Back then I always came home late. That was during the messy stretch between thirteen and twenty. College came after, and studying ate up all my time, but before that, I’d come home late every night. If I didn’t have a reason to stay out, I stayed out anyway. Every night when I got home, I’d find my grandfather sitting at the table, lost in a book. His arms and hands already ached by then, so he needed the table to prop the book up.
I didn’t think much of it. Reading like that seemed pointless to me when he could’ve just sat in a chair, but I loved him, so I never gave him a hard time about it.
Every time, he’d ask, “Who’d you go out with?”
“The usual,” I’d say.
“I don’t know who these usual people are.”
“I know them. What are you reading?”
“The usual.”
“Man, you’re funny.”
“Come here. Sit down, boy.”
My grandfather wanted my dad to read. My dad never cared much for it, aside from a few books here and there. After striking out with his son, he turned to me, the only grandson close enough to work on.
I read dozens of books without ever opening one myself. I read them through him.
I remember his face while he talked. He talked. I listened.
All books talk. But a good book listens as well.
Mark Haddon
Here’s a few things for you to read, not a whole lot this time. It’s summer. Maybe that means more reading, maybe it means taking a deeper dive. So let’s slow down, sit in the circle, and talk it out.
Japan’s Twilight Age: Before the World Went Dark, We Were Already There
I am drawn to the twilight metaphor because I often describe Japan’s Lost Decades as “dim light.” I think this feeling is shared across generations who grew up in post-bubble Japan. What was once called “the lost decade” became “the lost two decades,” then “the lost three decades.” It has become the dimness we live under.
I have a coworker who’s married to a Japanese woman. She’s really quiet, and there’s something about that silence that I find fascinating. It could be the way she sees things, or just a different way of experiencing the world. I’m probably romanticizing it ’cause I’ve always been drawn to that kind of quiet vibe.
I’m sure Japan is probably very different from what I imagine it to be. I think every place is like that, I mean, we build a picture of it from far away, but reality is always different.
BTW, if you’re into Japan, try Real Japanese Aesthetics.
Meandering Months
This book is brilliant. A collection of essays written about his time in various places in Australia, it is an ode to this strange place and the enigmatic people that live here.
I don’t usually read a lot of book reviews on Substack, but I really liked this one because Evelyn Fox tied it to Australia, a country I honestly don’t know much about. I’ve never been, but I hope to make it there someday. If I do, I’ll know exactly what to read to get me in the right mood.
God’s loser
Rejection, after rejection, after rejection, dear Lord, why do You want me to write if I keep losing again and again, and again?! Do You want me to write? Or make art? Maybe I should humble myself, and leave all my artistic endeavours behind me, and just live a normal life?
Kathrine Elaine always brings so much intensity and passion to her writing, and wondering what it’s all for is something we have in common. I think it’s a good question to ask yourself so you don’t lose your way, even if it sometimes hurts to dig that deep. A beautiful piece about art, passion, obsession, and finding the strength to get back up.
Routh
NO ONE EATS UNTIL EVERYONE EATS.
It absolutely has Black Mirror DNA, but not in the usual “evil technology ruins humanity” kind of way. It’s closer to the political and philosophical side of Black Mirror: systems, identity, narratives. A good read by Amfang
Emergency
“Extrapolator, this is ground. Status is Single and ready to mingle. You? Over.”
Good dialogue. I really dig when dialogue is well written. By Scoot
Here Within My Heart
Love’s life’s sweetest music; though the Singer’s gone
I still hear that music play forever on -
I didn’t have the best relationship with my father, but Father’s Day is always a time when I get to read some really beautiful things about fathers. And as a dad myself, that makes me happy. A lot of what I read on Substack around that time was inspiring. This one was no different. Thanks R. H. Snow
Upon Earth There Is Not His Like
A boy and a girl, in their late teens, rose with bright smiles. Both were clad in simple white robes: the boy's dark haired head crowned with a pine wreath, while the girl's long sandy locks were dotted with fragrant wildflowers. They held hands, the very picture of guileless youth in all its splendor.
You read this piece, and somehow it reads you back. Just try it.
By Conor MacCormack
House of Waffle - Homage (Based on a True Story)
There was something pleasing about filling up my blank notebooks, about starting a new page when a line was displeasing, and about the server's faith that I was writing something profitable.
Writing isn’t just an action, it’s a place, it’s people, it’s feelings, and it’s everything that happens between the words you write and the thoughts that bring them to life. Writing is such a strange thing, and I don’t think we’ll ever write enough about it. Stephen
Astronomers Discover A Super-Earth Completely Covered in Water, With NO Land in Sight, Just Waves from Pole to Pole. This is TOI-1452 b
Ocean planets have lived in theory papers and science fiction for decades. Finding a real one, temperate and nearby, would confirm that nature builds a class of world our solar system simply lacks: not a dry rock like Earth or Mars, not a gas-smothered mini-Neptune, but something in between, drenched in water on a planetary scale. An ocean hundreds of kilometers deep rewrites the rules of geology, climate and, potentially, chemistry of the kind biology cares about.
Never stop exploring. Never stop being amazed. It’s our curiosity, the way we discover, create, and dream, that sets us apart from machines. And that’s what’s gonna save us. Curiosity
I’ll keep digging up things to share with our small circle. No signal lost.
Enjoy your summer, guys.
Michael
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Great finds! Thanks for collating another wonderful collection of reads, Michael.
I'm late getting to this (summer!) but loved reading about your grandfather. And of course the reading recommendations!