Books I'm Currently Reading
Ranging from the popular '70s band fallout drama to an introspective journey through the Himalayas.
Published November 10, 2024
This week, I know I will either not touch a book or inhale thirty within about six days.
God, I love to read. Weeks like this one remind me how books just ground me and provide meaning, and they are both the solace that returns me to myself and the expansion method that gets me to see the world as just a little bit bigger and brighter. I never feel like myself unless I'm reading (and blogging, truthfully, so I feel so much better with this blog up and running again.)
I'm currently in the middle of quite a few nonfiction picks, so definitely want to wrap some of them up and feel like a winner there.
The Confidence Game by Maria Konnikova
Release Date: January 10, 2017
Publisher: Penguin Books
Format: Paperback
Source: Bookshop
Think you can't get conned? Think again. The New York Times bestselling author of Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes explains how to spot the con before they spot you.
"[An] excellent study of Con Artists, stories & the human need to believe" -Neil Gaiman, via Twitter
A compelling investigation into the minds, motives, and methods of con artists--and the people who fall for their cons over and over again.
While cheats and swindlers may be a dime a dozen, true conmen--the Bernie Madoffs, the Jim Bakkers, the Lance Armstrongs--are elegant, outsized personalities, artists of persuasion and exploiters of trust. How do they do it? Why are they successful? And what keeps us falling for it, over and over again? These are the questions that journalist and psychologist Maria Konnikova tackles in her mesmerizing new book.
From multimillion-dollar Ponzi schemes to small-time frauds, Konnikova pulls together a selection of fascinating stories to demonstrate what all cons share in common, drawing on scientific, dramatic, and psychological perspectives. Insightful and gripping, the book brings readers into the world of the con, examining the relationship between artist and victim. The Confidence Game asks not only why we believe con artists, but also examines the very act of believing and how our sense of truth can be manipulated by those around us.
The Confidence Game was the first nonfiction book I can ever remember being really, really into. I devoured it in the summer of 2019 and kicked off an entire reading list about unconscious biases (like The Art of Thinking Clearly), con men (like Hype: How Scammers, Grifters, and Con Artists Are Taking Over the Internet—and Why We're Following), and other psychological topics.
Maria Konnikova's writing style is clear, in-depth, and funny enough to feel voicey. She herself is also a wicked poker champion, so I want to read her memoir, The Biggest Bluff, at one point too. Still, reading this one felt overdue because I remember how competent I felt after finishing it for the first time, and I could use a dose of that medicine.
Related reads: The Biggest Bluff by Maria Konnikova; The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality by Amanda Montell; The Art of Thinking Clearly by Rolf Dobelli; Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyou; Hype: How Scammers, Grifters, and Con Artists Are Taking Over the Internet—and Why We're Following by Gabrielle Bluestone.
Filterworld: How Algorithms Flattened Culture by Kyle Chayka
Release Date: January 16, 2024
Publisher: Doubleday Books
Format: Hardcover
Source: Bookshop
"[Filterworld] is about how algorithms changed culture...[Chayka asks] what is taste? What is a sense of aesthetics? And what happens to it when it collides with the homogenizing digital reality in which we now live."--Ezra Klein
From trendy restaurants to city grids, to TikTok and Netflix feeds the world round, algorithmic recommendations dictate our experiences and choices. The algorithm is present in the familiar neon signs and exposed brick of Internet cafes, be it in Nairobi or Portland, and the skeletal, modern furniture of Airbnbs in cities big and small. Over the last decade, this network of mathematically determined decisions has taken over, almost unnoticed--informing the songs we listen to, the friends with whom we stay in touch--as we've grown increasingly accustomed to our insipid new normal.
This ever-tightening web woven by algorithms is called "Filterworld." Kyle Chayka shows us how online and offline spaces alike have been engineered for seamless consumption, becoming a source of pervasive anxiety in the process. Users of technology have been forced to contend with data-driven equations that try to anticipate their desires--and often get them wrong. What results is a state of docility that allows tech companies to curtail human experiences--human lives--for profit. But to have our tastes, behaviors, and emotions governed by computers, while convenient, does nothing short of call the very notion of free will into question.
In Filterworld, Chayka traces this creeping, machine-guided curation as it infiltrates the furthest reaches of our digital, physical, and psychological spaces. With algorithms increasingly influencing not just what culture we consume, but what culture is produced, urgent questions arise: What happens when shareability supersedes messiness, innovation, and creativity--the qualities that make us human? What does it mean to make a choice when the options have been so carefully arranged for us? Is personal freedom possible on the Internet?
To the last question, Filterworld argues yes--but to escape Filterworld, and even transcend it, we must first understand it.
Frankly, I've been in the middle of this one for forever. As a writer on the Internet, algorithms currently run my life a little, and we're seeing the reverberations of algorithmic-tailored behavior run rampant through the rest of Internet culture and even real-life interactions. I read a lot about scrolling and digital minimalism and the aesthetics of identity formation and sure, the performance of visibility online, but I also love reading about the ways algorithms run our taste. I do worry some that I can't "discover" things in the organic way I used to (and frequently bemoan how "Best Sellers Sell Because They're Best Sellers") even if those methods were never fully organic either, but rather selected by tastemakers. Still, I think it's generally a good thing to interrogate your consumption practices and to evaluate how we're dictating access to information on a broader level. It's a bit difficult to get through, but I obviously find the subject matter interesting.
