In the Days of My Youth I Was Told What It Means to Be a Man by Tom Junod
I could not put this book down. It’s up there with the very best books I’ve read this year, alongside Don’t Call It Art: 10 Ways to Create Like a Kid Again by Austin Kleon, Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity by Peter Attia, The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis, I Wrote This for Attention by Lukas Gage, and London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe. Junod is an exceptional storyteller, and this memoir reads like a mystery as he tries to understand the larger-than-life man his father was. It’s shocking and honest, and it does one of the best things a book can do: it teaches you about life, about people, and about…yourself. Easily one of the best memoirs I’ve ever read.
Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry
I started reading this book two months ago and then stopped because I felt like I should be reading something more . . . educational? My mom said that was nonsense, that the book is really good, and that I should keep reading it. I took her advice and she was right: it’s excellent. (I have also resolved to only read books that look interesting. I feel like I’m always making this resolution?) Anyway, not once in the book’s 700 pages was I bored. And I don’t even particularly care about the Manson story. I usually roll my eyes at the attention it still receives, the same way I roll my eyes at the mention of Bundy or Gacy. But this book, written by Manson’s prosecutor no less, is fabulous in its own right. It reminded me of my favorite true crime book of all time, In Cold Blood. Charles Manson was a frustrated musician who claimed the Beatles were sending him messages through their songs. He convinced his followers that he was Jesus Christ (he implied his name should be read Man’s Son). This dude had an answer for everything—a mind so warped and calculated it left no room for reason or humanity. I could go on and on and on but suffice it to say: take my mom’s advice and read this book. There is something interesting on every page.
Idle Thoughts: Letters on Good Living by Tom Hodgkinson
This little book came with my subscription to The Idler magazine. It’s a bunch of short, delightful, and thought-provoking essays on everything from why nappers are more clever to the absurdity of buying cars—especially on credit. I really enjoyed it.
The Waste Books by Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
This book is a banger. A collection of philosophically deep, occasionally humorous aphorisms? Sign me up! (It reminded me of another book of aphorisms I love, The Bed of Procrustes.) I’m still making my way through, but here are some passages I’ve already starred:
“Do you ask me, friend, which is better: to be plagued by a bad conscience or with a mind at peace to hang from the gallows?”
“Man is capable of his greatest works when his mental powers are already on the wane, just as it is hotter in July at two in the afternoon, when the sun is already declining, than it is in June at midday.”
Misc.
I read and loved Jet Li’s memoir, Beyond Life and Death. I’m slowly savoring One! Hundred! Demons! by Lynda Barry, and LOVING The Collage Workbook by Randel Plowman. And, as always, you can see my growing list of favorite books here.