction book thatās mostly about information I want to learn about, and one collection of short stories or essays.
I read 50 pages of the novel. Then 50 pages of non-fiction. Then 50 pages of novel. Then 50 pages of the collection. Even if Iām really engrossed, I switch after 50 pages.
Maybe this sounds psychotic but it works for me and makes sure a more challenging read doesnāt bog me down.
I also have a system about when I read a book I just bought and when I read a book Iāve had for a long time and when I read a book thatās old and when I read a book that was written right nowā¦. yikes
Anything to keep the anxiety at bay
Jan 16, 2024
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I'm often accused of being an "old soul", a categorization I vehemently dislike because it pretends as if my taste is because of nostalgia, as opposed to what is actually cool and compelling. (If something cool comes out now, I enjoy it, but we're in a down period when it comes to culture). But, something old about me, is that I do not care at all about TikTok ending, if does happen. If Elon takes it over from the Chinese, you might as well leave anyway, but I'm just worried at why this is a huge deal for people. It's just an app. Another one will be made. TikTok is not culture, it directly flattens culture into these ten second clips that take music, movies --- things that you need to process --- into something that is now consumed by everyone at a rapid pace, not allowing for the nuances, the style, the aesthetics to sit with us.
I have never watched something on TikTok and thought that this is something in that pushing American culture to deeper heights. I am sorry. Now I am sure they're good stuff on the app, but it's not really a necessity. Whenever I hear the words "it's blowing up on TikTok", my mind immediately growls.
I understood why X becoming overrun with Elon bots and right wingers is a big deal; X actually created things, made careers, made American life, and American events available to be seen by everyone. However, TikTok is a corrupt fantasy, chopping at the wires that make physical connection important.
Read a book! Go to the movies! Go to the restaurant of a cuisine that is unheralded, go to a baseball game. Who cares about TikTok?
Jan 14, 2025
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There's something quite startling about Martin Scorsese's 1980's period compared to the rest of his decades as one of America's greatest filmmakers. In the 80's, he was weird, strange, and making weirdly manic films that feel more New York than even some of his movies about the mob. They're movies about characters who aren't glamarous people that they want to be, but rather, are losers who can't seem to correctly fucntion in normal society. They're non-violent sociopaths. I saw The King of Comedy at Metrograph recently, and it's exhilarating, hilarious, manic, and scary. With Jerry Lewis, Bobby De Niro and Sandra Bernhard, Scorsese was able to create a world where incels who are bad at comedy are wishing for fame. Sound familiar?
This is a great movie. In 1983, it was a box office flop. But in 2025, it is magical in how it's telling the future. A future of scam artists who don't want to work to get there, and don't want to sit in their mediocrity: they want to steal to get their fifteen seconds. Go watch this masterpiece.
Jan 28, 2025
It's a perfect movie. It's almost too perfect. The fashion, the look on Cate's face when Theresa (Rooney Mara) is walking to her at the end, the line reading of "ask me things, please"; the fact that men are the joke throughout the movie.
It makes me wonder about representation and the limits of it because of how womanly and queer this movie is, despite the fact that it never feels like a movie made for women. It's just a great movie.
Feb 13, 2025