June 2024

  • The Cool Impossible: The Coach from “Born to Run” Shows How to Get the Most from Your Miles—and from Yourself – Eric Orton, 2013. I haven’t yet read Born to Run, but this book was recommended for improving foot strength. Reviewers warned that you have to slog through a second-person story of a week “you” spend with Orton in Jackson Hole, and they were right… which means that most of the pages are kind of tedious, but the fundamental program seems awesome. I have already started doing slow runs only breathing through my nose, I bought a slant board, and I intend to work on the heart rate training, sugar detox, and other exercises.
  • Captains Courageous – Rudyard Kipling, 1897. Re-read because our current Amherst College slow-read book is Moby Dick, and the long sea voyage reminded me of this all-time favorite.
  • Ruined By Reading: A Life in Books – Lynne Sharon Schwartz, 1996. I think this was pushed at me when I was looking for the amazing The Child That Books Built. I enjoyed it, especially because Schwartz’s favorite book as a kid was The Secret Princess, which I also love, but the book overall didn’t really stick with me.
  • My Russian Grandmother and Her American Vacuum Cleaner: A Family Memoir – Meir Shalev (tr. Evan Fallenberg), 2009. Second Monday choice; quote dump TBD.
  • Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law – Mary Roach, 2021. Nature/Environment selection; quote dump TBD.
  • Pnin – Vladimir Nabokov, 1957. Re-read with the friend group that started with Proust. Quote dump TBD.
  • Fathers and Sons – Ivan Turgenev (tr. Constance Garnett), 1862. Great Books; quote dump TBD.
  • Poor Charlie’s Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger – Charles Munger, 2023 (3rd abridged edition). Comments got long so I’m working on a full post for this one.
  • The Princess Bride – William Goldman, 1973. Center for the Book reading challenge: “A book that inspired a film or television series.” I actually didn’t love this; I liked it OK, same as the movie, and they’re pretty-good-not-great in different ways. My submission: “Interesting to finally read the source for the classic movie, especially Goldman’s additional framing of trying to a source a copy for his kid and editing what we supposedly are reading. The movie is a very faithful adaptation, but some aspects of character development are better as a novel.”