Auxiliary Memory

Why Does the World Suck?

By James Wallace Harris, Tuesday, January 13, 2015

We’d all be happier people if we didn’t watch the news on TV. Most people I know are depressed by events around them, some happening close by, some far away. But if you think about it, the world sucks for very few essential reasons, most of which deal the threat of harm to our bodies. We fear war, terrorism, crime, violence, natural disasters and disease. And those break down into two causes, threats from people and threats from nature. And if we solved the problem of violent people, I think most of our reasons for being depressed about our life on Earth would disappear. We can see the world as sane even if it has cancer and tornadoes, but all the human generated violence makes us think we live in an insane reality. In other words, injustice comes from other people, and not nature.

Avoiding depression when watching the local news is very hard. The stories of murder, rape, home invasions, shootings, gang crime, brawls, berserk shooters, road rage, muggings, robberies, holdups, makes us anxious to exist. Listening to international news about all the variations in wars and terrorism makes us think humans are incapable of reason and sanity.

If all violence stopped, can you imagine what a psychological uplift it would give humanity. We’d be free to work on all the other problems we face. Yet, our solution to violence is more violence. That’s why seeing a film like Selma is so inspirational. That’s why having a holiday for Martin Luther King, Jr. is so important.

As Eldridge Cleaver said, “If you aren’t part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.” I think that’s very insightful, but all too often many people become part of the problem by pushing their solution, which all too often if fight violence with violence. Cleaver fell into that trap. This is different from self-defense, but most people can’t see the dividing line. We need some way to neutralize violent people without going to war or arming ourselves like a special forces soldier. For the last couple centuries this has been the police. If you look around the world and study places without police, you’ll find no civilization. If you find places where the police are corrupt, you see civilization crumbling.

Yet, the police can’t prevent all problems of violence. A strong police force can deter, but we need more teachers, psychologists and social workers to identify and help troubled people. We need more parents and mentors to observe and guide young people. We need more leaders, artists and visionaries to inspire nonviolence.

The trouble is too many young men see violence as the solution, whether they are ISIS, Al-Qaeda, Boko Haram, urban gangs, organized criminals, drug cartels, Hamas, FARC, Taliban, or lone wolf madmen, and we need to study why they join these groups, to solve the problem. Just killing them only seems to inspire more of them to come into existence.

In some ways, we can say the world sucks because there’s too much testosterone. And if you combine testosterone with guns, you get all the groups I mention above. Just killing crazed gunmen isn’t enough. We need to understand why people become crazed gunmen.

JWH

My Never Ending War On Procrastination

By James Wallace Harris, Tuesday, January 6, 2015

The first book I read for 2015 was Solving the Procrastination Puzzle by Timothy A. Pychyl. The short book had a few good insights, but the introductions annoyed the crap out of me. It seemed like the author was procrastinating from getting down to the point of the book. The link above takes you to Pychyl’s website where he had a bunch of resources to help fight procrastination.

I’ve been procrastinating my whole life. Why do today what you can put off until tomorrow is my motto. However, tomorrow has arrived today, with a huge to-do list. Let’s hope 2015 is the year I get things done. One technique I’ve discovered after trying all sorts of software and web based to-do lists is to wake up and think of five things to do today. I don’t use any software or Moleskin products, but just right them down on a scrap of paper.

Since I’m going easy on myself starting out, I’m picking five relatively simple things to do. Things like “- put up Christmas decorations” or “- reply to Linda’s email.” I threw myself a curve this morning “- clean out my email inbox.” I’ve been procrastinating on that one for a week. A week ago I had zeroed out my inbox, now its back to 293. Email is insidious.

One way I shirk my tasks if by writing a blog like this one. Damn, I should have written “- write blog about getting organized.” I don’t allow writing down tasks if I do them before I write them down – doesn’t seem sporting. Mornings, when I wake up, but I’m still too lazy to get up, are the best time for thinking of tasks without doing them. If I go to bed having done the tasks I thought up that morning makes the day feel productive, even if they were tiny jobs.

Another gimmick I’ve found for organizing my shit is to just do a task when I think of it. This helps since I often forget it before I can find my piece of paper. This only works if the task is pretty small – like folding clothes out of the dryer or cleaning the sink with comet when I see it needs it. Those kind of tasks only take a few minutes. I’ll never stop and quickly write a novel to get it out of the way, but doing impulse tasks are quite satisfying. Last May I wrote “Does An Organized Desk Mean and Organized Mind?” I’m slowly making those ten tips into habits. I’m quite proud that I always do the dishes immediately after eating, even when I have company. And I’m slowly improving on decluttering. But I’m still far away from being organized and disciplined, at least by my dreams of getting bigger tasks accomplished.

