{ "version": "https://jsonfeed.org/version/1", "title": "Books and reading on jabel", "icon": "https://avatars.micro.blog/avatars/2021/97100.jpg", "home_page_url": "https://jabel.blog/", "feed_url": "https://jabel.blog/feed.json", "items": [ { "id": "http://jabel.micro.blog/2026/06/14/you-may-have-noticed-how.html", "content_html": "

You may have noticed how much I’ve been quoting Patrick Harpur’s Daimonic Reality lately. It’s been so engaging that about a third of the way through I knew I needed to return the library copy and buy my own.

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Which I received today. Flipping through it tonight I came across the publisher on the copyright page:

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Guys, that’s like right over there. I’m not sure you can appreciate how utterly bizarre it is that this book I love so much was published by a company not five minutes from my house—in this obscure town. I am restraining myself from going on and on here. Suffice it to say I might actually call this publishing company tomorrow just to say “what the hell?”

\n", "date_published": "2026-06-14T20:03:20-04:00", "url": "https://jabel.blog/2026/06/14/you-may-have-noticed-how.html", "tags": ["Books and reading"] }, { "id": "http://jabel.micro.blog/2026/06/13/many-years-ago-mom-needed.html", "content_html": "

Many years ago, mom needed some books to fill up her bookshelves so I gave her some that I still had around but no longer cared about. Now I’m cleaning out some stuff in her house and there are a few I’m taking back to my shelves. There was a time when Wilson and Sproul were very important to me, despite one of them becoming quite notorious of late. I told a friend recently never to be embarrassed about who they were before; that’s what makes them who they are now.

\n\"\"\n", "date_published": "2026-06-13T12:42:42-04:00", "url": "https://jabel.blog/2026/06/13/many-years-ago-mom-needed.html", "tags": ["Books and reading"] }, { "id": "http://jabel.micro.blog/2026/04/24/its-ridiculous-really-that-i.html", "content_html": "

It’s ridiculous, really, that I haven’t read any of the Foxfire books yet. I’ve checked out from the library an ebook edition of The Foxfire Book of Appalachian Cooking to get me started and I’m going to keep an eye out for used copies of the main series.

\n", "date_published": "2026-04-24T09:39:00-04:00", "url": "https://jabel.blog/2026/04/24/its-ridiculous-really-that-i.html", "tags": ["Books and reading"] }, { "id": "http://jabel.micro.blog/2026/02/27/finished-reading-radiance-of-the.html", "content_html": "

Finished reading Radiance of the Ordinary: Essays on Life, Death, and the Sinews that Bind by Tara Couture. Wonderful, wonderful. One of the best books I’ve read in a while. 📚

\n", "date_published": "2026-02-27T21:08:10-04:00", "url": "https://jabel.blog/2026/02/27/finished-reading-radiance-of-the.html", "tags": ["Books and reading"] }, { "id": "http://jabel.micro.blog/2026/02/24/david-bentley-hart-has-a.html", "content_html": "

David Bentley Hart has a translation of the Tao Te Ching coming out in May. I may have to add that to my collection of translations. Interview with Hart about the book here.

\n", "date_published": "2026-02-24T06:39:57-04:00", "url": "https://jabel.blog/2026/02/24/david-bentley-hart-has-a.html", "tags": ["Books and reading"] }, { "id": "http://jabel.micro.blog/2026/02/21/since-reading-a-great-quote.html", "content_html": "

Since reading a great quote shared by @ReaderJohn earlier today, ordinariness has been on my mind and I thought I’d share a couple of books. Coincidentally, I received this in the mail today: Radiance of the Ordinary: Essays on Life, Death, and the Sinews that Bind. Another book I came across a few years ago but still haven’t read: The Tao of Ordinariness: Humility and Simplicity in a Narcissitic Age.

\n", "date_published": "2026-02-21T22:01:17-04:00", "url": "https://jabel.blog/2026/02/21/since-reading-a-great-quote.html", "tags": ["Books and reading"] }, { "id": "http://jabel.micro.blog/2026/02/17/ive-found-myself-referring-to.html", "content_html": "

I’ve found myself referring to the notes and bibliography of Finding Lights in a Dark Age even more than usual. One entry in the bibliography that grabbed my attention today: Ramp Hollow: The Ordeal of Appalachia by Steven Stoll.

\n", "date_published": "2026-02-17T09:58:16-04:00", "url": "https://jabel.blog/2026/02/17/ive-found-myself-referring-to.html", "tags": ["Books and reading"] }, { "id": "http://jabel.micro.blog/2026/02/11/so-is-the-cotton-patch.html", "content_html": "

So is The Cotton Patch Evidence by Dallas Lee the book to read if I want to learn more about Clarence and Florence Jordan and the Koinonia Farm?

