Not much reading happening this month – I picked up a few samples, but not many compelling enough for me to actually go to the effort of buying.
One positive outcome of this is that it’s definitely easier to remember what I’ve read because it was barely anything!
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Gabriella Coslovich: Whiteley on Trial
This is actually very good, am reading in fits and starts. Who doesn’t love an art fraud case?
24% in.
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Annie Raser-Rowland, Adam Grubb: The Art of Frugal Hedonism: A Guide to Spending Less While Enjoying Everything More
Love the idea behind this book, it’s Australian too – which is pretty excellent – most of this genre is written overseas and can tend toward the less relatible. Found the voice occasionally a-little-too-trying-too-hard-to-be-funny. Many, many good things in here and though I’m unlikely to resort to freeganism, or start a huge garden, I liked the reminder that it’s completely not mandatory to upgrade / renovate your house (sometimes this is something I forget, with all those design blogs I follow and renovation programmes I watch!). Also loved the prod that I don’t always need the latest *thing*, but that it’s definitely still okay to spend money on *stuff* – particularly on quality and experiential *stuff*.
Some excellent Excerpts:
+ You’ve likely heard the following advice before, but given that so many of us forget to do it, here goes: when you’re food shopping, check what you already have before you go. This isn’t just about avoiding ending up with three jars of mayonnaise in the fridge, it’s about buying stuff to complement the food you’ve already got.
+ (on lifestyle journalists) They are not you. In fact They are mostly not even Them, but just writers attempting on satisfy an expected tone, spitting out blurbs about an Ethiopian fusion restaurant with award winning decor, or a great new line of handbags in the shape of marine mammals. Meanwhile, they muddle on with their imperfect lives, eat pasta and go to the shops carrying an old tote with a frayed strap, just like we all do.
Very few people actually do much of the stuff that the media implies people do, and those who do work hard to keep it up. But lifestyle journalism makes it easy to feel there is a world out there effortlessly dressing, holidaying, exercising, eating and thinking in certain appropriate ways, and it is human nature to not want to be terribly out of line with what everyone else is up to. Steer clear of this homogenising influence is you authors’ suggestion. Spend your Sunday morning breakfasts perusing odd facts about breeding piranhas in captivity instead.
+ Beware Fake Frugal … if it is cheap to buy, but at the expense of someone or something else, it’s Fake Frugal, and it’s just not fair. Factory-farmed eggs, end-less brand new clothes made by tired women in far away countries, “value packs” of disposable razors that end up as bobbing carpets in the North Atlantic. You get the gist. Buying cheap disposable, or crummy quality things that quickly need replacing, is not only Fake Frugal because it leads to you spending more money later on, but because it leads to us all living in a very non-hedonism-compatible rubbish dump.
Will definitely read again.
Would recommend if you’re into this sort of thing.
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Nicholas Carr: The Shallows – How the internet is changing the way we think, read and remember
What it says on the tin. This was published in 2010, so I we’re 7 years further down the path of shallowness!
I’m at 29% – it’s a very good read, but I’m finding it a little depressing we’re doomed and this-is-exactly-what-has-happened-to-me kind of way. Occasionally picking up, putting down, thinking, digesting, picking up &etc – which is probably the way to read it
Fiction, where art thou?
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And in audiobooks – finished Wallander #1 – kind of gentle, easy-listening murder, good for slow Sundays. Went to start #2, only to find it not available on the Australian audible. Geo-restrictions make me stabby (just take my frigging money, already!) – so I was forced to acquire it by less conventional means. Also, non-challenging and easy listening (though with a different – very american – narrator, which was a little disconcerting at first).
Now I’m on #3, which audible also did not want to sell to me. Fortunately it appears I can actually pay for #4 if I want to keep going.