The Twelve Days of Gheorghemas: Day Seven

On the seventh day of Gheorghemas, Big Gheorghe gave to me . . . 

Seven books for reading (and one for burning)

Six splurges for Christmas

Five Good News Stories, courtesy of Shlara

Soon to be Four on the Floor

Three Habits Forming

Two beers with Marcus Aerelius, an OBX Dave Joint, and

Two(?) dudes bested by Kazansky

I tried to use the artificially "intelligent" large language chatbot ChatGTP to write this post but the bot would not cooperate with my nefarious plan. 

First, I asked ChatGTP for a glowing review of James S.A. Corey's sci-fi novel Leviathan Wakes in the style of Donald Trump. 

No dice. 

Then I asked for a review of Blacktop Wasteland in the tone of the King James Bible. 

ChatGTP chastised me. 

It is not appropriate to write a glowing review of a book simply because it is written in the style of a particular text. Reviews should be honest and reflect the reviewer's own opinions and experiences with the book. In addition, it is important to respect the integrity and tone of religious texts, such as the King James Bible, and not use them for the purpose of promoting a book or other product.

Boo!

So I will write these the old-fashioned way . . . on an iMac, stored in the cloud, to be published digitally on a blog, with the assistance of Grammarly. 

Just like Gutenberg.

I should also point out I busted my first ChatGTP plagiarist yesterday. What a mess. He's going to fail for the quarter because of that stupid thing.

Before I get to the good stuff, I'd like to nominate a novel for the worst book ever. My friend Cunningham recommended it to me because I coach tennis. It is written by a very popular author, Taylor Jenkins Reed. I'm sure she's great at writing about other subjects, but Carrie Soto is Back is the worst depiction of sports I've ever encountered. 

All the details are in my podcast, titled "Carrie Soto is Wack". My wife actually called me while she was driving to tell me how much she loved this episode . . . and she's not one to dole out compliments. Now she thinks I should only make podcasts about books that are awful-- sort of like MST 3000.

I could go on and on about how bad this book is-- and I do on my podcast-- but the strangest thing is that the reviews of it are all positive. And it won the Goodreads Best Books of 2022 Award . . . in the Historical Fiction category. Fucking nuts. The only thing historical about this book is that it took place in the past. 

Now here are the books worth reading . . .

1. Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey

If you like sci-fi, read this book (and the others that comprise The Expanse) and watch the show on Amazon. Great stuff. Realistic sci-fi that occurs within the boundaries of our solar system . . . until the proto-molecule rears its ugly head.

2. The Nineties by Chuck Klosterman

This is required reading for this crew. Klosterman reminds us what it was like to live in a time when it was okay NOT to know something, NOT to have an opinion, and NOT to care. From Waco to Liz Phair, this is a nostalgic trip you shouldn't miss.

If you are some weird youngster perusing this blog . . . you still might want to read this book, so you understand the irony of that Nirvana shirt you're wearing.

3. Lord of Misrule by Jaimy Gordon

One of the best sporting books I have ever read. The setting is a down-and-out horse track in West Virginia in the early 1970s; the book captures the language, the characters, the consciousness, the intrigue, and the grit at the inverse of Churchhill Downs.

I did a podcast on this one: "All the (not so) Pretty Horses."

4. Blacktop Wasteland by S.A. Cosby

Crime, racial division, and fast cars in rural Virginia. 

5. Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World by Cal Newport

I am currently conducting an experiment in digital minimalism. It's going well. This is one of those books that could change your life.

6. Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America by Jill Leovy

Jill Leovy uses one South Angeles murder to look at black-on-black violence in traditionally African-American enclaves like Watts and Compton. These places are generally under-policed and justice is rarely meted out. Leovy turns cause and effect on its head, proving that it's not because these places are inhabited by gang members that make them difficult to police . . . instead, it is because they have never been policed with much intensity and intent-- unlike white neighborhoods in the same city-- the denizens have learned to solve their problems outside the aegis of traditional authority.

The book might also change your mind about how gangs work (they are far looser and more disorganized than you might think) and how murders are handled when they are insular and comprised only of African-American men, and it will remind you that you often can't control where you are born and where you live.

7. The Extended Mind: The Power of Thinking Outside the Brain by Annie Murphy Paul

Since this post is all about the number seven, here are seven things I learned from this excellent book on learning and the brain . . .

1) We often use misguided metaphors to describe our brain-- it's not a muscle that grows stronger with exercise (Lumosity does not work) nor is it a computer that works the same in any environment . . . we are more like magpies, building from whatever is available in our environment.

2) We learn better when we are moving, not when we are still . . . as Thoreau said, "Methinks that the moment my legs begin to move, my thoughts begin to flow."

3) Whenever possible, it's good to offload information into the world-- smart people don't memorize everything, nor do they work "in their head," as Richard Feynman points out in the book-- the writing the math down IS the work . . . we should put as much information as we can into writing and charts and gestures and other people.

4) We need to make data into something real in order to understand it, into an artifact-- we need to make the abstract into something concrete.

5) It is good to alter our physical state before, during, and after learning-- this helps us remember and it helps us create.

6) We need to reembody complex ideas-- argue about them, teach them, and speak about them in real time. . . when a teacher lectures the class, emphatically gesturing, asking pertinent questions, and directing all dialogue, the person learning the most about the subject IS the teacher; the learners need to to do these things.

7) You remember things better when they are associated with props, places, and memory palaces.

Happy reading!