The site My Morning Routine asked me some questions about how I get my day started, and encouraged me to repost the answers here. Please note that this post is not intended to be prescriptive, but simply descriptive, a la Daily Rituals.
My reading year, 2014
I read over 70+ books this year, a personal record. (Here’s how.)
In no particular order, here are 20 personal favorites…
Roz Chast, Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant?
The perfect blend of subject matter (dealing with aging parents), an artist at the top of her game, and audience (boomers dealing with aging parents, millennials watching their parents deal with aging parents, etc.) For everyone with parents.
Brian K. Vaughn and Fiona Staples, Saga
A book about parenting disguised as an intergalactic space epic. Especially great for new parents, and a perfect reason to visit your local comic book shop.
P.G. Wodehouse, Right Ho, Jeeves
No book made me laugh more this year. An absolute delight. If you’ve never read Wodehouse, this is where to start.
Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain, Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk
Trashy, gross, and awesome. For the snot-nosed punk in your life.
Carl Wilson, Let’s Talk About Love: A Journey to the End of Taste
What is taste? Why do we hold things in good or bad taste? Recently repackaged and reissued with extra essays from other authors, I recommend the original 33 1/3 version. (My highlights.)
John Green, The Fault In Our Stars
A “YA’ book supposedly for teenagers, recommended to me, believe it or not, by a middle-aged man, that made me cry on two separate plane flights.
Ken Grimwood, Replay
What would happen if you got to live your life over? A dark precursor to Groundhog Day.
Denis Johnson, Train Dreams
A short dream-like novella, perfect for reading in one long sitting.
Mo’ Meta Blues: The World According To Questlove
Worth reading just for the playlist it’ll generate, but also for Questlove’s encyclopedic musical knowledge and thoughts on art-making and show business.
John Williams, Stoner
Every person I talk to about this book says the same thing:Why is it so good? It shouldn’t be so good. The prose is so clear and the story so streamlined that it just goes by. Definitely one I’ll be re-reading.
Neil Gaiman, The Sandman (complete series)
Very rich, and definitely a series I’ll be re-reading. The writing is mostly better than the art, which is downright spotty and confusing in spots (except for McKean’s consistently brilliant covers). A classic for a reason.
Paul Zollo, Songwriters on Songwriting
The title says it all: tons of interviews with great songwriters. Perfect for songwriters, duh, but also great for any writer, as many interviews dive into the creative process.
Bob Mankoff, How About Never — Is Never Good For You?: My Life In Cartoons
Mankoff writes about his history as a cartoonist, his time as cartoon editor of theNew Yorker, and how humor works. Really smart, perfect for cartoon geeks and New Yorker fans. (My highlights.)
Joshua Wolf Shenk, Powers of Two
A great exploration of creative duos and a terrific antidote to the lone genius myth. I got to interview Josh at the Texas Book Festival and we really hit it off. (See my highlights.)
Steven Johnson, How We Got To Now
Histories of key technologies that led to modern life as we know it. A great, fully illustrated, deluxe followup to his wonderful Where Good Ideas Come From.
Adam Sternbergh, Shovel Ready
Fun, terse, sci-fi hard-boiled noir. A perfect example of the kind of the book that happens when somebody sits down and writes what they want to read.
Cheryl Strayed, Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar
A memoir disguised as a book of advice columns. For anyone struggling. (Who isn’t?)
Joe Hill, NOS4A2
Creepy. Oh, so creepy. This book is crazy because around page 300 or so you realize this is usually the point where other novelists would wrap things up, and holy shit, there’s another two acts to go.
Wendy MacNaughton, Meanwhile in San Francisco
Wendy is the artist friend whose work makes me the most jealous. Beautiful book.
Lynda Barry, Syllabus – LB’s workshop syllabi collected into a book that feels like one of her students’ composition books. Perfect for teachers and wannabe writers.
And here are 20 more very good books, in no particular order (if history is precedent, and Stephanie Zacharek is right that the end of lists like this is where the “oddball magic happens,” in a few years, many of the books in my top 20 will seem dull to me later, while many of the following books will shine, and beg to be re-read):
- Shaun Usher, Letters of Note: An Eclectic Collection of Correspondence Deserving of a Wider Audience
- Thomas Harris, The Silence Of The Lambs (re-read)
- Isa Chandra Moskowitz, Isa Does It: Amazingly Easy, Wildly Delicious Vegan Recipes For Every Day Of The Week
- Peter Mendelsund, What We See When We Read
- Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
- Carl Hiassen, Basket Case
- Denis Johnson, Jesus’ Son
- Misha Glouberman with Sheila Heti, The Chairs Are Where The People Go
- Richard McGuire, Here
- Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol (re-read)
- William Styron, Darkness Visible
- Ad Reinhardt, How To Look
- David Markson, Reader’s Block
- Elmore Leonard, Swag
- Mike Monteiro, You’re My Favorite Client
- Kay Larson, Where The Heart Beats
- Eleanor Davis, How To Be Happy
- Julian Barnes, The Sense of an Ending
- Nathaniel Philbrick, In The Heart Of The Sea
- Gary Shteyngart, Little Failure
Feel free to reply to me with your favorite book(s) you read this year, or better yet, make your own post and send me the link: @austinkleon
My previous year-end round-ups: 2006-2014.
