More Books: Galápagos, Love, Enzo, Joy

1. Galapagos (Kurt Vonnegut)

A Vonnegut-meander through one way humans might evolve via natural selection.

2. A General Theory of Love (Michael Lewis, PhD)

A general theory of how we form attachments to people from childhood through adulthood. How our emotional architecture built via neural connections and limbic resonance influences our identity and the identities of those around us.

From birth to death, love is not just the focus of human experience but also the life force of the mind, determining our moods, stabilizing our bodily rhythms, and changing the structure of our brains. The body's physiology ensures that relationships determine and fix our identities. Love makes us who we are, and who we can become. In these pages, we explain how and why this is so. 

During the long centuries when science slumbered, humanity relied on the arts to chronicle the heart's mysterious ways. That accumulated wisdom is not to be disdained. This book, while traveling deep into the realm of science, keeps close at hand the humanism that renders such a journey meaningful. The thoughts of researchers and empiricists join those of poets, philosophers, and kings. Their respective starting points may be disparate in space, time, and temperament, but the voices in this volume rise and converge toward a common goal.

3. [Re-Read] The Art of Racing in the Rain (Garth Stein)

As expected, I cried. And sobbed. This time around, I noticed a lot more about cars than I had before.

4. [Currently Reading] The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying up (Marie Kondo)

Start by tidying by category. Just doing clothes and bike stuff has already made a huge difference in my life! Kondo purports three main types of people: "can't put it back", "can't throw it away", and the combination of "can't put it back"+"can't throw it away." Start with clothes. I donated a bag of clothes that didn't bring me joy (even after I thought I had minimized five months ago!). And now I find myself enjoying putting clothes away now!

[Want to Read] Borne (Jeff Vandimere)

[Want to Read] The City & The City (China Mieville)

[unifinished, save for later] Timequake (Kurt Vonnegut)

Constipation

blabbering:

mindfulness has become a very hailed topic in this transforming society - where consumerism and information overload is rampant. several years ago, i read "mindfulness in plain english" and it was very eye opening but i don't think i ever put it into practice. though i was mindful that i needed to be mindful. and i knew how to take an emotion, chew on it, then let it go. over the years, however, i've been learning that this process can and should be applied to other aspects of life (other than dealing with emotions which used to have such a strong control and influence over me).

one such area is in my struggle for productivity.

let's take "writer's block," for example. what is it?

it's when ideas can't find a way out. or ideas can't find a way in. or something in the neural pipeworks is broken and all that comes out is jumbled mess of god knows what. you end up paralyzed and frustrated and fixated on things that don't help you get "out" of the writer's block. something is stopping you from being creative or writing down something or being productive, in the way that you want to be. you either have to let new ideas in, fix the pipeworks (e.g. refine your writing skills), or open the clogged faucet somehow.

it's sad to think that despite all of the information we are consuming in this day and age - current events, ideas floating around, television, and so much media - there is such a lack of outflow from those consuming. i find this true of myself. i have yet to ask if others experience this as well.

in short, i could say that one of the main reasons i often find myself paralyzed in life is that i'm mentally constipated, not paralyzed... in my little fairytale land of analogies, this makes so much sense. there's so much to take in, so much to let go of, and so so much to digest and spit out.

sometimes i want to collect and absorb, and that's great. but other times i have to let things out.

but hopefully it's not explosive diarrhea....