\n", "date_published": "2026-02-11T14:55:57-04:00", "url": "https://jabel.blog/2026/02/11/so-is-the-cotton-patch.html", "tags": ["Books and reading"] }, { "id": "http://jabel.micro.blog/2026/01/28/when-im-looking-through-the.html", "content_html": "

When I’m looking through the library catalogue for books on the Amish, it’s very annoying to have to filter through all the bonnet rippers .

\n", "date_published": "2026-01-28T09:53:22-04:00", "url": "https://jabel.blog/2026/01/28/when-im-looking-through-the.html", "tags": ["Books and reading","Amish and other Anabaptists"] }, { "id": "http://jabel.micro.blog/2026/01/12/update-on-my-anabaptist-reading.html", "title": "Update on my Anabaptist reading", "content_html": "

Currently reading:

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Finished reading:

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Future plans:

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Abandoned:

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Why am I doing this? Now and then (once a year or so?), I feel a surge of new, loosely-connected interests. Sometimes this results in some new ideas and sometimes it just adds to my store of useless knowledge. I’ve learned to go with it.

\n", "date_published": "2026-01-12T22:05:41-04:00", "url": "https://jabel.blog/2026/01/12/update-on-my-anabaptist-reading.html", "tags": ["Books and reading"] }, { "id": "http://jabel.micro.blog/2026/01/12/on-my-morning-commute-ie.html", "content_html": "

On my morning commute (i.e., walking a few blocks to work!), I’ve started listening to Remembering Peasants by Patrick Joyce. I think this is going to be a good one.

\n", "date_published": "2026-01-12T09:18:06-04:00", "url": "https://jabel.blog/2026/01/12/on-my-morning-commute-ie.html", "tags": ["Books and reading"] }, { "id": "http://jabel.micro.blog/2026/01/10/im-honestly-a-bit-surprised.html", "content_html": "

I’m honestly a bit surprised how much I’m enjoying this biography of Eberhard Arnold, founder of the Bruderhof. To be fair, it’s a friendly biography. Still, he’s an interesting guy.

\n", "date_published": "2026-01-10T11:31:00-04:00", "url": "https://jabel.blog/2026/01/10/im-honestly-a-bit-surprised.html", "tags": ["Books and reading"] }, { "id": "http://jabel.micro.blog/2025/10/27/i-wanted-to-learn-a.html", "content_html": "

I wanted to learn a bit more about the archangel Raphael so I read the book of Tobit today, which I had not read before. What a wonderful story! Sparrow droppings and fish guts and even a dog!

\n", "date_published": "2025-10-27T18:29:14-04:00", "url": "https://jabel.blog/2025/10/27/i-wanted-to-learn-a.html", "tags": ["Books and reading"] }, { "id": "http://jabel.micro.blog/2025/10/22/finished-reading-angels-in-the.html", "content_html": "

Finished reading: Angels in the Cellar: Notes from a French Vineyard by Peter Hahn. I cannot recommend this beautiful book highly enough. Every page was a joy to read. Special thanks to @JohnBrady for sending it to me.

\n", "date_published": "2025-10-22T19:24:16-04:00", "url": "https://jabel.blog/2025/10/22/finished-reading-angels-in-the.html", "tags": ["Books and reading"] }, { "id": "http://jabel.micro.blog/2025/10/08/fresh-from-henry-county-kentucky.html", "content_html": "

Fresh from Henry County, Kentucky

\n\"\"\n", "date_published": "2025-10-08T11:59:18-04:00", "url": "https://jabel.blog/2025/10/08/fresh-from-henry-county-kentucky.html", "tags": ["Books and reading"] }, { "id": "http://jabel.micro.blog/2025/06/10/my-friend-and-neighbor-has.html", "content_html": "

My friend and neighbor has a new book out today: Orthodox Saints of Wales

\n", "date_published": "2025-06-10T14:39:39-04:00", "url": "https://jabel.blog/2025/06/10/my-friend-and-neighbor-has.html", "tags": ["Books and reading"] }, { "id": "http://jabel.micro.blog/2025/03/06/pretty-excited-about-this-one.html", "content_html": "

Pretty excited about this one. I started reading it online through the university library just to get a taste, and within five pages decided I had to buy it and put aside everything else I’m reading until I’m through it.

\n\"\"\n", "date_published": "2025-03-06T16:30:48-04:00", "url": "https://jabel.blog/2025/03/06/pretty-excited-about-this-one.html", "tags": ["Books and reading"] }, { "id": "http://jabel.micro.blog/2024/12/09/finished-reading-dopamine.html", "content_html": "

Finished reading Dopamine Nation by Anna Lembke. Thanks to @toddgrotenhuis for mentioning it. The lesson that will stay with me is that a relentless pursuit of pleasure leads to pain–and not only metaphorically. In fact, we may have to sometimes embrace pain as a way to reset a healthy balance.