How to read more
I read 70+ books this year, a new personal record. If you’re interested in reading more, here’s what I recommend:
- Throw your phone in the ocean. (Or, keep it in airplane mode.)
- Carry a book with you at all times.
- Have another book ready before you finish the one you’re reading. (Make a stack of books to-read or load up your eReader.)
- If you aren’t enjoying a book or learning from it, stop reading it immediately. (Flinging it across the room helps give closure.)
- Schedule 1 hour of non-fiction reading during the day. (Commutes, lunch breaks, and any contained period of idle time work well.)
- Go to bed 1 hour early and read fiction. (It will help you sleep.)
- Keep a reading log and share your favorite books with others. (They will send you even more books to read.)
I posted this list on Twitter, and tweaked it based on all the responses. It was inspired by Ryan Holiday.
If you liked this post, you’ll like my books.
Above: My reading desk, designed to resemble a library study carrel.
100 things that made my year (2014)
In no particular order:
- Reading a book instead of looking at my phone.
- Not finishing books I didn’t like.
- Going for a three-mile walk every morning with my wife and son.
- Fela Kuti.
- Holding office hours instead of answering every email. (Most questions can be boiled down.) (Don’t ask.)
- The opposite of schadenfreude.
- Joan Didion on self-respect.
- Wendell Berry on divorce and putting things back together again.
- Discovering P.G. Wodehouse. Snorting and snickering and laughing out loud through Right Ho, Jeeves.
- Losing 25 pounds on VB6 and Isa Does It.
- Reading old horror novels, like Dracula and Frankenstein.
- Going to the local comic book shop to buy Saga.
- Getting huge comic book series from the library. Y: The Last Man. The Sandman.
- Signing books at BookPeople.
- Interviewing Joshua Wolf Shenk about his book, Powers of Two. Thinking about creative duos and unsung partners.
- Watching massive amounts of TV with my wife after putting the kid to bed. The Americans. Justified. Transparent. The Good Wife. Bob’s Burgers. Going Deep With David Rees. Sherlock. Game of Thrones. True Detective. Nashville. Mad Men. Masters of Sex. Hannibal. An Idiot Abroad.
- Paul Zollo’s Songwriters on Songwriting.
- Please Kill Me: The Uncensored History of Punk.
- Steve Albini on releasing art like a bird or a fart.
- Carl Wilson’s Let’s Talk About Love.
- Antonio Sanchez’s drum kit soundtrack to Birdman.
- Learning how to make an awesome paper airplane.
- Flying to San Francisco in the morning to see David Hockney’s show at the De Young and then flying home that night.
- Steal Like An Artist on ESPN. (And in the funny pages.)
- Seeing Magritte shows in three cities: at the MoMA in NYC, at the Menil in Houston, and at the Magritte museum in Brussels.
- Thee Oh Sees’ “Encrypted Bounce”
- Sasha Frere-Jones’ Perfect Recordings.
- Questlove’s Mo’ Meta Blues.
- D’Angelo’s Black Messiah.
- Old masters. Documentaries about senior citizen artists.
- Funny people talking. Joan Rivers. Harold Ramis. Bill Murray. Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. Louie. All those great Chris Rock interviews.
- Visiting the Sackners and touring their archive in Miami, Florida
- Meeting heroes. Brunch with Oliver Jeffers. Asking Ralph Steadman a question over Skype. Interviewing Stephin Merritt. Signing books with Chip Kidd. (Also: Emailing with heroes.)
- Meditating. Remembering to breathe. Trying to stay in the present.
- Not going into debt for art school. Getting out of debt completely.
- Once a day, giving yourself a present.
- Writing by hand. The handwriting of Julia Warhol and Henri Cole. How the French teach handwriting.
- Picasso drawing on vacation. Picasso drawing a chicken.
- Reading fiction as a guidebook.
- Finally learning about names you’ve heard before: Sister Corita Kent. John Cage.
- Big Boi jamming to Kate Bush. Debbie Harry cooking. Jonathan Richman dancing. Cy Twombly and his wife. Ronnie Spector.
- Giving people the hits so you can do what you want.
- Playing Andrew Bird’s Pulaski At Night for my son almost every day. Pablo Casals playing the Bach Cello Suites.
- Collages. Looking at them, making them. Jess. Deteriorating subway ads.
- Seeing how they did it, and seeing how they do it. Wayne White on Instagram. Tony Fitzpatrick on Instagram. The Song Exploder podcast. Chilly Gonzales at the piano. Lynda Barry‘s classroom tumblr and her book, Syllabus.
- Embracing selfies. Vintage selfies. Robot selfies. Vivian Maier selfies.
- Sunday sketches by Christoph Niemann. Wishing I drew more while looking at drawings by Warren Craghead, Wendy MacNaughton, Hans Hofmann, Roger Ebert, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ohara Hale, Darwin’s Children, etc.
