walls.corpus

By Nathan L. Walls

Themes

This year, I’m expecting a good amount of reading on the following topics:

Currently reading

Yes, I have way too many books in progress to meaningfully make headway on all of them.

Completed

Things Become Other Things, By Craig Mod

I’ve been a fan of Mod and his two newsletters, Roden and Ridgeline, for a few years now. This book comes out of some of the same material as Ridgeline and is worthy of the expansion.

What’s been interesting to observe in the last little while is retaining the warmth and excitement on what he’s writing about, but opening up and being more personal. Mod’s images and text are well-selected and paired, his story-telling neat, clean, economical. He uses the material he needs, no more. Friends, that is an under-appreciated skill.

A wonderful and touching memoir through travelogue I was looking forward to since my purchase of his previous book, Kissa By Kissa.

Fine Art Street Photography, by Rupert Vandervell

I’ve enjoyed Vandervell’s YouTube channel and his recommendations queued a few photo book additions to my photography wishlist. I was expecting this book to mostly be his work with minimal description, but it is instead using his work as instruction and inspiration for his brand of street photography. A fast read, good work, but I think his work deserves the treatment Craig Mod gives his.

On Writing, by Stephen King

My first read of this was several years ago. Robin read it recently, and seeing it at the Frenchtown Bookshop was a second delightful reminder. The 20th anniversary edition has picked up some additional sections that primarily strike me as curios versus essentials, but I did not mind them.

Two key things I thoroughly appreciated on this read-through:

Caliban’s War, by James S.A. Corey

I was a fan of the SyFy/Amazon Prime streaming series and I’m liking the books just as much. Two books into the series, I think the books were adapted well for television and the characters from the show map well to the characters I’m reading in the books. Fast, enjoyable reads.

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, by Gabrielle Zevin

A stunning, and deeply enjoyable novel.

Three Body Problem, by Liu Cixin

As with Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, any hype you might have heard from friends or colleagues about the book is well-earned.

Blood in the Machine, by Brian Merchant

I picked this one up from seeing it mentioned on Mandy Brown’s site. Brown’s reading notes are incisive about the book’s key points, so I highly recommend reading those and the book.

Being Wrong, by Kathryn Schulz

My Last Innocent Year, by Daisy Alpert Florin

The Art of Leadership: Small Things, Done Well, by Michael Lopp

Arbres / Trees, by Michael Kenna

Agency, by William Gibson

Open City, by Teju Cole

The Dark Forest, by Liu Cixin

The Splinter in the Sky, by Kemi Ashing-Giwa

Help Wanted, by Adelle Waldman

The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Death’s End, by Liu Cixin

The Passionate Programmer, by Chad Fowler

I bought and read this book a number of years ago and decided to give it a reread. Some of Fowler’s references are dated. The book is very much of its time in the late 2000s, but the general points made hold-up for the most part.

The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2023, edited by R.F. Kuang

Both this edition and the 2022 edition were not what I would expect to read, and for that exact reason, I have really dug the past two annual editions of this collection.

How Infrastructure Works, by Deb Cachra

Reamde, by Neal Stephenson

I started Fall: Or, Dodge in Hell from Stephenson and made it two or three dozen pages in before I realized I was reading a sequel and needed to go back and reread Reamde to get reacquainted with the characters. Solid read, but, dang if this wasn’t the length of three or four regular-sized books.

Best American Short Stories 2023, edited by Min Jin Lee

Thinking in Bets, by Annie Duke

Recommended at work and very worthwhile.

Best American Essays 2023, edited by Vivian Gornick

Tremor, by Teju Cole

Cole is an author and photographer who’s work I will buy and read just knowing he’s done it. I thoroughly enjoyed both Open City and Everyday is for the Thief. His most recent essay collection, Black Paper, was exceptional, with searing clarity. This book felt like a union of the clarity and purpose of Black Paper, and the narrative of his earlier novels. Outstanding.

As I was close to finishing up the book earlier today, Robin asked what I really liked about his writing and I said something along the lines that Cole is both a photographer and a writer and his writing comes across like excellent photography. They are different arts, but I can see the creative influence of one on clearly on the other.