Thoughts on Memoirs

Who's reading all of these memoirs? It must be someone, because I see all kinds of hubbub whenever a new memoir from some famous person comes out, whether that's a celebrity or a politician (who these days seem really to be little more than wanna-be celebrities who happen to have actual power over people's lives).

Announcing: Books to Read

Those detail-oriented readers may notice a change to the site's main menu. The "What I'm Reading" link has been changed to "Books to Read." This is part of a series of small changes I'll be implementing over the next few months to better emphasize to potential visitors what the site is all about, and what they can expect to gain by coming here.

Scattered

It was probably in the sixth or seventh grade that I first can recall being referred to as a "renaissance man." Like many of the appelations which have been applied to me throughout the years, I adopted this one and made it my own.

The Father of Invention

In woodworking, and a lot of other fields, there exists a variation on the saying “a poor woodworker blames his tools.”  The thought that if only I had those tools, or those resources, or that setup, I wouldn’t be having this problem is a convenient and difficult-to-disprove balm to pride and psyche.  It’s also a crutch that can ultimately retard a person’s ability to improve.

The Audiobook Moment

xpanding for the past few years, to the point where major authors from Gladwell to Sanderson are releasing some of their new pieces first as audiobooks, and only later sending them to print (if they send them to print at all).  The way people are talking, this is a new thing, the next big thing to accompany the podcast moment.

Missing Books

None of those advantages have changed, but I've recently reached a position where the possibility of having bookshelves again is more viable, and I've been thinking about what kinds of books would be on those shelves. Mostly, my physical book collection consists of nonfiction tomes, and books from my childhood. Contemplating this, I've been thinking how nice it would be to have some of the books that I've read on Kindle, the ones I've really enjoyed or reference/re-read very frequently, as "real" books. Yet buying duplicate books seems terribly inefficient.