Better Living Through Literature
Words + Projects + Stuff I Like
1. This book review knows how to get me to pay attention: “This may be the only book in existence that discusses the game of Twister, the ethics of Aristotle and the mechanics of bureaucracies.” (The book–The Score by C. Thi Nguyen–sounds really interesting.)
2. Happy International Women’s month!
3. I liked this one (currently debating getting a new $$$ pillow).
1. Let’s plan a trip to Japan and go to Jeans Street in Kurashiki. “The road is dyed indigo, the color of Kojima’s iconic denim. The red and white lines at the road’s edge resemble the denim’s selvage— the reinforced end of a bolt of fabric that forms the outside seam of high-end jeans.”
2. These hand-drawn data visualizations from mid-1920s Turkey are beautiful:
3. I posted about reading to dissociate from the horrors yesterday but seriously, what would we do without books?
“What an astonishing thing a book is. It’s a flat object made from a tree with flexible parts on which are imprinted lots of funny dark squiggles. But one glance at it and you’re inside the mind of another person, maybe somebody dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, an author is speaking clearly and silently inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people who never knew each other, citizens of distant epochs. Books break the shackles of time. A book is proof that humans are capable of working magic.”
Carl Sagan, Cosmos
1. The most nostalgic combination of words possible: 1991 California Raisins commercial for the library (via Austin Kleon).
2. I need to print this out so I can remember what’s actually helpful for people going through something (don’t put the burden on them! I speak from experience but I still forget!): 
3. I’m probably painting the hallway this weekend but what if I took a boat ride in a laundry basket instead? And I were a goose?
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1 . Work is unnecessarily stressful right now and I think I’m going to do this today: 
2. Some good eye candy: The CalArts poster archive.
3. Exactly what it says on the tin:
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1. Hamilton Nolan sent an excellent newsletter this week: Remove Your Ring Camera With a Claw Hammer.
I get it. People are worried that they may be victims of a home invasion. Is your dad Charles Lindbergh? If not, you will not be kidnapped as you sleep. I guarantee it. In fact, I am so confident of this that I am willing to bet one thousand dollars, right now, that it won’t happen to you. That’s how I got the big vault of gold I have: positive thinking, and basic statistical literacy.
2. Perhaps thematically relevant to The Times We’re In: a dictionary of demons.
3. An American in China times a hospital and pharmacy visit. “It doesn’t matter if you’re living here or what kind of visa you’re on, anybody can go to a Chinese public hospital.” And you can just show up without an appointment?? (Cries jealously in American.)
@internationalsidequest 19 minutes. ???? Slightly chaos but worth it #fyp #healthcare ♬ original sound – Jen’s Side Quests
1. Is your blood pressure high? I recommend watching seven minutes of cheetahs running in slow motion. (Bonus, you can see the toy they pulled along for one to chase.) 
2. And then you can get your blood pressure back up with this essay from Mike Moneteiro about voting with your wallet.
Oligarchs like Tim Cook and Elon Musk have shown us their ass. But when you show someone your ass you end up also exposing your neck. America has one neck, and it’s capitalism. Which runs on your dollar. If you want to change how America works, change where you’re putting your dollar.
3. How about a Rebecca Solnit quote to take us into the weekend?
The fact that we cannot save everything does not mean that we cannot save anything and everything we can save is worth saving. You may need to grieve or scream or take time off, but you have a role, no matter what, and right now good friends and good principles are worth gathering in. Remember what you love. Remember what loves you. Remember in this tide of hate what love is. The pain you feel is because of love.
1. There’s a general strike today in solidarity with Minneapolis, comrades! (And if you can’t miss work, here are 20 other ways you can show up. Collective action takes many forms.)
2. If you’re local, there’s a rally at 2:00 at Washington Square downtown. I already made my sign:
3. It’s been a LONG terrible month but Sunday is February at least? I’ve also been doing Dry January–so I appreciated this post about managing anxiety without booze.
1. Speaking of Minnesota, after I posted yesterday I found a mega-roundup of links and ways to donate/help, “an independent project of a lady from Minneapolis.” Check it out–StandWithMinnesota.com.
2. Speaking of Minnesota, part 2: 
(from a hopeful thread on what it’s like in the Twin Cities now).
3. A wonderful thing: The darkest 10 weeks are over. 
1. Presented without comment: 
2. The NRA has to approve of the resurgence of the Black Panthers though, right?
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3. In happier non-America news: Japan is deploying robotic wolves to help deter bears. You have to click through to the picture.
1. I don’t want to make jokes about a murder but this did make me grimly smile. 
2. What a first week of 2026. I’m feeling this for sure (from Austin Kleon):
3. “The more division you have between people, the easier they are to control.”
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