Tag: reading

Reading progress… update #2

I am really pleased with my progress thus far. I have devoured four novels and made a productive start with my morning reading.

Novels:

  • Dexter, Colin: The Dead of Jericho
  • Dexter, Colin: The Riddle of the Third Mile
  • Dexter, Colin: The Secret of Annexe 3
  • Dexter, Colin: The Wench is Dead

Morning reading:

  • Aurelius, Marcus: Meditations – Books 1 and 2
  • The Bible:
    • Romans
    • 1 Corinthians – Chapters 1-3
  • King, Stephen: On Writing1
    • Forewords 1, 2 and 3
    • Chapter 1: CV – Parts 1-18
  • Russell, Bertrand: History of Western Philosophy – Preface and Introduction
  • Seneca: Dialogues and Essays – Introduction and Note on the Text
  1. Each morning that I openned ‘On Writing‘, I was hooked and more than a bit frustrated when I had to put it down. Consequently, when I finished ‘The Wench is Dead’, I decided take a pause from reading novels and immerse myself in this, instead. For my morning reading, I have replaced it with ‘Unsubscribe‘ by Jocelyn K. Glei which is perfectly structured in to short essays.[↩]

Reading progress… update #1

Novels:

  • Dexter, Colin: The Dead of Jericho
  • Dexter, Colin: The Riddle of the Third Mile

Morning reading:

  • Aurelius, Marcus: Meditations – Book 1
  • The Bible: Romans – Chapters 1-4
  • King, Stephen: On Writing – Forewards 1, 2 and 3
  • Russell, Bertrand: History of Western Philosophy – Preface and Introduction
  • Seneca: Dialogues and Essays – Introduction and Note on the Text

Morning Reading

A daily ritual that I have observed for several years now is to begin each day by reading from selected philosophical and theological texts. Last year, alongside revisiting the Stoics, I managed to give myself a grounding in Taoism, Confucianism and Buddhism. I supplemented these with some early Christian monasticism and the maxims of the 17th Century philosopher Baltasar Gracián.1

  1. Aurelius, Marcus: Meditations (r2)
  2. Confucius: The Analects
  3. Epictetus: Discourses and Selected Writings (r)
  4. Gracián, Baltasar: The Pocket Oracle and Art of Prudence
  5. Mascaro, Juan: The Dhammapada
  6. Seneca: Letters from a Stoic (r)
  7. Tzu, Lao: Tao Te Ching
  8. Walker, Brian Browne: Hua Hu Ching: The Unknown Teachings of Lao Tzu
  9. Ward, Benedicta: The Desert Fathers: Sayings of the Early Christian Monks

I have begun 2021 with fewer texts, covering a wider range of subjects and ideas. Alongside Aurelius and Seneca, I am going to re-read specific sections of the bible; take a broader look at Western philosophy3; and also read Stephen King’s ‘On Writing‘ which has been sitting unread in my Kindle Library for over a year. Not a philosophical text per se, but one that I hope will go some way to helping me achieve one of my goals for 2021.

  1. Aurelius, Marcus: Meditations (r)
  2. The Bible (NSV)
    • New Testament:
      • The Epistles of Paul
      • James’ Epistle
    • Old Testament:
      • Psalms
      • Proverbs
  3. King, Stephen: On Writing
  4. Russell, Bertrand: History of Western Philosophy
  5. Seneca: Dialogues and Essays
  1. Hat tip to Doug Belshaw for that one.[↩]
  2. (r) Indicates ‘re-reading’.[↩]
  3. I feel that I have a firm understanding of Stoicism. And from sixteen years of teaching A-Level Literature and Media Studies, a sound understanding of more modern philosophies, particularly romanticism, modernism and post-modernism. My knowledge of various religions is good and I have a reasonable grounding in Eastern philosophies and theology but there are significant gaps in my understanding of Western philosophy. I hope that Bertrand Russell’s much lauded (and criticised) book can help begin to plug those gaps.[↩]