Related reads: Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology by Adam Alter; You May Also Like: Taste in an Age of Endless Choice by Tom Vanderbilt; The Influential Mind: What the Brain Reveals About Our Ability to Influence Others by Tali Sharot; The Sea We Swim In: How Stories Work in a Data-Driven World by Frank Rose; No Filter: The Inside Story of Instagram by Sarah Frier.
Daisy Jones & the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Release Date: February 4, 2020
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Format: eBook
Source: Library
Everyone knows DAISY JONES & THE SIX, but nobody knows the reason behind their split at the absolute height of their popularity . . . until now.
Daisy is a girl coming of age in L.A. in the late sixties, sneaking into clubs on the Sunset Strip, sleeping with rock stars, and dreaming of singing at the Whisky a Go Go. The sex and drugs are thrilling, but it's the rock 'n' roll she loves most. By the time she's twenty, her voice is getting noticed, and she has the kind of heedless beauty that makes people do crazy things.
Also getting noticed is The Six, a band led by the brooding Billy Dunne. On the eve of their first tour, his girlfriend Camila finds out she's pregnant, and with the pressure of impending fatherhood and fame, Billy goes a little wild on the road.
Daisy and Billy cross paths when a producer realizes that the key to supercharged success is to put the two together. What happens next will become the stuff of legend.
The making of that legend is chronicled in this riveting and unforgettable novel, written as an oral history of one of the biggest bands of the seventies. Taylor Jenkins Reid is a talented writer who takes her work to a new level with Daisy Jones & The Six, brilliantly capturing a place and time in an utterly distinctive voice.
I read my first TJR book this spring, and Malibu Rising was refreshing. Each of her books that I've read has a very singular voice to me, with a mix of overall tension buoyed by a breezy, almost beachy setting. I was saving Daisy Jones for a rainy day, and eventually sat down to devour the entire eight-episode show over a series of long flights. (My style also leans heavily towards '70s influences, so I loved every single outfit the characters wore throughout the show.)
The synopsis is accurate in that Daisy Jones seems to capture the flavor of that particular place and time. The character specificity is also phenomenal, because the cast is all made up of some very flawed people, none of whom are entirely in the right.
Show-wise, I have some thoughts about the narrative choices, and in book clubbing with my friend Jane, who works at Reese's Book Club, definitely wanted to read the book and know which way I leaned. Normally, I'd go in reverse order but in this case, I actually think watching the mockumentary show was helpful in understanding and getting the flow of the book's script-like formatting. I'm enjoying.
Related reads: The Idea of You by Robinne Lee; Famous in Love by Rebecca Serle; The Reunion by Kayla Olsen; Malibu Rising by TJR; etc,.
How to Be a Stoic: Using Ancient Philosophy to Live a Modern Life by Massimo Pigliucci
Release Date: May 8, 2018
Publisher: Basic Books
Format: eBook
Source: Library
A philosopher asks how ancient Stoicism can help us flourish today. Whenever we worry about what to eat, how to love, or simply how to be happy, we are worrying about how to lead a good life. No goal is more elusive. In How to Be a Stoic, philosopher Massimo Pigliucci offers Stoicism, the ancient philosophy that inspired the great emperor Marcus Aurelius, as the best way to attain it. Stoicism is a pragmatic philosophy that focuses our attention on what is possible and gives us perspective on what is unimportant. By understanding Stoicism, we can learn to answer crucial questions: Should we get married or divorced? How should we handle our money in a world nearly destroyed by a financial crisis? How can we survive great personal tragedy? Whoever we are, Stoicism has something for us--and How to Be a Stoic is the essential guide.
In general, I am skeptical of any philosophy-based book that's phrased like an instruction manual. The self-help ethos is one I could generally do without. I may have to go back and read the initial manifestos, but this could be a good primer because I long to be a stoic.
Unfortunately, as a writer, my medium is human emotion. The downside is that I feel, and I'm hopeful to one day not. While I love being existential and generally parsing for meaning in a world of threads and narratives, I do think sometimes that the rise in therapy speak and interior analysis can generally be summed up by the occasionally-viral Internet moment: "I think you might be thinking of yourself too much." When things get hard, it's likely best to get out of your head, commit to a discipline, and let thoughts follow action.
(I do subscribe to a traditional ideal of strength as being the ability to buckle down, suppress, and get it all done even when you're hurt.) Hence: stoicism. Maybe reading this will make me a more capable person.
The Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiessen
Release Date: October 1, 2008 (originally 1978)
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Format: eBook
Source: Library
In 1973, Peter Matthiessen and field biologist George Schaller traveled high into the remote mountains of Nepal to study the Himalayan blue sheep and possibly glimpse the rare and beautiful snow leopard. Matthiessen, a student of Zen Buddhism, was also on a spiritual quest to find the Lama of Shey at the ancient shrine on Crystal Mountain. As the climb proceeds, Matthiessen charts his inner path as well as his outer one, with a deepening Buddhist understanding of reality, suffering, impermanence, and beauty. This Penguin Classics edition features an introduction by acclaimed travel writer and novelist Pico Iyer.
Speaking of externalizing, I was in the middle of The Snow Leopard for a while. For one, as a travel writer, I'm sympathetic to the idea of a place (in this case, the Himalayas) being a catalyst for these sorts of internal reflections. For another, meditations on suffering, beauty, and impermanence are always relevant. Much to chew on with this one, but need to be further in for more developed thoughts. I'll try to finish it shortly.
