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**Recently read**
– A World Without Email by Cal Newport
– Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
– Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro

**Currently Reading**
– The Every by Dave Eggers
– Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport
– Two Old Men and a Baby by Hendrik Groen
– The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
РA Philosophy of Walking by Fr̩d̩ric Gros

**In the stack**
– Deep Work by Cal Newport
– Homeland Elegies by Ayad Akhtar
– untangled by Lisa Damour
– The Great Mental Models vol. 2 and 3
– The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz
– The Odyssey by Homer / Emily Wilson translation
– Think Again by Adam Grant

One common thread of these recent books is the impact of technology and science on society. (Well, maybe not *The Remains of the Day* I’m not too far into it thus far to know.)

I’ve recently done a major cleanup of some old computers I had, but then quickly went down a bit of a classic rabbit hole again. I wonder a lot about being more intentional about when and where I use technology, social media, etc.

Anyways, would love to hear from you if you’ve read any of these or have recommendations!

Hey folks,

Long time no post.

Must Read

I’ve told a lot of people this in person, and in emails, but the book Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson is a must read. One of the benefits of working in a school is getting amazing book recommendations from my colleagues. I also had the great opportunity to see Mr. Stevenson speak at the NAIS conference a couple of years ago. He is the director of the Equal Justice Initiative which defends people who are on death row. It will challenge you and ask you to take notice of the broken system of criminal justice in this country.

Must See

In the same vein, as part of our Administrative SEED group at school, we watched the documentary 13th, available on Netflix. It refers to the clause in 13th amendment banning slavery except in the case of criminals. The movie dissects the prison-industrial complex with precision. Highly recommended.

Well, 2010, it was nice to know you. Here’s some of my favorite books, movies, and music from the past year:

Music

It was an all time low for me this year in terms of listening to new music. I think the combination of a lack of money and more important things keeping me busy (see: Sonja and Emilia, house) made for a slow year. That doesn’t mean that I haven’t enjoyed some great albums. In no particular order:

• The Suburbs – Arcade Fire
• Go – Jónsi
• This is Happening – LCD Soundsystem
• High Violet – The National
• Treats – Sleigh Bells
• Transference – Spoon

What made your list this year?

Movies

Ditto reasons above for not seeing many movies. I think we saw maybe two movies in the theater this year? Lots watched on Netflix, so this list is just some of the favorites that we watched in the past year:

• Inception
• Man On Wire
• District 9

Books

As an exception, I did read quite a few more books this year than normal. I’m proud of that, as it was one of my goals from last year.

Favorite non-fiction: Hamlet’s BlackBerry by William Powers. Basically a call to action for people to lead deeper, richer lives in an age of ever-shallower interactions with digital devices and media. Humans have, throughout recorded history, endured sweeping technological change that caused philosophers of the day to reconcile the positives and negatives of those changes. Mr. Powers draws parallels between the past and the present, arguing in some ways thatt we’ve seen this before and we have the tools to use technology positively. This is the great paradox of my career as well, encouraging people to use technology thoughtfully, to encourage deeper thinking and reflection.

Favorite fiction: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian by Sherman Alexie was actually a “required” summer reading for work, but I enjoyed it immensely. Very funny and serious at the same time. I also enjoyed “Juliet, Naked” by Nick Hornby, though I pretty much like everything of his that I’ve read.

“Our vision is every book, ever printed, in any language , all available in less than 60 seconds.”

-Jeff Bezos

Wrap your mind around that for a second…

My stack of books keeps growing. Like my Netflix queue, but with more taunt. (As the pile of books sits, physically, by my bedside, whereas the Netflix queue is a bit more ethereal.)

I just finished reading Feed by M.T. Anderson. It’s in the pile of books known as “work books”, aka books tangentially related to my job. (I’m not sure if What Went Wrong by Bernard Lewis counts… I checked it out from the school’s library)

I very much enjoy books and movies set in some dystopian future where people are reliant on, or slave to, some sort of “web” of information, and Feed fit the bill perfectly. It’s billed as a “Young adult” novel, but I think it would be appropriate for anyone who has ever walked around in public with a bluetooth earphone in their ear… while not actually speaking with anyone.

The basic premise of the book is that the internet is in your brain, and society has devolved significantly. Idiocracy meets Minority Report.

It’s a good read. I’d highly recommend it if you’re feeling just a bit too connected these days…

Where the Wild Things Are, based on Maurice Sendak’s classic picture book, is slated for major motion picture release in mid-2009.

via Wild Things All Over – 2/4/2008 – Publishers Weekly.

and…

the film will carry a blockbuster of a tie-in—and it’s not the book the film is based on: it is a solo novel, written by Eggers (working title: The Wild Things) inspired by Sendak’s iconic tale, to be published by Ecco Press.

Awesome… Where the Wild Things Are is my favorite children’s book of all time.

northern wisconsin provides excellent opportunities for unplugging from the internet, resting and relaxing. even though, the internet is only a few houses away. high speed internet is spreading it’s tentacles wide and far, so that even outside of minocqua, wisconsin, on a small lake, high speed is available.

i drove from my parent’s cabin to my grandparent’s cabin with my laptop open, just to see how many networks I would come across. eight. this may not seem like a lot, but nearly everywhere on the two-mile trip there was a wifi signal poking out.

but, at our cabin, no high speed. i set out the week with the goal of reading four books. (finishing two that I had already started and then two more new ones.) there have been discussions at school about the effect of the internet on reading, about how reading on the internet does not provoke deep thought and reflection the way that a book does, and even reading in a house where the internet is available provides enough of a distraction that books are read in a way that is shallower than before the advent of internet.

there is a strange allure to having the internet available when reading a book. what’s this word mean? what’s this place look like (look it up on google maps)? who was that person? (look it up on wikipedia)?

well, i’m sure the truth lies somewhere in the middle. it’s probably an issue of self-control, of learning to engage with your mind in a world that provides distractions everywhere you look.

the real challenge I think is convincing young people to let go of the distractions and singularily focus on something. at the NECC conference, I sat at a roundtable discussion about multitasking and it’s effect on learning. i got into a heated discussion with the woman seated to my right. she was on the side of “kids live in multitasking world, and we need to teach to that” whereas my argument was “we need to teach them to think, and that comes from focus”

needless to say, we didn’t convince each other of anything.

as the youngest person at that table by a few years, it was odd to be arguing against the technology-aided multitasking world that we seem to be heading towards.

who knows? but last week at the cabin in the woods on the lake, i finished those four books.