\n", "date_published": "2024-12-09T17:42:04-04:00", "url": "https://jabel.blog/2024/12/09/finished-reading-dopamine.html", "tags": ["Books and reading"] }, { "id": "http://jabel.micro.blog/2024/05/10/im-on-the.html", "content_html": "

I’m on the road today—driving from Salem to Paoli to French Lick to Loogootee, looking for old tools in junk shops and flea markets. Listening to the Why We Drive audiobook, appropriately enough.

\n", "date_published": "2024-05-10T12:36:45-04:00", "url": "https://jabel.blog/2024/05/10/im-on-the.html", "tags": ["Memories","Books and reading"] }, { "id": "http://jabel.micro.blog/2024/05/07/wow-testimony-of.html", "content_html": "

Wow! Testimony of Paul Robeson before HUAC in 1956. Audio is a reenactment by James Earl Jones but the words are from the hearing itself. More about Paul Robeson.

\n", "date_published": "2024-05-07T17:59:23-04:00", "url": "https://jabel.blog/2024/05/07/wow-testimony-of.html", "tags": ["Short posts","Books and reading"] }, { "id": "http://jabel.micro.blog/2024/04/18/finished-reading-mr.html", "content_html": "

Finished reading Mr Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookshop and Ajax Penumbra 1969, both by Robin Sloan. I’ve read his newsletter for a while so I figured it was time to start catching up on his books, especially with a new one coming out this year. Sourdough and its associated novella are next.

\n", "date_published": "2024-04-18T13:20:11-04:00", "url": "https://jabel.blog/2024/04/18/finished-reading-mr.html", "tags": ["Books and reading"] }, { "id": "http://jabel.micro.blog/2024/03/13/rhyd-wildermuth-has.html", "content_html": "

Rhyd Wildermuth has just published an excellent article on degrowth (paywalled).

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Put as simply as possible, degrowth states that the relentless expansion (“growth”) that capitalist economies rely upon to survive (and to outrun the crises they create) has a limit. Once that limit is reached and can no longer be postponed, they will then contract in often violent and tragic ways.

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And he uses an excellent analogy with credit cards:

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Readers in the United States will already be familiar with the analogy I’m about to use for this, while European readers will no doubt struggle with some disbelief that such a thing is even possible. In America, it’s possible to get a credit card without sufficient funds or collateral to show you can pay back what you borrow. Wilder still, once you’ve spent the limit of that first card, you can then get another one from a different provider, max it out, and then get a third, fourth, and even more. You can even use the credit from one card to pay down the minimum balance on another or even transfer balances, constantly juggling your debt load until you’ve gotten yourself into a terrifying abyss.

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What often happens for the person using this strategy is that each subsequent credit card comes with a higher interest rate than the previous ones, and there’s a system of debt tracking (a “credit score”) which determines what this rate will be and what the credit limit will be. The more in debt you get, the higher the interest rate you’ll have to pay back, and eventually it all catches up to you.

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Degrowth asserts that this is precisely what capitalist societies have been doing since the very beginning: borrowing against a future moment in which they hope they’ll be able to pay it all back.

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Fossil fuels are the best example of this problem. They function as a line of credit to allow increased production, consumption, and accelerated technological change, while their invisible consequences (atmospheric carbon release) accumulated the way compound interest on a credit card does. We’re now starting to max out this line of credit, and will soon need another line.

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Solar, wind, hydroelectric, and nuclear are potential alternatives, but again as with the credit cards, they each come with their own hidden fees and variable interest penalties. For all those alternatives, you need a large initial input of energy just to build them. The minerals required to build solar panels and the batteries involved all require energy to mine, refine, and create, while uranium mining and refining also require large initial energy inputs.

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Where does that initial energy come from? Currently, fossil fuels — from one line of credit to another — all to make sure we can keep increasing the amount of energy available for technological solutions to the other problems our technologies cause.

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Degrowth looks at this problem the way most of us might view a friend constantly getting new loans to pay back other loans. Just as we might ask, “why not cut back on your spending?” degrowth proposes we question the core value of capitalist expansion. It then asks what life might be like if we tried to live within our limits, tried to pay down the debts we’ve accrued (in the form of environmental damage and resource depletion). What might it be like if we stopped borrowing against the future?

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My first real introduction to degrowth was Jason Hickel’s book. And based on Rhyd’s article, looks like I need to read this book by Kohei Saito.

\n", "date_published": "2024-03-13T11:12:14-04:00", "url": "https://jabel.blog/2024/03/13/rhyd-wildermuth-has.html", "tags": ["Quote posts","Books and reading"] }, { "id": "http://jabel.micro.blog/2024/03/08/im-looking-forward.html", "content_html": "

I’m looking forward to this book: Land Healing: Physical, Metaphysical, and Ritual Approaches for Healing the Earth by Dana O’Driscoll (Grand Archdruid of the AODA). It looks like a great mix of both practical and spiritual work for those who want to contribute to renewing the land.

