• Book title: The Wager
• Author: David Grann
• Rating: 3.5/5

If this were a fiction book, I’d have criticized it, because nobody can be this unlucky. But it’s a true story, which makes it even crazier. Also, this book had me eating a ton of fruit, just to dodge scurvy.

Where to buy The Wager by David Grann:

• Bookshop

• Book title: Ubik
• Author: Philip K. Dick
• Rating: 6/5

I read through this book in a day. I couldn't put it down and during the whole reading season I was wondering WTAF was going on. I understand why it's on the list of Top 100 Novels of all time.

Where to buy Ubik by Philip K. Dick:

• Bookshop

• Book title: Start With Why
• Author: Simon Sinek
• Rating: 3.5/5

This is a good book, but I’m burned out on non-fiction self-help. I might skip them for a while.

Where to buy Start With Why by Simon Sinek:

• Bookshop

It's September soon, and this year, it is the perfect month to start a new experiment for several reasons.

For one, September 1st is on a Monday, which is just like the most satisfying shit ever. I love when this happens, and when I become King of the World, I'll change the calendar in such a way that it happens every month. September 18 is also my birthday, which is why, for 10 years straight, I am off for two weeks. This gives me enough free time to do weird experiments like this.

So, this month's experiment is called "Shutter September." And as you probably have guessed, it's all about photography.

In one of my favorite Discord channels, a whole bunch of my friends started regularly posting pictures. Some of them have gotten into analog photography (maybe obsessively so), while others got new gear and just made their camera part of their EDC. My GAS flares up every time this is the case, but as you can see from the image above, if there is one thing I am not lacking, it's photography gear.

Here is the plan: for the whole month I will be taking my camera wherever I go and taking at least one share-worthy picture a day. I will upload these to both my Glass.photo profile and my Instagram. I hate Instagram, but it's unfortunately where most people are. If you hate Instagram as much as I do and have no Glass.photo account, don't worry. Glass.photo has RSS feeds for each profile, so here is mine, just subscribe to that.

The goal is not to win the Sony World Photography Awards (but Sony can sponsor this project, if they want; hit me up!) but to flex my photography muscle. I want to find stuff to shoot even on the most boring day, because to quote Wesley, "consistency matters more than perfection".

Wish me good light!

• Book title: The Afterlife Project
• Author: Tim Weed
• Rating: 4/5

Despite the grim premise, I enjoyed this book. The two unfolding stories created perfect cliffhangers. But the book lost one star because it makes in fact no sense.

Notes & Highlights

We don’t march toward death, it marches toward us
as a summer thunderstorm came slowly across
the lake long ago. See the lightning of mortality dance,
the black clouds whirling as if a million crows.
—Jim Harrison, Songs of Unreason

He supposes that in a certain way she is still alive, in his memory at least, where, unlike in the real world, time runs both forward and backward.

Tread lightly. Think ahead. Respect the reality that despite your intelligence you are inseparable from the great web of life, a species to whom much has been given and of whom much is expected in return, namely a firm commitment to stewardship as opposed to thoughtless exploitation.

Where to buy The Afterlife Project by Tim Weed:

• Bookshop

I'm voting to make this the soundtrack of 2025.

So far I have:

• A proper camera
• A notebook and pen
• An Android-based e-reader for all my reading

And I'm looking at DAPs (basically a fancy iPod) for music, podcasts, and meditation.

(Funny how, back in the early days, we were excited whenever phones replaced more devices. Now, it feels like many people are moving in the opposite direction.)

• Book title: Atmosphere
• Author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
• Rating: 4.5/5

This book made me tear up a few times in public, so I have to give it high marks. It’s not the type of book I’d usually pick, but I loved it from start to end.

Notes & Highlights

Because the world had decided that to be soft was to be weak, even though in Joan’s experience being soft and flexible was always more durable than being hard and brittle. Admitting you were afraid always took more guts than pretending you weren’t. Being willing to make a mistake got you further than never trying. The world had decided that to be fallible was weak. But we are all fallible. The strong ones are the ones who accept it.

“Or better yet, we are the universe. I would go so far as to say that as human beings, we are less of a who and more of a when. We are a moment in time—when all of our cells have come together in this body. But our atoms were many things before, and they will be many things after. The air I’m breathing is the same air your ancestors breathed. Even what is in my body right now—the cells, the air, the bacteria—it’s not only mine. It is a point of connection with every other living thing, made up of the same kinds of particles, ruled by the same physical laws.

Language is what allows us to communicate. But it also limits what we can say, perhaps even how we feel. After all, how can we recognize a sentiment within ourselves that we have no word for? And perhaps, Joan thought, science is the same. Even the way we tell one another we want to live alongside them is limited by what we understand is possible in the world. What more could we say if we knew more about the universe?

Where to buy Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid:

• Bookshop

• Book title: The Anthropocene Reviewed
• Author: John Green
• Rating: 3/5

The book is ok. I like the premise. But I can’t stand how negative the author is at times. I give The Anthropocene Reviewed 3 stars.

Notes & Highlights

The five-star scale doesn’t really exist for humans; it exists for data aggregation systems, which is why it did not become standard until the internet era. Making conclusions about a book’s quality from a 175-word review is hard work for artificial intelligences, whereas star ratings are ideal for them.

Halley’s comet will be more than five times closer to Earth in 2061 than it was in 1986. It’ll be brighter in the night sky than Jupiter, or any star.

Where to buy The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green:

• Bookshop

This sparks joy.