I make these lists public to try to build readership across multiple dimensions. Keeping with the “1,000 True Fans” theme, anything I can do to help deserving authors receive more exposure and small bumps in sales volumes is worth transcribing some notes.
Inspirations this quarter: Digging into authors I like. Working through the “Princeton Authors” list. Picking up recommendations from writers (Valente, Doctorow, Harrow) whose work I consume. More book discussions around the bagel table at work.
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“Three Rocks: The Story of Ernie Bushmiller,” Bill Griffith, art, finished January 1
From a Cory Doctorow reference
Ernie Bushmiller was the comic artist behind “Nancy,” one of the longest running and widely syndicated comics in the “funny pages” but equally one that literally stretched the impact of the comic strip as a commentary on the human condition. Without “Nancy,” there is no “Calvin & Hobbes” — or even wackier extrusions like “Zippy The Pinhead.” Bill Griffith, Zippy’s creator, penned this biography of Bushmiller as a graphic novel, and it’s a delightful romp through the early days of printed comics, in and around the inspirations and creative process that produced a daily strip for decades, and the mechanics that Bushmiller used (from multiple drawing tables to breaking the fourth wall of the fourth estate) to make “Nancy” so adored.“Where the Axe is Buried,” Ray Nayler, sci-fi, finished January 14
Award nominee in 2025
Complicated, dystopian, surveillance state thriller where the authoritarian force is blurred between general artificial intelligences and the human operators who spur their instantiation and succession. There is enough Cold War and post-Cold War tension woven throughout to make the book feel equally 1970 James Bond as well as William Gibson cyberpunk. Told from multiple perspectives with a wide dynamic range of characters, it was hard to follow at times but rewarding as Nayler lets you draw your own conclusions.“Marketing Lessons From The Grateful Dead,” Brian Halligan, David Meerman Scott, music, finished February 5.
The post-Bob Weir death rabbit hole.
A fun, simple and remarkably insightful book that could have been written about open source software, social media campaigns or as an intro or addendum to Clay Shirkey’s “Here Comes Everybody.” It was the palate cleanser I needed.“Gap Year,” Lindsey Goldstein, fiction, finished February 15.
On a list of Princeton alumni authors.
I wanted to like this more, in the vein of Jodi Picoult and Michael Lewis and other Tiger scribes whose writing is dense while tweaking the brain and heartstrings. It was an enjoyable and quick read, but predictable, about a woman finding self-confidence and footing after her marriage dissolves and her daughter flies from the nest.“Man’s Search For Meaning,” Viktor Frankl, non-fiction, finished February 21.
Prelude to a Poland trip in May.
I’ve been quoting Viktor Frankl in my writing for two decades, and in advance of visiting the concentration camps in May decided it was time to read what is regularly called one of the most influential books of the 20th century. It is powerful but not in horror or revulsion. Frankl captures and provides a guide to the strength of the human spirit and uses his psychotherapy techniques to turn even the worst conditions into a meaningful growth and observation.“There Is No Antimemetics Division,” qntm, sci-fi, finished February 25.
Substack recommendation.
Wild ride through memes, memory, quantum physics, eldritch horrors, the multi-verse and maybe some time travel along the way. What if you could be exposed to an idea that would eat your memory? Erase itself or part of your shared history with it? Equal parts Charles Stross’s “Laundry” series and extinction-level drama, this was a superb repackaging of the pieces of the story that previously appeared online.
One way to have more reading time in Q1: blizzard-level snowfall “Fun City Heist,” Michael Kardos, fiction, finished February 26.
Latest from a Princeton author I follow.
A paen to the Asbury Park of the 1970s and the shore bands that never quite made it, it’s equal parts carnie lore, band dynamics, and a not-quite-Oceans 12 themed robbery. Filling in the spaces between major points are characters you knew from high school and the cool parent you wanted to be (or perhaps are, greatly modulating to whom you’ll recommend this book when done.) Should be a summer read (I finished it on the beach in a day) but the publisher’s schedule didn’t see it that way.“Perfection,” Vincenzo Latronica and Sophie Hughes, fiction, finished February 26.
Recommended (by Cathryne Valente maybe).
