Friday Reads 3.8.24
It’s Friday, and you know what that means. Grab a cuppa, and let’s talk about what we’re reading!
Ah, the first full week of the month. I enjoy it a little too much. There’s something very satisfying about setting up my bullet journal for the month. I start with the Goals page of the previous month and see what I’ve accomplished and what I missed. If it’s something important, I will push it over into the next month. If it’s not, I leave it behind.
Deciding where my energies should go is a major part of my planning cycle. Last month I skipped my monthly newsletters. Being on a social media sabbatical, it felt true to my six-week mission to pull back (which has had mixed results—getting good news and doing a cover reveal and planning a research trip and prepping for a book release means I’ve had to cheat a bit.) I have broken that knee-jerk reaction to open Instagram when I’m bored (though I’ve maybe replaced it with Substack Notes? Work to be done on that in the next few weeks…)
Once I’ve determined my monthly goals and updated my Trello Boards and my ToDo list, I use a simple notecard to remind me of my main goals for the month. It’s beautiful, and it sits proudly on the corner of my desk by my crystal Hedwig. This month, things on it include my word count goal for HLN, the release of IOOU, the AVBT cover reveal, a draft read of the new Jayne book, Substack plans, and reminders to say no and exercise. On the back, the books I’ve read. There are only a few entry lines, so I have to be very specific with my goals. There is only so much a person can reasonably do in a given time period; this is a visual reminder of that. I think we’re all trying to do way too much, and this is my way of pulling back to the core, focusing on the things that really matter to me.
This quiet practice of mindfulness means hitting goals is a lot easier. It’s also easier to see what’s realistic for the schedule. I have three books going right now—the one I’m drafting (HLN), the one I’m about to start promoting (A VERY BAD THING), and the next Jayne book, which is starting editorial. Plus, IT’S ONE OF US releases in trade paperback on the 19th. It took me about five minutes of calendar searching to realize there ain’t no way I can do everything I’d planned this month to move these projects along apace. I’d hoped to release Jayne #5 at the end of April: That had to be pushed. Could I have done it? Yes. Would I have been a nice person to be around? Would there have been dinners made and laundry done and workouts finished and word counts realized? Nope.
Guess what? The world will not end.
So, if I’m learning anything from my sabbatical, it’s this: Go slower. Do less. Put more margin in the schedule. Breathe deeper, and enjoy the ride.
The ride includes some fun reads this week. My bookshelves were bursting, and the TBR stack taunting, so I did a little shelf cleaning and moved all the TBR books off the ladder and onto a shelf. Not having them in a constant line of sight also allowed a reframe of the priorities. Many are galleys, so I put them in publication order so I can share them here close to release dates. (Also see: Trying not to do too much.) With that in mind…
SLOW PRODUCTIVITY - Cal Newport
I may have pre-ordered a few too many copies of this. Two hardcovers, one digital, and one audio all showed up on Tuesday. No matter, they are all being put to good use.
Cal’s thesis for Slow Productivity is quite straightforward: “1. Do fewer things. 2. Work at a natural pace. 3. Obsess over quality.”1
That’s it. By slowing down, taking our time, saying no to being busy and instead saying yes to a slower approach, the quality of our work increases, our stress levels decrease, and we have a deeper, more meaningful life.
This book speaks to me on a thousand levels. Maybe it’s entering middle age. Maybe it’s knowing that there is a limited amount of time in our lives, and spending it on pursuits that are not nourishing to the soul wastes precious moments. Maybe it’s because it opens with an anecdote about a book by John McPhee (Draft No. 4) that changed the course of the writing of AVBT(more on that in another post…)
Maybe I’m just making up lost time from those first jazzy years, when everything was shiny and new and I magpied my way through them. My old work standard, fiction from 1-4 daily M-F, was sacrosanct, but the rest of the time? I was all over the place. If I could do anything differently, it would have been to pull back sooner than I eventually did. I was young, and I was idealistic, and I thought everyone was logical and approachable. I forgot that publishing is art. It was in 2009, four years into my career, that I started tracking word counts and focusing more on only my work. Obsessing over quality instead of popularity. I realized early on that social media was hurting me. When Cal’s DEEP WORK came out and I was introduced to his ideas, I was primed to receive them.
ICYMBI: Cal and I had a long talk a while back about my path toward becoming a thriller writer, but also working my way through those first few frantic years as a debut to a more steady career-paced life. Things in that conversation presaged both this book of his and my desire to make a change in how I was published. It might be interesting, and this book certainly is. (My part starts at 23:30 — though Cal’s deep dive is well worth watching, too.)
And if you want a précis on Cal’s work, you can watch the A WORD ON WORDS episode where I grill him about all the things.
THE NEW COUPLE IN 5B - Lisa Unger
Lisa Unger is simply brilliant, and I love everything she does. Her ability to crawl inside a character’s head and bare their soul piece by jagged piece is unparalleled. This is not different—a writer and an actor inherit a spectacular apartment in a famed New York City building, the Windemere, and it’s off the hook from that moment forward. There’s a creeping dread to this book that made me deliciously uncomfortable. A master at work.
THE STRANGER IN THE WOODS - Michael Finkel
Recommended here on the Edge, I grabbed this one from the library and it was utterly fascinating. Christopher Knight lived alone in the Maine woods three minutes from society and was never seen, but stole from almost every cabin in the area. I don’t know that I could live alone in the woods for 27 years, but I applaud the ordered mind that isolation can bring, though certainly don’t condone the burglaries that took place to help sustain the Hermit. Hermits are romanticized throughout this text; I got a great deal of information that was very helpful for the new book, too.
WOLF HALL - Hilary Mantel
I have discovered that this book is much more fun as a physical book than as an ebook. I don’t know why. Maybe I’m too tired to read it at night before I go to sleep, and the words don’t have the same impact? Moving back to the print book made the language and story sing again. Interesting…Do you find some books lend themselves to different formats?
Up Next:
EVERYONE IS WATCHING - Heather Gudenkauf
One of my most anticipated reads of the year. Heather and I started out together ages and ages ago, and it’s been such a pleasure watching her stratospheric rise. When she told me about this one, I begged for an early copy. So far, it does not disappoint. More when I’m done.
That’s it from me. How about you? Good week? What are you reading this weekend?
A quick housekeeping note: Going forward, I’m considering not sending paid posts to all subscribers, only to the ones who’ve signed up for these posts. Why? I worry I’m annoying those of you who are readers first and are not interested in the paid writing class. While having a paywall break in the post achieves a certain goal—the idea that some of you will be interested enough in the topic to subscribe—it also feels like an annoyance. From now on, if there’s a paid post done or upcoming. I will link to it on Friday, and you can explore it on your own. Sound good? For example, last week, I wrote about Resistance. You can see the post here.
Just to be sure that’s what you want, I’m going to drop a poll here, but I’m guessing this will be met with relief. We’ve never had a transactional relationship, you and I. No need to start now unless YOU want it.
This post may contain affiliate links. They help defray the cost of running the site — and buys the cat her favorite treats! 1Newport, C. (2024). Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout (1st ed., p. 8). Portfolio. www.calnewport.com