In some ways, my eating self-control relates to my getting tasks done self-control. I strictly followed my no junk food diet last summer until the night of Halloween, when I couldn’t resist Trick or Treating myself. One Reese’s cup on October 31st, and I went on a chocolate bender that lasted until December 31st. Now that I’ve abandoned the chocolate and ice cream again, I seem to be focusing more on getting things done.

Since I’m retired, I imagine some of my friends wonder why I just don’t let myself go, do whatever I feel like, and have fun all the time. I’ve tried that – often, and it is a lot of fun. But it seems learning to be disciplined helps with having unlimited free time. I seem to have more time when I’m active. I know that sounds bizarre, but it’s very easy to sit down after breakfast, start listening to music and quickly discover it’s four-thirty in the afternoon. Being retired has taught me why the British dressed for dinner in the jungle.

By the way, I got a nice Christmas present from Worlds Without End. They put my defining SF books by decades series in their database. Thanks to Dave Post and all the editors over there. If you’re looking for ideas for science fiction books to read, check out Worlds Without End.

JWH

Physical Bookshelves versus Kindle Library

By James Wallace Harris, Monday, January 5, 2015

I’m in a buying quandary. Is it better to own a hardback or a digital book? This particular problem arose just now because I’m wondering how to acquire Ada’s Algorithm by James Essinger, a new book about Ada Lovelace. At Amazon it’s $12.99 for the Kindle edition, and $19.41 for the hardback. I’d save $6.42 by buying the digital book – that’s a good bit for a retired person. But since I routinely buy used hardback books for $3-5, I’d could save even more if I wait. But then Mr. Essinger would earn no royalty. In fact, while reading about Ada’s Algorithm I see that he also wrote Jacquard’s Web, which I immediately bought just now for $4 (1 cent for the book, $3.99 for shipping). If I waited I could eventually get the same deal on the book about Ada Lovelace.

However, there is more to my buying decision than price. In the long run – defined as rest of my life – is it better to own a hardback or ebook? Which format is easier to read? Which format is easier to review? Which format is easier to reference and look stuff up? Which format is easier to lend to friends? Once I start thinking about all these other factors, my brain begins begging for a nap.

I love holding a hardback book. I love their dust jackets. But I don’t like owning a lot of possessions. I often cull my old books and give them to the Friends of the Library after I’ve read them, so buying the hardback doesn’t mean owning it for life. One advantage of buying the Kindle edition at Amazon is I own it without having to shelve and store it. In other words, Kindle books don’t weigh heavy on my sense of possessions, and thus I have them as long as Amazon remains in business, which if I’m lucky, is for the rest of my life.

If Kindle books were as exactly usable as hardbacks I think I would always buy the Kindle edition. Unfortunately, they aren’t – at least not at this moment. Hardbacks are far more user friendly when it comes to flipping around the book, and reading randomly. Hardbacks are nicer to lend to friends, and use for reference. Kindle books are easier to hold. Kindle books are easier to copy quotes from. And I can find a Kindle book faster. And it’s a snap to search for a keyword.

I really wish Amazon would put some major effort into making managing my digital library more fun and useful. I own a whole lot of Kindle books I’ve forgotten that I own. Kindle books would be more appealing for collecting if we had better library management tools.

Man, my brain is really begging for a nap now. If Ada’s Algorithm had been $7.99 for the Kindle, I would have bought it immediately, and not even thought about writing this essay. Mr. Essiinger would have gotten paid, and I would be reading. Instead, I’ll wait for Jacquard’s Web to show up in the mail. In other words, price will determine what kind of book I buy. Next Christmas when I’m going through my old Wish List items at Amazon, I’ll see Ada’s Algorithm and if there’s a cheap hardback, order it. I ordered four or five books that way this Christmas when I was reviewing my Wish List for things to tell my wife what I want Santa Claus to bring me. Hell, I don’t mind when Santa has to pay new hardback prices. I wish I had gotten Santa to get me the Ada book this Christmas.

That said, I do wish I had digital copies of all the books I’ve ever read or owned. I often give away books and later want to look at them again. Publishers want to raise ebook prices. That’s their prerogative. As long as I can get used hardbacks for $3-5, then that’s the price that makes my decision. I’d be willing to pay two or three dollars more for ebooks, so the author gets paid, but not two or three times as much.

Finally, if I wait long enough, I see the ebook edition of books I want in the Kindle Daily Deal or Bookbub for $1.99. At that price I often buy books I’ve read just to have a copy for my digital library. Someday I don’t think I’ll have bookshelves or own hardback books, and it might even happen before I die. (Yes, it’s always about me.)

