What I’m reading: 30 August 2026

Photo by Umberto Del Piano (via Unsplash)

The list is varied.

Since this is a blog about lots of things, but mostly reading and writing, I thought I’d share what I’m working on these days.

I’m usually reading a few books at once, but this time, the number is higher than usual (which probably reflects that I just have too much going on right now).

Books

Peter Coviello’s Is There God After Prince?: Dispatches from an Age of Lost Things — Coviello came to me as an internet recommendation, but I’m here to say this is very much my thing: Essays, theory, music, memoir. It’s all there. I have enjoyed reading his work this summer.
Jenny Odell’s How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy — This one came to me as a recommendation from Chris Hayes in The Siren’s Call. At I time when I am rethinking where I put my attention, Odell’s book came along at the right time (and I’m taking my time working through it).
James McPherson’s Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era — I have written about my recent interest in genealogy, and I have found myself thinking a lot about the Civil War (because one half of my family was very involved in it). Also, it’s an historical era I know a little bit about, so I’ve used it to anchor my research as I learn how to do this kind of research. At any rate, after finishing Donald L. Miller’s terrific Vicksburg: Grant’s Campaign that Broke the Confederacy, I knew I wanted to learn more. Two friends (and history PhDs) recommended this one. I’m listening to it, and it’s going to take a while — like, 40 hours — but I’m learning a lot.
Joan Didion’s Slouching Towards Bethlehem — It’s always a good time to read Didion. In Cameron Crow’s The Uncool: A Memoir, he describes getting a copy from Jann Wenner, that he never returns.

Jann returned with a copy of Joan Didion’s Slouching Towards Bethlehem. “Joan Didion,” he announced. He put the book on the table before me. It was well thumbed. This was the Wenner who started Rolling Stone and pushed that whole coffee-scented office full of writers to their best work. Now he was goading me to do the same. “Read this book,” he said. “The whole book. It’s going to inspire you. Take my copy. Return it when you’re done. The best writing—the best music—is personal, and it takes a stand. Did you take a stand? You should also seek out her Doors piece, her portrait of Jim Morrison. It’s the best profile of the band ever written, and she’s already nailed it before Morrison even enters the room.”

After reading that passage, I knew I had to go back to Didion. The title essay seems to me more resonant than ever.

On the Internet

These are some essays I’ve stumbled onto recently that I’ve been thinking about. Blogging is back, baby! It’s just taking place in newsletters now.

Len Necefer’s “Why I Deleted My Instagram and Applied to Run Little Caesars” — Necefer is an engineer/scientist who explains why he left social media and started a newsletter. (His thinking, too, was influenced by reading Hayes’ book.)
Brandon Taylor’s “i quit reading and almost died” — Taylor writes about art and exhaustion and so much more. I’m going to be thinking about this one for a while.
Brett Vogelsinger’s “We Can Miss Living in a Book when It eEds” — Vogelsinger, an English teacher, read Charles Dickens’ Bleak House over 19 weeks with a circle located around their world sharing their discussion in a Google doc.

On the Record Player