What happens to all of those socially media savvy, digital natives as they Instagra their way to middle age? What if “perfection” is purely illusory, and wending a way through relationships, work (even if it is as a pair of designers immersed in current culture and themes), ex-pat life and finding your true self is in fact the mirror — or a fun house mirror — image of perfection? Incredible language brought out by the translation, including listicles that both reflect the subtle disdain for online life as well as capture the mundane. The main characters don’t really develop at all through dialog (there is none; it’s purely third person), but change their view of the perfect world they have tried to create.“Dancing Naked In The Mind Field,” Kary Mullis, biography, finished February 27.
On a bit of science and biography streak, but this may have ended it.
Mullis won the 1993 Nobel Prize in chemistry for inventing PCR, the process by which DNA testing and sequencing was commercialized. Maybe 20% of the book deals with his interest in chemistry and how he conceptualized one of the major acclerators of modern medicinal chemistry and diagnostics. The rest is exhausting: his views on astrology (it’s real), on HIV (that it has no bearing on AIDS because he couldn’t find the research), on psychedelics (useful), on climate change (not real, in the epoch view, much as Freeman Dyson said), on oncology (he rails against chemotherapy and big pharma in general). He comes across as a misogynist and a victim of his own “if you win a Nobel all doors are opened” braggadocio.“Joiner and Rust,” Lavie Tidhar, sci-fi, finished February 27.
Read everything he writes.
A Tor short story (38 pages) with a great set of twists and reveals about two old robot “friends.” If you cried at “Maybe Happy Ending” on Broadway you’ll sniffle at this through one third the running time.“9 Hours, 3 Days, 27 Years,” John Scalzi, sci-fi, finished February 27.
Part of an amazon.com short story series “The Time Traveler’s Passport”
Sometimes I think that Scalzi could write about the most mundane things and make them funny and captivating (and he did, with “When The Moon Hits Your Eye”). Other times he takes something serious and mind-warping and turns it into a mundane tale, only until you realize that his 4-D chess has constructed a world so complex it may or may not hold every emotion you want to feel inside of 40 pages. From the collection title, it’s a story about time travel, but dismissing every tenet and trope (“you can’t go back and kill Hitler or the world will unravel”) and instead just assumes that consumer, recreational time travel will be a thing and people will do whatever they want, without affecting our multiverse timelime. Until someone discovers the inevitable loophole. I ended up buying the rest of the series after this opener.“Shampoo Planet,” Douglas Coupland, fiction, finished February 28.
Continuing to work through Coupland’s back catalog in paperback
Credited with coining “Generation X” Coupland also captures the zeitgeist of a pre-internet, post-big hair 1980s romance interspersed with enough anxiety and OCD to help us understand current times. Having his older work only available in paperback reinforces the sense that this is a time capsule from the last, simpler generation, but you see every hint of our fascination with attention (the title is subtle).“Maintenance of Everything: Part 1,” Steward Brand, non-fiction, finished March 6.
One of the best writers on thinking long-term, recommended by NY Geek.
I had the pleasure of meeting Steward Brand in 1995 at a Kodak strategy off-site. One of the suggestions that came out of that meeting was for Kodak to buy a software company in which to embed their deep image processing software - nearly a decade before the iPhone became the ubiquitous digital camera. Brand has always thought and written about the long-term impacts of strategy and existence, from the “Whole Earth Catalog” to his latest work, what will be at least ten volumes discussing the maintenance of everyday things, and by extrusion, our lives. This was as close to talking to Brand in person as you can get — full of digressions and deep dives, wonderfully indexed and annotated, and replete with insights that will make you close the e-reader and think. Which has always been his intention.“Alex Lifeson Biography,” Curtis A Nelson, music, finished March 8.
Found while scrolling through upcoming Rush50 tour information.
Complete and utter junk, a waste of a day of reading and 110+ pages. I think this may have been completely LLM-generated from available information, as it adds exactly zero new information, data, musical insights, facts or stories. There are no primary sources, no quotes, no details on shows, tours, songs, chords, progressions or even guitars used. Everything is superficially outlined and repetitive; the language abuses structures with contrasting clauses.“Shop Class as Soulcraft,” Matthew Crawford, non-fiction, finished March 25.
Recommended by Amazon via the Stewart Brand book.
I was hoping for more of a Robert Pirsig “Zen” book, and instead got a mix of essays on middle management, divorcing line workers from their skills, and the general decline of diagnostic capability, decision making and creativity. I agree with all of Crawford’s points, and feel that shop class in middle school was one of the better non-academic subjects becuase it was so inherently real world (you can’t assume a spherical cow when you’re bending metal, to mix metaphors).
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