Reading with Ally

Tag: writing

  • June 2026 Reading

    Really did not get much reading done this month. We had a birthday party for our kid towards the end of the month, so preparing for that kind of ate up much of the mental energy I may have otherwise spent on reading. Interestingly, party preparations didn’t necessarily take a ton of extra time, just, you know, the thinking. I’m continually “making a conscious effort to stay off my phone” but some days that effort has better success than others.

    Anyways, I’m still working through From Third World to First by Lee Kuan Yew. The author’s tone thus far has been very matter of fact and he makes founding a country sound like a pretty straightforward ordeal. I don’t know if this book would be considered post-colonial literature, after all, the book opens with discussions of British influence and air bases in Singapore, but if it is, it should be studied. Much of the angst present in other post-colonial literature that I’ve read is absent, but, then again, this isn’t a novel so the purpose of the book is different.

    I’m supposed to be reading Land of Milk and Honey by C Pam Zhang for a book club. I’m actually supposed to have it done by Monday, but I’m only about 30 pages in. It isn’t a difficult read but I don’t know that it is what we all expected. Lots of sexual imagery, people descending into wet holes, slushy sounds, oral..references etc. In a way, I suppose that is a welcome change from the violent phallic imagery that seems to permeate late 20th century literature. Perhaps it could be juxtaposed to Gravity’s Rainbow, creation vs destruction, male vs female, etc. I guess finishing this will be my weekend project.

    On Kindle I revisited Just Listen by Sarah Dessen. It was as good as I’d remembered, although, it lost some of the magic the second time around since Annabel’s world no longer felt as “new” to me. Now I’ve studied some ham radio myself, someone being a model is less interesting to me, and the whole ED and SA discussions are much more common and out in the open than they were several years ago. All of that is fine, and I guess it just goes to show that 1) yes Sarah Dessen writes good books and 2) I grew up, just like everyone does.

    Started Rick Steve’s hippie trail memoir on Kindle for July and will keep cranking away on the above. Not super exciting, but that is life, working through the stories.

  • Serious Things and Substack

    I guess most people blog on Substack now. I like what I have here and I don’t want to switch to Substack. I’m suspicuous of Platforms(TM); although, arguably, WordPress is a platform. I’m not going to put a server in my basement or get an AWS account though (alternatives to Substack or WordPress), so here we are. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

    I think when it comes to blogging, or writing in general, it’s easy to feel like everything one writes must have a “big point.” High school me could not write an essay without worrying about the eternal fate of humanity. Usually a piece of writing should have a point, unless your point is that some things don’t have a point, but there is a difference between a Point of Cosmic Significance and just Something Nice You Observed. Furthermore, the Something Nice You Observed doesn’t need to segue (segway?) into a Point of Cosmic Significance. The friendly chirping bird in your backyard can be a reminder of God’s creation without also being a reminder of the Persecuted Church and How People Are Sparrows (TM) the Awful Evolutionists (TM) the Problems with the Government (TM) and The Meaning of Life (TM). Whoa, that escalated quickly. Maybe, more on that later, maybe.

    That idea though – the idea that all writing must have some giant, cosmic point – has definitely crippled my writing in the past. The second I start to write, I get a thousand whirling thoughts of things that must be said write now. I start arguing against myself. I imagine all the criticizers and what they are going to criticize. At the same time, I feel like my writing is cliche and boring, what could I possibly have to say that noone else has said, there is nothing new under the sun, nobody will be interested. I go around and around in circles without ever actually writing anything. I am pretty good at finding Big Reasons Not to Write.

    And you know what? All those reasons suck. It is easy to criticize. It is hard to create. Data is cheap these days. Little words have little meanings and a lot of them are lovely.