Less, More and None (2020) – Review

Less

  • (cont.) spending time on ‘urgent but unimportant’ tasks
    • I did a much better job of this in 2020. I was able to be more strategic and to delegate tasks more willingly. Something I have always struggled with.
  • tinkering with apps and organisational tools (I need to pick a system and stick to it)
    • I broke this down into three areas (notes/schedule/projects) and settled on one app to manage each of them:
      • Drafts for writing: ideas, notes, lists, blog posts and reference material.
      • Fantastical to organise my day: lessons, meetings, calls and events.
      • OmniFocus for task and project management.
    • I also made some changes to my daily and weekly reviews that kept me better organised.
  • avoiding difficult / time-consuming tasks
    • I did well with this as well, in part due to the improvements I made to my organisation as noted above. In particular, I started using the ‘forecast tag’ in OmniFocus for these tasks and also scheduled time in my calendar for when I would work on them. This meant that they were always visible and would not be missed in my daily review. Scheduling time in my calendar meant that progress was made on them each day until they were done. Incremental progress FTW!

More

  • trying new foods and recipes
    • Jennifer and I are always exploring new recipes but we did even better this year building a wide range of new meals into each month. And like 2019, we struck a healthy balance between meat-based dishes and vegetarian ones.
  • rediscovering old music
    • I immersed myself in Jazz, exploring a wide range of styles (hard-bop, modal, avant-garde…) and musicians. I improved my knowledge of the genre’s development and discovered a number pieces that entered into regular rotation. My top three tunes for the year are:
    • Having spent a lot of time over the years listening to the more avant-garde and challenging work of Miles Davis and John Coltrane, I was surprised to see how much I leaned toward smooth and modal Jazz over the course of the year. Red Garland, Bill Evans and McCoy Tyner (all pianists) featured prominently. Maybe I am mellowing out!?
    • In addition to this, I also revisited a lot of music from my youth (80s/90s). According to Spotify, my most listened to artists this year were: Queen, Radiohead and Nick Cave.
    • I spent some time listening to classical music too; mostly Beethoven, Chopin, and Fauré, so the piano featured prominently there as well. Maybe I should learn to play the piano in 2021?
    • I made a number of new playlists in Spotify and updated some of my existing ones. They can all be found via my Spotify profile.
  • visiting new places
    • This did not happen for obvious reasons. Instead we made the most of our local area while doing all that we could to keep ourselves and other safe. The time spent here at home was not wasted though, I read more books than I have done in a long time.
  • mobility exercises and yoga
    • I failed miserably with this one unfortunately, and I haven’t done as well with my running over the last three months of the year either. Exercise has to be a habit and requires commitment. I will be re-committing to this in 2021 and ensuring that I can forge good habits to get back on track.
  • (cont.) writing
    • In terms of writing, I never truly found my mojo. That said, I did publish 24 full blog posts (20 more than 2019 ). Two blog posts per month is not what I was aiming for at the start of the year. As with exercise, writing has to become a habit. I will be committing to working towards this in 2021 as well.

None

  • (cont.) looking at my mobile phone when people are talking to me (still trying to make this stick!)
    • I finally made some headway with this in 2020. I took to leaving my phone on the coffee table or even in a different room and this helped. Still, I can do even better so this item will graduate to the ‘Less’ section for 2021.
  • saying yes to projects or ideas that will only have short-term or limited impact (aiming for a year of quality not quantity)
    • When faced with a pandemic, partial school closures and a constantly changing set of guidelines and rules, it has been hard not to have to work on projects that were about ‘short-term’ impact. Sometimes you simply have to adapt to the needs in front of you and I feel that alongside my colleagues, I did a good job in helping to keep the school going under very challenging circumstances.

What I Read This Year

‘Reading more’ was not one of my goals for 2020, yet it was my best year for reading in a long time. I’m sure the lockdown contributed to this but I am pleased that I maintained my momentum once I returned to a fully open school in September. On top of the 41 books listed below, I also read over 1,500 articles from The Guardian, as well as countless blog posts and articles from across the web. A good year all round, and one that at least from this point of view, I feel much richer for.

