I do, what to some is, a lot of reading. I have an unquenchable thirst for knowledge. Due to my space and budget limitations, I purchase very few books. My main source is the library. I like to do a lot of things they way it is recommended not to, therefore I select many of my books by the cover. I usually check out more than I can read before they are due. If I start reading and the writing is poor or the subject is presented in an uninteresting manner, I just close the book and move on to the next. I have started keeping a list of the books that I have finished. I didn’t keep track of when I started the list, but I will guess it was around September of 2022. I can see that most of the books on the list have impacted the way I think. The last week or so, the reading has been a little heavy, so I cleansed by binge watching the first season of “The Good Place” on DVD, also checked out of the library. I am providing the list here, not as recommendations, but as background to my writing.

author	title	comments	catalog number
MACDONALD, HECTOR	Truth	how truth can be selectively manipulated to create competing truths	121
Harris, Sam	Free Will	his argument is we don’t have it	123.5
CLEARY, SKYE C	HOW TO BE AUTHENTIC		142.78
KORKKI, PHYILLIS	The Big thing	how to tackle a big project of your own making	153.3
VEDANTAM, SHANKAR	Useful Delusions: the Power & paradox of the Self-deceiving brain	insightful	153.4
PETROCELLI, JOHN	The Life-changing Science of Detecting Bullshit		153.42
GILBERT, DANIEL	STUMBLING ON HAPPINESS	HOW THE IMAGINATION WORKS	158
BENNETT, MICHAEL AND  BENNETT, SARAH	F*ck Feelings	pragmatic approach to feelings, and life problems	158
SYFRET, WENDY	The Sunny Nihilist	a different take on philosophy	158
LIVINGSTON, GORDON	Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart	This was a saying my grandfather used to say. The book contains 31 short pieces of wisdom	158
Jones, Lucy	Losing Eden	How nature effects our physical and mental wellbeing.	304.2
PIKETTY, THOMAS	A Brief History of Equality	a good primer on equality and the reasons for growth and some needs for the future. Told from the French perspective.	305
GORNICK, VIVIAN	The Solitude of self	biographical essay on Elizabeth Cady Stanton	305.42
GLADSTONE, BROOKS	The Trouble with Reality	short but very informative on the current political scene	306.2
RUSSO, FRANCINE	LOVE AFTER 50	GOOD READ	306.7
BENNETT, MICHAEL AND  BENNETT, SARAH	F*ck Love	pragmatic approach to relationships	306.7
BISHOP, GARY JOHN	Love Unfu*ked	good advice in general	306.7
Thaler, Richard H	Misbehaving: The making of behavioral economics		330.019
Kishtainy, Niall	A Little History of Economics	good background	330.09
REICH, ROBERT B.	SAVING CAPITALISM	The problems with capitalism and some possible solutions	330.973
Gates, Bill	How to Avoid a Climate Disaster	good baseline	363.738
COLE, JONI B	Good Naked: Reflections on How to Write More, Write Better & Be Happier	writing resource	808.02
SMIL, VACLAV	Numbers Don’t Lie: 71 Stories to Help Us Understand the Modern World	interesting factoids	909
Moore, LEONARD	Teaching Black History to White People	good primer	973.0496
FRANKFURT, HARRY	On Bullshit	good read
FRANKFURT, HARRY	On Inequality	good read, good campanion to “A Brief History of Equality” by Piketty
FRANKFURT, HARRY	The Reasons of Love	classic philosophical reasoning

In a recent post, I mentioned the 50-75 year cycle of our relative humanity to our fellow man. Months ago, I saw a Tweet with an image of the 1956 Republican platform (66 years ago). I have written the items from that Tweet here:

1. Provide federal assistance to low-income communities
2. Protect Social Security
3. Provide asylum for refugees
4. Extend minimum wage
5. Improve unemployment benefit system so it covers more people
6. Strengthen labor laws so workers can easily join a union
7. Assure equal pay for equal work regardless of sex

While doing a little research for this, I came across the complete text of the Republican platform published around August 1956. Here is the link:  https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/republican-party-platform-1956

There are many other points in the text including strong voting rights, belief in science, need for better education, better health care, stronger NATO and the list goes on. The text is long, and it took me an hour to assimilate. Today’s Republican party would agree with less than 10% of it’s contents. What has happened? They wrote this. This is what they stood for.

As I sit here, in my new writing chair, in the last week of 2022, I am struck by the thought of what a mess the world is in. That’s not to say everything is bad. We have made some genuine progress in 2022. The travesty is the progress came from such a low base. I read a lot. Someplace in my reading I saw we (the world, the US, you pick) go through cycles of our levels of humanity. They usually last about 50-75 years. We are at the bottom now. The bottom seems to be coated with some sticky shit that is making it difficult to get out. I really hope it doesn’t take 75 years to dig our way out, because I don’t think we have 75 years left if we don’t make some huge strides very soon. Things like climate change, income inequality and social justice are hurtling to the point of no return. I have also read about some cause for optimism. I only hope the crossover point is before we are looking up from the abyss and can’t reach the top.

I have many ideas running around in my head on how I would address the problems of the world. I don’t know if all of them are workable and I’m certain we don’t have the fortitude to implement them in a timely manner. I don’t know if I will be able to stay at the task long enough to get them all published

It’s too easy to find reasons not to write. Depending on the situation and subject, writing can be difficult and motivation scarce. About 9 months ago, I moved into an RV. I’ve written a little about this and will write more. The reason I mention this is I’ve used the logistics of writing in an RV to stall my writing. The space just wasn’t convenient enough. I finally came to a solution. I built a desk that fit the space available and functioned the way my peculiar tastes wanted. Then I found an excellent sitting solution (some might call this a chair) on evil Amazon (more about Amazon’s “evils” later). It was more than I wanted to pay but I “bit the bullet” and ordered it. It works perfectly for my situation, and I am sitting on it now as I write this. I have exhausted all my excuses for not writing. Now I am only left with that well known NIKE advertising slogan “Just Do It.” I have ideas swirling around in the noggin.

I just finished reading a book on writing motivation and how to have fun writing. One of the pointers was to just start writing. Its not necessary to start at the beginning. Just put something down and keep typing and life will fill in around it. This little ditty is an example of that in practice. It does feel good to get something down on paper, even if it is of little social import.

I’ve been reading a lot in the interim on many different subjects. My views on many things have been colored by this reading. These authors will be heard in the background as part of the chorus that hopefully gives depth to my writing.