I had a New Years resolution to read and listen to a book a month. I’m not going to hit the reading target but I’ve burning through audiobooks with that Libby App I mentioned a few newsletters back.
Here’s some Too Long Didn’t Reads TLDR for yah! Enjoy.
Pema Chodron - This book was fantastic. I’m going to need to grab a hardcopy and digest this a bit more in smaller pieces. Highly recommend especially heading into the chaos that can be the holiday season.
“Things falling apart is a kind of testing and also a kind of healing. We think that the point is to pass the test or to overcome the problem, but the truth is that things don’t really get solved. They come together and they fall apart. Then they come together again and fall apart again. It’s just like that. The healing comes from letting there be room for all of this to happen: room for grief, for relief, for misery, for joy.”
Rick Rubin - I though it was going to have some stories about him producing Slayer and the Beastie Boys but instead it was a great manual for anything creative. Wish I had this back in my Emily Carr / black beret / nietzsche quoting days.
“The real work of the artist is a way of being in the world. The ability to look deeply is the root of creativity. No matter what tools you use to create, the true instrument is you. Look for what you notice but no one else sees.”
Kieran Setiya - This book comes down to this: Telic Vs Atelic. Essentially anything that can be completed or finished is Telic (buying a home, starting a family, getting a promotion) we need to embrace Atelic activities, ones with no point of termination (going for a walk with no destination, playing an instrument you’ll never master).
“invest… more deeply in atelic ends. Among the activities that matter most to you, the ones that give meaning to your life, must be activities that have no terminal point. Since they cannot be completed, your engagement with atelic ends will not exhaust or destroy them.”