\n", "date_published": "2024-03-08T16:41:15-04:00", "url": "https://jabel.blog/2024/03/08/im-looking-forward.html", "tags": ["Books and reading"] }, { "id": "http://jabel.micro.blog/2024/02/24/finished-reading-a.html", "content_html": "

Finished reading A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers. The best thing about this book was the way Chambers imaginatively de-centered humans. Apart from that, I can’t say it ever quite gripped me. I’m interested enough to read the next book though.

\n", "date_published": "2024-02-24T08:08:44-04:00", "url": "https://jabel.blog/2024/02/24/finished-reading-a.html", "tags": ["Books and reading"] }, { "id": "http://jabel.micro.blog/2024/01/30/at-the-moment.html", "content_html": "

At the moment, my plan is to continue reading Wendell Berry’s fiction until I’ve read it all. Using Tom Murphy’s site as my source (and excluding some hard-to-find small press titles), here’s how it stands:

\n\n", "date_published": "2024-01-30T15:30:27-04:00", "url": "https://jabel.blog/2024/01/30/at-the-moment.html", "tags": ["Books and reading","Wendell Berry"] }, { "id": "http://jabel.micro.blog/2024/01/14/finished-reading-nathan.html", "content_html": "

Finished reading Nathan Coulter by Wendell Berry. 📚 This was his first novel but my edition is the revised 1985 paperback. He edited it so that it would fit in what would become the overarching history of the Port William membership. I think I’ll read Hannah Coulter next.

\n

\n", "date_published": "2024-01-14T15:23:59-04:00", "url": "https://jabel.blog/2024/01/14/finished-reading-nathan.html", "tags": ["Books and reading","Wendell Berry"] }, { "id": "http://jabel.micro.blog/2023/12/30/has-anyone-read.html", "content_html": "

Has anyone read Human Scale by Kirkpatrick Sale? I had a nice copy of that book that I acquired from Caveat Emptor in Bloomington many years ago—but at some point I sold it or gave it away. What a poor decision! And, obviously, I never read it.

\n", "date_published": "2023-12-30T18:44:35-04:00", "url": "https://jabel.blog/2023/12/30/has-anyone-read.html", "tags": ["Books and reading"] }, { "id": "http://jabel.micro.blog/2023/11/29/finished-reading-jayber.html", "content_html": "

Finished reading Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry. Beautiful and heart-breaking. I think I’ll keep working my way through his fiction.

\n", "date_published": "2023-11-29T09:44:01-04:00", "url": "https://jabel.blog/2023/11/29/finished-reading-jayber.html", "tags": ["Books and reading","Wendell Berry"] }, { "id": "http://jabel.micro.blog/2023/11/24/ive-been-an.html", "content_html": "

I’ve been an admirer of Wendell Berry for over twenty years now—but, weirdly, I’ve only ever read his essays and poetry. I finally picked up one of his novels, Jayber Crow, and it’s being narrated in my head in Uncle Wendell’s mournful baritone. It’s a lovely experience.

\n", "date_published": "2023-11-24T09:26:40-04:00", "url": "https://jabel.blog/2023/11/24/ive-been-an.html", "tags": ["Books and reading","Wendell Berry"] }, { "id": "http://jabel.micro.blog/2023/11/16/the-number-of.html", "content_html": "

The number of books I’ve read has dropped over the last couple of years because I no longer have a commute during which I can listen to audiobooks. And given the choice of working from home and reading fewer books or working in the office and listening to more audiobooks–that choice is trivially easy for me.

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One consequence of this, however, is that I’ve read nearly zero fiction since COVID. Audiobooks were always the way I read fiction; I found that the format was perfect for fiction, less so for nonfiction. So I’ve been feeling the itch to get back to some fiction this winter. I’ve been accumulating a list of possibilities and I’m open to any suggestions:

\n\n", "date_published": "2023-11-16T10:15:03-04:00", "url": "https://jabel.blog/2023/11/16/the-number-of.html", "tags": ["Books and reading"] }, { "id": "http://jabel.micro.blog/2023/11/12/finished-reading-when.html", "content_html": "

Finished reading When the Body Says No: Exploring the Stress-Disease Connection by Gabor Maté. Fewer case studies and biological details would have made this a perfect book for me—but I realize that’s a weird thing to ask of such a book. Nevertheless, extremely important ideas here.

