link the right one in
Sep. 25th, 2014 08:31 pmJames Nicoll (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
james_nicoll) writes really good book reviews. If you throw money at him he will write more of them.
I Am More Than OK With Not "Having It All": there is so much in this column that is exactly what I believe, from 'pick a dog [or other critter] that fits with how you expect your life to be for the next N years' to "I couldn't imagine inflicting childhood on my own child" to "even if I did miss out on the greatest love you can possibly know as a human being, I was actually just fine with the amount I already had." SO VERY MUCH THIS.
This Is Katie F---ing Ledecky: A Thesis About Kicking Ass: "This summer, wearing slow swimsuits, and without really being in major-competition shape, she broke every world record in her discipline, long-distance freestyle, over the course of a month and a half. Then she was like, ha! just kidding, so she broke a couple of them again."
The otherworldly and utterly Portland Ursula K. Le Guin: "We have to operate within capitalism, because at this point it's all there is. But if our minds aren’t controlled by it, if we think like free people, writers will figure out how to do our job: To write, get our writing to our readers, and maybe make a living from it."
The Purpose of Kata, which reminds me of nothing so much as the story of the journalist and Pau Casals. The journalist asked, "You're seventy years old and you've been playing the cello all your life, why do you still practice six, eight, ten hours a day?" and Casals answered, "Because I think I'm finally starting to get good at it."
For London's Cabbies, Job Entails World's Hardest Geography Test: a fantastic article on the Knowledge, the London cab drivers' exam and "a real-time, street-level test of memorization skills so intense that it physically alters the brains of those who pass it."
And finally, two essays that, separately and together, are making me rethink the whole idea of what I'm even doing with myself these days:
Avoidance. Oh, and getting out of it. This is perhaps the most useful thing I have read in a very long time. "You're avoiding the thing that’s holding all your dreams? Good grief! Of course you are! That symbolic weight? It's that much potential for hurt and disappointment."
Breaking The Low Mood Cycle, in which it is revealed that the point of breaking the low mood cycle is not to Do Things (though that is a likely side effect), it's to Break The Low Mood Cycle and feel better about being you.
james_nicoll) writes really good book reviews. If you throw money at him he will write more of them.I Am More Than OK With Not "Having It All": there is so much in this column that is exactly what I believe, from 'pick a dog [or other critter] that fits with how you expect your life to be for the next N years' to "I couldn't imagine inflicting childhood on my own child" to "even if I did miss out on the greatest love you can possibly know as a human being, I was actually just fine with the amount I already had." SO VERY MUCH THIS.
This Is Katie F---ing Ledecky: A Thesis About Kicking Ass: "This summer, wearing slow swimsuits, and without really being in major-competition shape, she broke every world record in her discipline, long-distance freestyle, over the course of a month and a half. Then she was like, ha! just kidding, so she broke a couple of them again."
The otherworldly and utterly Portland Ursula K. Le Guin: "We have to operate within capitalism, because at this point it's all there is. But if our minds aren’t controlled by it, if we think like free people, writers will figure out how to do our job: To write, get our writing to our readers, and maybe make a living from it."
The Purpose of Kata, which reminds me of nothing so much as the story of the journalist and Pau Casals. The journalist asked, "You're seventy years old and you've been playing the cello all your life, why do you still practice six, eight, ten hours a day?" and Casals answered, "Because I think I'm finally starting to get good at it."
For London's Cabbies, Job Entails World's Hardest Geography Test: a fantastic article on the Knowledge, the London cab drivers' exam and "a real-time, street-level test of memorization skills so intense that it physically alters the brains of those who pass it."
And finally, two essays that, separately and together, are making me rethink the whole idea of what I'm even doing with myself these days:
Avoidance. Oh, and getting out of it. This is perhaps the most useful thing I have read in a very long time. "You're avoiding the thing that’s holding all your dreams? Good grief! Of course you are! That symbolic weight? It's that much potential for hurt and disappointment."
Breaking The Low Mood Cycle, in which it is revealed that the point of breaking the low mood cycle is not to Do Things (though that is a likely side effect), it's to Break The Low Mood Cycle and feel better about being you.