- Cool instagram photos of my books. A horse sniffing my book. My books at the Matisse show I really wanted to go to.
- Jamaican Gold on KOOP every Sunday 12-2. Lee Perry in the recording studio. The Congos’ Heart of the Congos.
- Bob Mankoff’s How About Never — Is Never Good For You? Visiting him at the New Yorker. (Wondering if all cartoonists are crazy and laughing every time I see this cartoon.)
- Roz Chast’s Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant?
- One-star reviews that are actually kind of great.
- Watching Twitter turn to a river of slime. Wondering what Bill Hicks would think. Choosing what to be angry about.
- Working in the garage. Sorting out mise en place. Adding a third desk, dedicated to reading. Installing a 10,000 BTU air conditioner.
- Collecting interesting book dedications.
- Looking at pictures of writers writing instead of writing.
- Short books. Denis Johnson’s Train Dreams.
- Reading about depression. Feeling like the clown who went to therapy. Doing something with your depression. Not romanticizing dying young. Learning as an antidote to sadness. Snapping out of it.
- Thinking about photography. Instagram. Contact sheets. Vivian Maier’s rolls of film. Taking photos in video games. (And why does anyone care if you take a picture of the sunset?)
- Books I wrote that I can’t read.
- Re-reading books. Silence of the Lambs. A Christmas Carol. American Elf.
- Re-watching movies. Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan. Wayne’s World. Moonstruck. Withnail & I. Blade Runner: The Final Cut. Jaws. Bad Santa. Before Sunset.
- Ander Monson’s frame-by-frames of Predator. John Martz’s NxNW x Big Lebowski mashup.
- Not wanting to be famous. Not doing it for the money.
- Writing newsletters and reading newsletters. The Writer’s Almanac. Matt Thomas’s Sunday Times Digest. Maureen McHugh. Ryan Holiday. Dave Gray. Ann Friedman.
- The price of getting what you wanted.
- Watching old television performances on YouTube. James Brown on the T.A.M.I. Show. Jimi Hendrix on the Lulu show. Dire Straits on Old Grey Whistle Test.
- Boyhood. Richard Linklater.
- Kindness. The history of Otis Redding’s “Try A Little Tenderness.”
- Reading old Paris Review interviews. Adam Phillips. Mark Strand. Fran Lebowitz. Maya Angelou. Kay Ryan. Etc.
- Good novels. Ken Grimwood’s Replay. John Williams’ Stoner. Crying on two separate flights while reading John Green’s The Fault In Our Stars.
- Thinking about book design. Experimental paperbacks. Bucky Fuller’s I Seem To Be A Verb. Richard McGuire’s Here. Peter Mendelsund’s What We See When We Read. Book covers by Edward Gorey. The work of Alvin Lustig.
- Don Henley misunderstanding most of modern art history.
- Cigarette pencils.
- Keeping a notebook on book tour. Recommending books by other people on book tour. Meeting up with friends on book tour. Coming home from book tour.
- Erik Satie.
- Card games.
- Waylon Jennings’ “Rainy Day Woman.” Dolly Parton slowed down and sped up.
- The NYTimes finally doing blackout poetry.
- Future Islands on Letterman.
- Mac Demarco’s Salad Days.
- St. Vincent.
- Looking up a word in a paper dictionary.
- Wearing a uniform.
- Pushing back against “do what you love.” Loving what you do.
- How-tos. How to graciously say no to anyone. How to be polite. How not to write a novel. How to support an artist you love. How to open a story. How to drink champagne.
- Seeing your work have actual ripple effects. (Ex. Really liking Adam Sternbergh’s Shovel Ready then learning that Steal had an influence on him.)
- Thinking about the phrase “DNA and daily life.” (From A General Theory of Love.)
- Using my passport again. Brazil. Belgium.
- Making new stuff for my website instead of redesigning my website.
- Replacing the cartridge on the turntable. Bobby Womack. Curtis Mayfield, Live!
- Taking off all your clothes and lying down for a nap.
- Walking barefoot on new hardwood floors.
- Eating breakfast for dinner. Playing ‘Round About Midnight really early in the morning. Having sex at two o’clock in the afternoon.
- John Coltrane’s “My Favorite Things.” Bill Evans. Ahmad Jamal. Vince Guaraldi. Kind of Blue. Louie Armstrong. Duke Ellington. Benny Goodman. Sonny Rollins.
- Dad superpowers, like the ability to take a nap at any time in any place. (Scars on my knees from heroically scraping them onto the pavement while saving my son from certain death, etc.)
- Wilco’s “Impossible Germany.” Tweedy’s “Low Key.”
- Establishing a routine. Sticking to the routine. Losing the routine.
- Playing the piano.
- Feeling the baby kick.
Interview with Reading Lives
I had a nice chat with Jeff O’Neal on Reading Lives, a “podcast with interesting people who love books.”
We talk about the endurance of physical book browsing, the difficulty of coming back to comics as an adult, being who you are at a young age, and much more.
Listen here. [50 minutes, MP3]
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