\n", "date_published": "2023-11-12T12:24:38-04:00", "url": "https://jabel.blog/2023/11/12/finished-reading-when.html", "tags": ["Books and reading"] }, { "id": "http://jabel.micro.blog/2023/11/11/finished-reading-owning.html", "content_html": "

Finished reading Owning Your Own Shadow by Robert A. Johnson. Great, short introduction to the subject by a Jungian analyst. It’s an important idea, despite its popularity among young people who have not lived long enough to have developed much of a shadow. 😉

\n", "date_published": "2023-11-11T09:01:45-04:00", "url": "https://jabel.blog/2023/11/11/finished-reading-owning.html", "tags": ["Books and reading"] }, { "id": "http://jabel.micro.blog/2023/10/06/currently-reading-gabor.html", "content_html": "

Currently reading Gabor Maté’s book When the Body Says No: Exploring The Stress-Disease Connection. Wonderful book. I’m going to have to make some changes, based on this.

\n", "date_published": "2023-10-06T08:28:47-04:00", "url": "https://jabel.blog/2023/10/06/currently-reading-gabor.html", "tags": ["Books and reading"] }, { "id": "http://jabel.micro.blog/2023/10/03/interesting-haul-at.html", "content_html": "

Interesting haul at half price books today

\n\"\"\n", "date_published": "2023-10-03T13:17:43-04:00", "url": "https://jabel.blog/2023/10/03/interesting-haul-at.html", "tags": ["Books and reading"] }, { "id": "http://jabel.micro.blog/2023/09/29/so-blood-in.html", "content_html": "

So Blood in the Machine starts with an epigraph from Run the Jewels? Dude, I’ve already bought the book—you don’t have to keep winning me over.

\n\"\"\n", "date_published": "2023-09-29T09:19:28-04:00", "url": "https://jabel.blog/2023/09/29/so-blood-in.html", "tags": ["Books and reading","Music"] }, { "id": "http://jabel.micro.blog/2023/09/26/cory-doctorow-reviews.html", "content_html": "

Cory Doctorow reviews Blood in the Machine, a forthcoming history of the Luddites. I’ve had it on pre-order since the day I heard about it. 📚

\n", "date_published": "2023-09-26T09:58:56-04:00", "url": "https://jabel.blog/2023/09/26/cory-doctorow-reviews.html", "tags": ["Books and reading"] }, { "id": "http://jabel.micro.blog/2023/08/22/ordered-a-copy.html", "content_html": "

Ordered a copy of the I Ching through my local bookstore–and it happened to be the translation by David Hinton, whose work I’ve always found helpful. Should be available in 3-5 days, which gives me enough time to read up on how to consult it. Also, Jung’s essay on it and the Weird Studies episode.

\n", "date_published": "2023-08-22T08:57:51-04:00", "url": "https://jabel.blog/2023/08/22/ordered-a-copy.html", "tags": ["Books and reading"] }, { "id": "http://jabel.micro.blog/2023/07/21/my-current-and.html", "content_html": "

My current and upcoming reading pile 📚 What’s in yours?

\n\"\"\n", "date_published": "2023-07-21T08:41:24-04:00", "url": "https://jabel.blog/2023/07/21/my-current-and.html", "tags": ["Books and reading"] }, { "id": "http://jabel.micro.blog/2023/06/30/im-so-glad.html", "content_html": "

I’m so glad to have maintained a log of the books I’ve read since 2005. Not least because it’s such a window into the ways I’ve changed over the years. Anyway, I’ve created a page that lists the books in reverse chronological order. Some gaps are true gaps and some are just record-keeping failures.

\n", "date_published": "2023-06-30T18:04:51-04:00", "url": "https://jabel.blog/2023/06/30/im-so-glad.html", "tags": ["Books and reading"] }, { "id": "http://jabel.micro.blog/2023/06/30/now-moving-on.html", "content_html": "

Now moving on from a book about limits on tools to one about simpler living.

\n\"Cover\n", "date_published": "2023-06-30T07:38:00-04:00", "url": "https://jabel.blog/2023/06/30/now-moving-on.html", "tags": ["Books and reading"] }, { "id": "http://jabel.micro.blog/2023/06/30/finished-reading-ivan.html", "content_html": "

Finished reading Ivan Illich’s Tools for Conviviality. Short book but not a quick read. Dense with ideas that, I believe, are crucial for people concerned about staying human in a time of rapidly accelerating technology.

\n", "date_published": "2023-06-30T07:30:37-04:00", "url": "https://jabel.blog/2023/06/30/finished-reading-ivan.html", "tags": ["Books and reading"] }, { "id": "http://jabel.micro.blog/2023/06/13/im-sad-to.html", "content_html": "

I’m sad to finish Jung’s Memories, Dreams, Reflections. Next, I would like to at least read The Portable Jung and the Red Book. Any other recommendations for an interested layman?

\n", "date_published": "2023-06-13T11:28:34-04:00", "url": "https://jabel.blog/2023/06/13/im-sad-to.html", "tags": ["Books and reading"] }, { "id": "http://jabel.micro.blog/2023/06/06/i-could-read.html", "content_html": "

I could read Memories, Dreams, Reflections all day long. It’s a book full of mysterious visions and dreams from a person who is among the deepest minds of the last few centuries—yet it is completely readable.

