Wednesday +/- one day Reading Update
Aug. 8th, 2019 08:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
castironDaniel H. Pink, When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing. A general-audience overview of how humans experience time and timing -- circadian rhythms and how they affect people’s productivity and energy, how people synch up with each other, etc. Fun read; nothing earth-shattering, but I hadn’t come across the “third bird” concept before (most people aren’t larks, extremely early risers, or owls, people who are most active at night; they’re somewhere in between).
Vicki Rubin, Your Money or Your Life, 2018 revision. I read the original edition she coauthored with Joe Dominguez back in the 1990s, so I was curious as to how she'd updated it. Much of the information is unchanged, such as figuring out your true hourly earnings and how much life energy your purchases represent. She directly addresses the original book's advice to invest in US Treasury bonds and how that stopped being good advice very soon after the book's publication; I don't think she comes up with a satisfactory substitute, though. Given that she lives in the United States, I also feel that the book completely glosses over the issue of paying for medical care; while reducing stress, eating a decent diet, and getting a reasonable amount of exercise may reduce your risk of some diseases, you'll still have some risk of a disease or accident that'll wipe you out financially, or of developing a chronic condition that raises your expenses and reduces your ability to rebuild your cache. It's still got enough interesting ideas about money to be worth reading, but if you still have the old edition, you don't really need to buy this one.
I finished up the Wimsey reread. What struck me on this reread of Gaudy Night: Harriet's society frames the idea as "unstable virgins"; modern Western society is more likely to frame it as "she's a prude", but it's the same tedious idea of "women who don't have male partners are at best suspect, flawed, or damaged".
Stuff currently on the go:
L. A. Hall, The Comfortable Courtesan series, reread; currently on Vol. 5, Dramatick Rivalry.
Art Markman, Smart Change, yet another book on habits.
Adam Savage, Every Tool's a Hammer.
Vicki Rubin, Your Money or Your Life, 2018 revision. I read the original edition she coauthored with Joe Dominguez back in the 1990s, so I was curious as to how she'd updated it. Much of the information is unchanged, such as figuring out your true hourly earnings and how much life energy your purchases represent. She directly addresses the original book's advice to invest in US Treasury bonds and how that stopped being good advice very soon after the book's publication; I don't think she comes up with a satisfactory substitute, though. Given that she lives in the United States, I also feel that the book completely glosses over the issue of paying for medical care; while reducing stress, eating a decent diet, and getting a reasonable amount of exercise may reduce your risk of some diseases, you'll still have some risk of a disease or accident that'll wipe you out financially, or of developing a chronic condition that raises your expenses and reduces your ability to rebuild your cache. It's still got enough interesting ideas about money to be worth reading, but if you still have the old edition, you don't really need to buy this one.
I finished up the Wimsey reread. What struck me on this reread of Gaudy Night: Harriet's society frames the idea as "unstable virgins"; modern Western society is more likely to frame it as "she's a prude", but it's the same tedious idea of "women who don't have male partners are at best suspect, flawed, or damaged".
Stuff currently on the go:
L. A. Hall, The Comfortable Courtesan series, reread; currently on Vol. 5, Dramatick Rivalry.
Art Markman, Smart Change, yet another book on habits.
Adam Savage, Every Tool's a Hammer.