6 things worth sharing this weekend (8/24/24)
book bedfellows, movies should make sense, if AI wrote this, what would it mean to be done for the day + notes on what i'm reading/watching/listening
On my way home from vacation which means a stop in Nashville, and it’s always nice to see your book on a friend’s shelf. Next to Zadie Smith & Steinbeck no less!
Gotta love semi-alpha order.
Because of the aforementioned trip, I’ve mostly had my head in books not articles, but here are a few:
1. What would it mean to be done for the day? The Imperfectionist (via the excellent newsletter)
When you finish writing a book and move to the part where you’re trying to spread the word about it, you swap one kind of battle with overwhelm for another. Instead of grappling with one big, daunting project, and wondering if you can pull it off, you’ve now got endless little tasks demanding your attention, and you wonder how you’ll possibly get through enough of them. All of which is to say that this has been a good moment to remind myself of a question I think almost everyone could do with asking themselves each morning: “What would it mean to be done for the day?”
2. What makes a book a bestseller? It’s tricky. At The Conversation.
A book can claim “bestselling” status after one week on a list. Similarly, an author can be called a “New York Times bestselling author” for life if they have written a book that appeared on the list for just one week…But books can sell well over different time frames. There are “fast sellers” – that is, those with large short-term sales. There are “bestsellers” with large long-term sales. And there are “steady sellers”, which have moderate sales over a longer period of time.
3. Pros & cons of dating a writer. At Lit Hub
Funny list!
Here’s a sample:
Pro: The birthday cards you get from a writer will be very touching.
Con: You won’t be able to attend a wedding without hearing a writer’s catty and judgmental notes on wedding speeches and vows.
Pro: You’ll never want for great suggestions for what book to read next.
Con: You’re going to have to hear a lot about the book a writer recommends to you, and there will be many follow-up conversations about it.
4. How to tell if AI wrote this. At Lifehacker.
AI content has a few tells, look for:
delve
underscore
testament
mosaic, tapestry
Also, the style
5. Perhaps movies should make sense by Freddie deBoer
it’s definitely the case that the plots of even the best movies often can’t survive a great deal of artificial scrutiny, and choosing to be a pedant about narrative sense is tiresome and unhelpful. But movies have to work to establish a basic level of story credibility to earn our appreciation. Otherwise you might as well watch stock footage, right?
6. From the archive: 9 quick thoughts on moving to NYC
I moved to NYC a year ago
I’ll probably write more about one year later after I get back to the city
Notes on reading/watching/listening
As I mentioned, I’m staying at a friend’s house over the weekend and it’s always cool to see books others have around (besides your own)
Like, this Zits comics anthology:
And they organize their books in alpha order, which in a small library makes some interesting bedfellows.
I really liked this run of Hugh Howey to Jack Kerouac:
BTW, I’ve read most everything by Kerouac, but I don’t think I’ve read Desolation Angels.
I’ll take a look at that.
Reading:
(More on these books in last week’s notes)
Still reading: “On The Edge” by Nate Silver (also audiobook)
heavy gambling breakdowns
Then he moves on to risk
Still reading: “Wellness” by Nathan Hill
Moving into a lot about placebo effects
And broken relationships
One of the main characters in the book is an art teacher and he mentions “Prairie on Fire” at the top of this newsletter
Lots of good parts deconstructing modern image making, as the character is a flailing photographer, a few of the characters aren’t living up to their instagram-displayed lives, and then a lot about the artifice of meaning making through new condo developments
Started: “Notes from the Underground” by Dostoevsky
I have never read this before
I enjoy the commentary on others writings and ideas with references I don’t know
My wife asked me what it was like and I said “ruminations, almost like an old-school blog”
I like fiction like this, like a mix of autofiction and cultural commentary
Watching:
Finished: “Stranger Things 4” on Netflix
Was a bit disappointed in this, but I’m glad I finished it.
Stakes seemed a bit lower, the multiple timelines and sets were a bit much
Listening:
Keep going-
Josh Spilker
Thanks for the article about the history of bestseller lists. New to me was Amazon's "most read" category.