\n", "date_published": "2023-06-06T08:13:01-04:00", "url": "https://jabel.blog/2023/06/06/i-could-read.html", "tags": ["Books and reading"] }, { "id": "http://jabel.micro.blog/2023/01/23/when-i-saw.html", "content_html": "

When I saw that @ayjay was reading Matthew B. Crawford’s book Why We Drive, it inspired me to revisit Crawford’s Shop Class as Soulcraft, particularly since I’ve started woodworking this year. I read the original article when it came out in 2006 (seventeen years ago!) and was thrilled by it and the book that followed. Rather than completing the re-read, though, I’m moving on to The Word Beyond Your Head, which may be more relevant to what I’ve been thinking about lately.

\n", "date_published": "2023-01-23T14:39:08-04:00", "url": "https://jabel.blog/2023/01/23/when-i-saw.html", "tags": ["Books and reading"] }, { "id": "http://jabel.micro.blog/2023/01/13/so-cory-doctorows.html", "content_html": "

So Cory Doctorow’s new book is about an accountant?? I’m in. To be fair, it’s a book about a forensic accountant, those Humphrey Bogarts of the accounting world that the rest of us can only admire.

\n", "date_published": "2023-01-13T09:23:28-04:00", "url": "https://jabel.blog/2023/01/13/so-cory-doctorows.html", "tags": ["Books and reading"] }, { "id": "http://jabel.micro.blog/2022/08/30/finished-reading-the.html", "content_html": "

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Finished reading The Green Man by Kathleen Basford. Actually, there isn’t a lot of text—mostly great pictures of Green Man and related architectural decoration. These are a few of my favorites.

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\n", "date_published": "2022-08-30T21:06:22-04:00", "url": "https://jabel.blog/2022/08/30/finished-reading-the.html", "tags": ["Books and reading"] }, { "id": "http://jabel.micro.blog/2022/06/02/if-all-goes.html", "content_html": "

If all goes as planned, I am three days away from visiting Muir Woods, so I’m reading this in earnest. Very good so far.

\n\"\"\n", "date_published": "2022-06-02T07:37:23-04:00", "url": "https://jabel.blog/2022/06/02/if-all-goes.html", "tags": ["Books and reading"] }, { "id": "http://jabel.micro.blog/2022/05/03/thanks-to-austin.html", "content_html": "

Thanks to Austin Kleon for telling us there was a word for this: tsundoku. I work at my kitchen table, so here is the pile that sits just behind my work laptop.

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\n", "date_published": "2022-05-03T10:17:06-04:00", "url": "https://jabel.blog/2022/05/03/thanks-to-austin.html", "tags": ["Books and reading"] }, { "id": "http://jabel.micro.blog/2022/04/25/i-really-enjoyed.html", "content_html": "

I really enjoyed looking through this collection of random pairings of books from Robert van Vliet’s library. There’s something very appealing about his method.

\n", "date_published": "2022-04-25T11:16:00-04:00", "url": "https://jabel.blog/2022/04/25/i-really-enjoyed.html", "tags": ["Books and reading"] }, { "id": "http://jabel.micro.blog/2022/03/18/last-night-i.html", "content_html": "

Last night I was walking through Donaldson Woods, one of the few remaining stands of old-growth forest remaining in Indiana, and thought to myself, “What’s new with pantheism?”

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So once I regained cell phone reception, I found this book by Mary Jane Rubenstein. Also, this video of her is well worth a few minutes of your time: “Why We Need Pantheism”.

\n", "date_published": "2022-03-18T05:54:34-04:00", "url": "https://jabel.blog/2022/03/18/last-night-i.html", "tags": ["Books and reading"] }, { "id": "http://jabel.micro.blog/2022/03/16/if-the-ability.html", "content_html": "

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If the ability to tell right from wrong should turn out to have anything to do with the ability to think, then we must be able to ‘demand’ its exercise from every sane person, no matter how erudite or ignorant, intelligent or stupid, he may happen to be.

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Hannah Arendt, as quoted by Samantha Rose Hill in her essay “Thinking is Dangerous”. The essay is part of a newly announced project on Hannah Arendt that includes events and a podcast.

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I recommend Samantha Rose Hill’s Substack.

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I also recommend Richard J. Bernstein’s book Why Read Hannah Arendt Now?

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Rachel and I recently watched an excellent film about Arendt. (I came across an article challenging its historical accuracy so perhaps don’t wholly rely on it.)

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Finally, to round this out, I’m including below some notes I made a few years ago on one of Arendt’s essays.

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In “Truth and Politics” (pdf), Hannah Arendt discusses the vulnerability of facts. Facts are contingent; events may have happened otherwise. Unlike mathematical truth, facts are not axiomatic. If facts are suppressed or distorted, they may not be recoverable.

