Reading The Sparks of New-Year Fires

Thoughts on books and the start of a new year

Dear Friends,

Happy New Year!

Victor Hugo said that “To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled out is a spark.” I’ve been lighting a bunch of intellectual and emotional fires in my head and heart, reveling in all the audible sparks.

I believe that I read more books in 2024 – 75 of them – than I did in any year that I was taking classes or conducting research for my PhD in English.

Also a first in 2024, my ambitious audiobook consumption habit led me to read more works of fiction than non-fiction. In recent years, I’ve read books about Buddhism, positive psychology, and writing, and that trend continued, but this year I read more than 40 novels.

In some ways, I’ve been trying to keep up with my son Truman. We bought him a book of lists about ten years ago, the sort of top ten and top 100 lists that people compile, sometimes at the end of a year. Truman resolved to watch the films and read the books that appeared on various critics’ top 100 lists of all time. I believe he had read more classics of world literature as a high school graduate than I had as a college grad. He is currently finishing Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak.

This year I read The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry, No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy, Baumgartner by Paul Auster, and all six Audible-available books in the Dungeon Crawler Carl series. Those last Dungeon Crawler books do not come up in class.

Nonfiction books that I finished this year include How to Know a Person by David Brooks; Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke; Keep Moving: Notes on Loss, Creativity, and Change by Maggie Smith; When Harry Met Pablo: Truman, Picasso, and the Cold War Politics of Modern Art by Matthew Algeo; Hello, Habits: A Minimalist’s Guide to a Better Life by Fumio Sasaki, and The Zen of Therapy: Uncovering a Hidden Kindness in Life by Mark Epstein M.D.

I agree with Susan Sontag who said that "Literature can train, and exercise, our ability to weep for those who are not us or ours." And the end of December has been a time of weeping, with tragic transportation-related deaths in Kazakhstan, South Korea, and New Orleans.

I’m grateful to the doctors, therapists, and first responders who have tended to the affected families. “No one has ever become poor by giving,” Anne Frank said.

I’m also grateful that my son Jukie agreed to take millions of Davis greenbelt steps with me this year, thus affording me all that time to read 75 books. As people know who spend time along Putah Creek on the greenbelts of south Davis, we live in a beautiful and walkable city, one that provides many opportunities for nature-gazing and peaceful reflection. Wearing simple clothes, we walk with friends or family, noting the passage of beautiful moments.

I will close with a poem by M.S. Merwin:

Another Year Come

I have nothing new to ask of you,
Future, heaven of the poor.
I am still wearing the same things.
I am still begging the same question
By the same light,
Eating the same stone,
And the hands of the clock still knock without entering.

---

I host a pub quiz in Davis every Wednesday night at 7. I would love to see you there should you care to join us.

I share the text of the Pub Quiz with subscribers via Patreon every Monday. If you would like to see the Christmas quiz, I released that last week, even though we didn't meet in person. If you are curious, subscribe via Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/c/yourquizmaster.

I appreciate your backing this pub quiz project of mine!

Best,

Dr. Andy

P.S. Three questions from last week:

1. Mottos and Slogans. What American multinational financial services company has used the slogans “Talk to Chuck” and “Own Your Tomorrow”?

2. Internet Culture. When Steve Jobs introduced the first iMac in 1998, he explained that the "I" stood for what?

3. Newspaper Headlines. On Christmas Day, 2024, Lamar Jackson surpassed Michael Vick as the NFL's all-time leading rushing quarterback. Name Jackson’s team.