April 2024

2024-04-04

🐍 Demon Copperhead

I used Libby to listen to Barbara Kingsolver's recent novel about growing up in western VA, the foster system and drug addiction
It's very bleak and made me curious to know more about the Purdue Pharma scandal; these articles look good: https://www.pulitzer.org/winners/eric-eyre

🪁 The Autobiography of Ben Franklin

I'm listening to this now. I think I had to read excerpts from this back in high school!
"sometimes a speckled axe is best" -- BF's tale of the man who wants his axe honed to the point that it shines, but the smith requires him to turn the wheel himself. I think BF is saying that some people can't put in the effort and instead convince themselves that "speckled is best" .. and he himself admits that his quest for perfect morals left him feeling this way
access to books was a huge thing for him in his youth, and later he wrote Poor Richard's Almanac as a kind of civic good, a way to spread knowledge to the masses, and he took pride that it was a perennial bestseller and sometimes the only book people owned

⛵ Hornblower IV

🇮🇪 Claire Keegan's Foster

🖋️ Prime Gaps

🎨 The Principles of Uncertainty

I've been reading Maira Kalman's second (?) book as a quasi-story book for the baby, it meanders but I don't think baby minds
the colors are truly great!

🌅 Waking Up

Sam Harris's book, reminiscent in several parts to The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat.
I'm enjoying the breakdown of different Buddhist practices and his discussion on gurus.
I also love the work on the mind as a filter, something I think he discussed on Very Bad Wizards
"Charity, community, ritual and the contemplative life" -- things to embrace

this project looks great, I have ukulele notes on paper, on youtube, google keep..really all over the place, would love to consolidate them!
or even contribute to an open source songbook in this format

just an amazing montage zooming into the nebula, compiled from Euclid + Hubble + Webb imagery