  1. Adams, Douglas: The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (r1)
  2. Adams, Douglas: The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (r)
  3. Adams, Douglas: Life, the Universe and Everything (r)
  4. Aurelius, Marcus: Meditations (r)
  5. Confucius: The Analects
  6. Dexter, Colin: Last Bus to Woodstock
  7. Dexter, Colin: Last Seen Wearing
  8. Dexter, Colin: The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn
  9. Dexter, Colin: Service of All the Dead
  10. Dickens, Charles: A Christmas Carol (r)
  11. Epictetus: Discourses and Selected Writings (r)
  12. Gracián, Baltasar: The Pocket Oracle and Art of Prudence
  13. le Carré, John: Call for the Dead
  14. le Carré, John: A Murder of Quality
  15. le Carré, John: The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
  • The Spy Who Came in from the Cold - Book Cover
  • The Books of Earthsea - Book Cover
  1. Le Guin, Ursula K.: Tehanu
  2. Le Guin, Ursula K.: Tales from Earthsea
    • The Finder
    • Darkrose and Diamond
    • The Bones of the Earth
    • On the High Marsh
    • Dragonfly
  3. Le Guin, Ursula K.: The Other Wind
  4. Le Guin, Ursula K.: A Description of Earthsea
  5. Le Guin, Ursula K.: The Word of Unbinding
  6. Le Guin, Ursula K.: The Rule of Names
  7. Le Guin, Ursula K.: The Daughter of Odren
  8. Le Guin, Ursula K.: Firelight
  9. Le Guin, Ursula K.: Earthsea Revisioned2
  10. Mascaro, Juan: The Dhammapada
  11. Melville, Herman: Moby Dick
  12. Seneca: Letters from a Stoic (r)
  13. Sjöwall, Maj; Wahlöö, Per: Roseanna
  14. Sjöwall, Maj; Wahlöö, Per: The Man Who Went Up in Smoke
  15. Sjöwall, Maj; Wahlöö, Per: The Man on the Balcony
  16. Sjöwall, Maj; Wahlöö, Per: The Laughing Policeman
  17. Sjöwall, Maj; Wahlöö, Per: The Fire Engine That Disappeared
  18. Sjöwall, Maj; Wahlöö, Per: Murder at the Savoy
  19. Sjöwall, Maj; Wahlöö, Per: The Abominable Man
  20. Sjöwall, Maj; Wahlöö, Per: The Locked Room
  21. Sjöwall, Maj; Wahlöö, Per: Cop Killer
  22. Sjöwall, Maj; Wahlöö, Per: The Terrorists3
  • The Abominable Man - Book Cover
  • Tales from the Perilous Realm - Book Cover
  1. Tolkien, J. R. R.: Tales from the Perilous Realm (r)
    • Roverandom
    • Farmer Giles of Ham
    • The Adventures of Tom Bombadil
    • Smith of Wooton Major
    • Leaf by Niggle
    • On Fairy Stories
  2. Tzu, Lao: Tao Te Ching
  3. Walker, Brian Browne: Hua Hu Ching: The Unknown Teachings of Lao Tzu
  4. Ward, Benedicta: The Desert Fathers: Sayings of the Early Christian Monks
  1. (r) Indicates ‘re–reading’.[↩]
  2. This completed my first reading of the entire ‘Earthsea Cycle‘. I read the first three novels in 2019 and took a break but I was very happy to rejoin Ged and Tenar; not least due to the revisioning Le Guin undertook returning to Earthsea eighteen years after ’The Farthest Shore.‘ Her exploration of womanhood and female empowerment from ’Tehanu‘; through ’The Finder‘ and ’Dragonfly‘; culminating in ’The Other Wind‘ was deeply gratifying. I admire Le Guin’s bravery in returning to a world she had firmly established and to then completely redefine it.[↩]
  3. It was very satisfying to immerse myself in such a tightly constructed sequence of crime novels; and interesting to read the series that established nordic–noir as a genre.[↩]