Book notes

Reading

These are the books I am actively reading.

• The Three-Body Problem, Liu Cixin, which is very interesting so far even though it’s taking me many nights to finish it. I should read it during the day sometime!
• Being, by Zach Ellis, a very short memoir “that works to put into words what it is to be transgender”. I think I got this in Seattle at The Elliot Bay Book Compan several years ago. I’m glad to finally be reading it.
• Bright Magic, by Alfred Döblin, which I picked up in Berlin after reading and enjoying his Berlin Alexanderplatz before WordCamp Europe in 2019. I mentioned a passage from one of the stories, Astralia, in last week’s note.

Less actively reading

I’m always “reading” a dozen books, some of which I haven’t actually touched in months. These I’ve at least opened at some point in the last month or are collections that I’m working through slowly.

• The Long Fall, Walter Mosley, is on hold until I finish The Three-Body Problem for book club.
• Hamlet, William Shakespeare, is on hold as well.
• English Magic, Uschi Gatward
• Complete Short Stories, Graham Greene
• The Stinging Fly, Issue 46, Volume Two
• How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America, Clint Smith

Recently finished

• The Coaching Habit, by Michael Bungay Stanier, had some great tips. We’ll see if I can put any into practice without rereading it.

On deck

• The Storyteller, by Dave Grohl, is still on the nightstand.
• Lean Inception, by Paulo Caroli, remains on the breakfast/lunch table.

Added to the long list

These are the books I’ve run into over the two weeks and added to some sort of “to one day read” list that is ever growing and will never shrink.

• Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe
• Giovanni’s Room, James Baldwin
• Sultana’s Dream, Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain
• The Startup Wife, Tahmima Anam
• The Elephant in the Universe: Our Hundred-Year Search for Dark Matter, Govert Schilling
• The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze and Other Stories, William Saroyan
• Waiting for the Barbarians, J.M. Coetzee