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_Facts can be inconvenient: “Facts are beyond agreement and consent. … Unwelcome facts possess an infuriating stubbornness that nothing can move except plain lies.” Given this and the vulnerability of facts, political power is a particular danger. “The chances of factual truth surviving the onslaught of power are very slim indeed”. _

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_Facts may be suppressed and forgotten over time, but modern technology makes a 1984-style memory hole difficult. More likely is the strategy of transforming facts into opinions. When the liar cannot make his lie stick, he “does not insist on the gospel truth of his statement but pretends that this is his ‘opinion,’ to which he claims his constitutional right.” _

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Another way political power may defeat facts is through the use of “organized lying”. Because facts describe events that could have been otherwise, an equally plausible counter-narrative can be fashioned by political power. “Since the liar is free to fashion his ‘facts’ to fit the profit and pleasure, or even the mere expectations, of his audience, the chances are that he will be more persuasive than the truthteller.”

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_The consequence of such widespread substitution of lies for truth is that “the sense by which we take our bearings in the real world - and the category of truth vs. falsehood is among the mental means to this end - is being destroyed. … Consistent lying, metaphorically speaking, pulls the ground from under our feet and provides no other ground on which to stand.” _

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Or, as Yeats wrote:

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Turning and turning in the widening gyre

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The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

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Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold

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\n", "date_published": "2022-03-16T14:53:19-04:00", "url": "https://jabel.blog/2022/03/16/if-the-ability.html", "tags": ["Books and reading"] }, { "id": "http://jabel.micro.blog/2022/03/08/started-reading-four.html", "content_html": "

Started reading Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman. 📚 Quoting Seneca, Charles Eisenstein, and Marilynne Robinson all in the introduction? He’s singing my song.

\n", "date_published": "2022-03-08T15:52:53-04:00", "url": "https://jabel.blog/2022/03/08/started-reading-four.html", "tags": ["Books and reading"] }, { "id": "http://jabel.micro.blog/2022/02/04/washington-post-an.html", "content_html": "

Washington Post: “An 8-year-old slid his handwritten book onto a library shelf. It now has a years-long waitlist.”

\n", "date_published": "2022-02-04T10:52:09-04:00", "url": "https://jabel.blog/2022/02/04/washington-post-an.html", "tags": ["Books and reading"] }, { "id": "http://jabel.micro.blog/2022/02/02/austin-kleon-recommends-studying-something.html", "content_html": "

Austin Kleon recommends studying something you love in depth - and it just so happens that I’m reading through the collected poetry of Robinson Jeffers. I’m keeping notes in Craft and hope to turn those notes into occasional posts. There are themes running through his work that very much interest me.

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I’d also love to do something like this for the albums of Over the Rhine, or blog through the Tao Te Ching. Blogging through books (in the style of blockquote followed by commentary) was very common on the blogs I used to read fifteen years ago. I miss that sort of amateur scholarship.

\n", "date_published": "2022-02-02T21:54:00-04:00", "url": "https://jabel.blog/2022/02/02/austin-kleon-recommends-studying-something.html", "tags": ["Books and reading"] }, { "id": "http://jabel.micro.blog/2022/01/29/i-received-my.html", "content_html": "

I received my order from Half Letter Press, which focuses on booklets and independent publishing. Check them out, lots of interesting stuff there.

\n\"\"\n", "date_published": "2022-01-29T10:06:58-04:00", "url": "https://jabel.blog/2022/01/29/i-received-my.html", "tags": ["Books and reading"] }, { "id": "http://jabel.micro.blog/2021/12/31/i-love-books.html", "content_html": "

I love books and lists - and book lists most of all. This post by Mario Villalobos brought two books in particular to my attention: How to Write One Song and How to Resist Amazon and Why. I’m listening to the former on audiobook (via Audible - so much for resisting Amazon) and reading the latter as an ebook through my local library. As I opened up How to Resist Amazon, I noticed that the publisher Microcosm is based in Portland, OR \"\" which my family and I visited in June 2021. One of the best vacations we’ve ever taken. Absolutely fell in love with the parts of the state we were able to visit.

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Microcosm, it turns out, publishes/distributes a lot of zines, which I’ve taken an interest in lately. So naturally I bought the zine version of the aforementioned How to Resist Amazon plus their zine superpack.

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Sometimes the internet doesn’t suck.

\n", "date_published": "2021-12-31T12:17:21-04:00", "url": "https://jabel.blog/2021/12/31/i-love-books.html", "tags": ["Books and reading"] }, { "id": "http://jabel.micro.blog/2021/12/30/useful-distinctions-from-erich-fromms.html", "content_html": "

Useful distinctions from Erich Fromm’s book On Disobedience

\n\n", "date_published": "2021-12-30T16:55:00-04:00", "url": "https://jabel.blog/2021/12/30/useful-distinctions-from-erich-fromms.html", "tags": ["Books and reading"] }, { "id": "http://jabel.micro.blog/2021/12/30/what-i-read.html", "title": "📚 What I Read in 2021 📚", "content_html": "

While I read fewer books in 2021 than in prior years, those books had a large impact on me. The main themes were silence, technology, and Zen Buddhism. (I wrote about my exploration of silence and solitude in this post.) My favorite books of the year were Less is More, Opening the Hand of Thought, The Wild God of the World, and Breaking Bread with the Dead.

\n\n", "date_published": "2021-12-30T14:55:05-04:00", "url": "https://jabel.blog/2021/12/30/what-i-read.html", "tags": ["Books and reading"] }, { "id": "http://jabel.micro.blog/2021/12/30/from-erich-fromm-on-disobedience.html", "content_html": "

From Erich Fromm, On Disobedience (nearly every line of this book so far is worth quoting):

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In order to disobey, one must have the courage to be alone, to err and to sin. But courage is not enough. The capacity for courage depends on a person’s state of development. Only if a person has emerged from mother’s lap and father’s commands, only if he has emerged as a fully developed individual and thus has acquired the capacity to think and feel for himself, only then can he have the courage to say “no” to power, to disobey.

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A person can become free through acts of disobedience by learning to say no to power. But not only is the capacity for disobedience the condition for freedom; freedom is also the condition for disobedience. If I am afraid of freedom, I cannot dare to say “no,” I cannot have the courage to be disobedient. Indeed, freedom and the capacity for disobedience are inseparable; hence any social, political, and religious system which proclaims freedom, yet stamps out disobedience, cannot speak the truth.

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\n", "date_published": "2021-12-30T10:29:00-04:00", "url": "https://jabel.blog/2021/12/30/from-erich-fromm-on-disobedience.html", "tags": ["Books and reading"] }, { "id": "http://jabel.micro.blog/2021/12/20/the-joy-of.html", "content_html": "

One of the things I’m most grateful for this year is the opening of an independent bookstore nearby. Actually it is a re-opening: the owner was originally put out of business (as I recall) when Borders and Barnes and Noble came to town in the 90s. The Borders closed several years ago and the Barnes and Noble closed during the big wave of closing in the last couple of years. Now Morgenstern’s is back, complete with a cafe, lots of seating, and a clear investment in promoting the local community.

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My family and I have had a lot of fun hanging out there weekly since it opened. I have discovered so many books that I never would have come across through my usual ways - and I’m a person who actively seeks out books! I’ve had to start a whole new book list to keep track of them. The joy of bookstore serendipity! 📚

\n", "date_published": "2021-12-20T11:42:00-04:00", "url": "https://jabel.blog/2021/12/20/the-joy-of.html", "tags": ["Books and reading"] }, { "id": "http://jabel.micro.blog/2021/12/17/several-days-ago.html", "content_html": "

Several days ago I watched Bright Star, Jane Campion’s film about the final period of John Keats' life. While I enjoyed it, I didn’t expect it to hang around in my mind for very long. But it did. I even bought a copy of the complete Keats in order to get more familiar with his work. I also found a list of the best biopics about poets, none of which I’ve seen (apart from Bright Star). I’m most interested in the film about Oscar Wilde, since I like both Wilde and Stephen Fry. Anyone want to recommend a biopic about a poet, whether on this list or not? 📚

\n\"\"\n", "date_published": "2021-12-17T13:29:00-04:00", "url": "https://jabel.blog/2021/12/17/several-days-ago.html", "tags": ["Books and reading","Film and TV"] }, { "id": "http://jabel.micro.blog/2021/12/13/ive-had-my.html", "content_html": "

I’ve had my eye on this series at my local bookstore. They’re great books, obviously, but they also look good. I’ve read a few pages here and there when I’m at the bookstore and Fromm’s is particularly compelling. 📚

\n\"\"\n", "date_published": "2021-12-13T10:00:00-04:00", "url": "https://jabel.blog/2021/12/13/ive-had-my.html", "tags": ["Books and reading"] }, { "id": "http://jabel.micro.blog/2021/12/09/more-from-the.html", "content_html": "

More from the Lilly Library: a 15th century missal and a Gutenberg Bible

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\n", "date_published": "2021-12-09T17:48:26-04:00", "url": "https://jabel.blog/2021/12/09/more-from-the.html", "tags": ["Books and reading"] }, { "id": "http://jabel.micro.blog/2021/12/09/first-illustrated-edition.html", "content_html": "

First illustrated edition of Canterbury Tales, 1484, at the Lilly Library

\n\"\"\n", "date_published": "2021-12-09T14:22:37-04:00", "url": "https://jabel.blog/2021/12/09/first-illustrated-edition.html", "tags": ["Books and reading"] } ] }