JWH

2014 Year in Reading

By James Wallace Harris, Thursday, January 1, 2015

Since 1983 I’ve kept a log of books read, noting the title, author and the date I finished the book. Over the years this has proved very rewarding and useful. This year I switched from using an old notebook to using the spreadsheet in Google docs because it allows me to search and order my list in different ways. The spreadsheet also allowed me to add some new columns of information to collect – year published, type, and the format of the book I read. I wish I had started this log with the first book I ever read on my own back in grade school, whatever that was. I think it was a Scholastic abridgement of Up Periscope by Robb White. In the early 1970s I kept a similar log for 18 months, when I dropped out of college and read 479 books. I wish I had that list now. The older I get the more I wish I had systematically documented my life.

This year I read 67 books, up from 52 in 2013, 49 in 2012, 58 in 2011, which was my last big reading year. I thought I might read over 100 books this year since 2014 was my first full year of retirement. I know many bookworms that do read 100, 200 and even more books a year. I don’t think I’ll ever be that kind of bookworm. I’m guessing between 50-75 books is the most I can digest in one year.

I believe this year I read more nonfiction books than in past years, with 29 out of the 67, and more new books, 26 of the 67 were published in 2013 and 2014, which was my reading goal from 2013. My complete list of books read in 2014 is at the bottom of the essay. In the past I’ve listed my top five favorites, but this year I read so many great books I’m listening my top ten.

Favorite Novels Read in 2014

Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote
Stoner by John Williams
House Rules by Jodi Picoult
Possession by A. S. Byatt
Timescape by Gregory Benford
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
Summertime by J. M. Coetzee
Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

Favorite Nonfiction Books Read in 2014

Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty
The Trouble with Physics by Lee Smolin
Time Reborn by Lee Smolin
The Beginning of Infinity by David Deutsch
The Innovators by Walter Isaacson
The Bully Pulpit by Doris Kearns Goodwin
Short Night of the Shadow Catcher by Timothy Egan
How Jesus Became God by Bart D. Ehrman
Hellhound on his Trail by Hampton Sides
Factory Man by Beth Macy

That doesn’t mean the other 47 books were bad, but these were the standouts. Every year I try to read one large 19th century classic. This year I read The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James. It was very good, but not great. I also like to read old forgotten science fiction novels, and the two I picked this year, Goslings by J. D. Beresford and Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman both dealt with imagining societies of women without men. Both were engaging reads, but on the esoteric side. I only recommend them to historians of feminism and science fiction. But both were big fun to me.

I also like rereading science fiction novels I first discovered as a teen to see how they hold up. Two of my favorites from the 1960s were Nova by Samuel R. Delany and Dimension of Miracles by Robert Sheckley. Both from 1968. I still like them, and even admire them, but the tides of time are eroding their once beautiful beaches.

As an experiment, I read one book, Timescape by Gregory Benford, and then a week later listened to it, which I wrote about in “Printed Book v. Audio Book.” The experience only validated what I’ve known for years, and that is I get far more out of fiction when I listen than when I read with my eyes.

Novel and Nonfiction of the Year

I wish the Capote novel wasn’t always overshadowed by the Audrey Hepburn film. I love the movie, but the novella is on much higher plane of existence than the movie. I didn’t discover that until this year. When I image searched on “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” all the pictures were from the movie. Even when I added “paperback” – Audrey’s beautiful face dominates. Listening to the Michael C. Hall narration of Capote’s story brought the story to life far differently from my own reading year’s ago. I’m such a poor reader of fiction that I should always leave the job to experts. I did find this old Signet paperback cover that helps forget Audrey’s, but it’s still not a cover the book deserves.

The reason why I picked Capital in the Twenty-First Century is because it’s a magnificent work of history, literary commentary and economic insight. It’s also a very significant book everyone should read.

Reading Log for 2014

Title	Author	Pub.	Finished	F/NF	Format
The Beginning of Infinity	David Deutsch	2011	Jan 11	NF	Audio
The Master	Colm Tobin	2004	Jan 16	F	Audio
The Portrait of a Lady	Henry James	1881	Feb 01	F	Audio
Difficult Men	Brett Martin	2013	Feb 06	NF	Audio
The Goldfinch	Donna Tartt	2013	Feb 06	F	Kindle
Citizen of the Galaxy	Robert A. Heinlein	1957	Feb 10	F	Audio
David and Goliath	Malcolm Gladwell	2013	Feb 13	NF	Library HB
Dawn	Octavia Butler	1987	Feb 13	F	Audio
The Trouble With Physics	Lee Smolin	2006	Feb 21	NF	Audio
The Bully Pulpit	Doris Kearns Goodwin	2013	Mar 08	NF	Audio
Keep the Aspidistra Flying	George Orwell	1936	Mar 09	F	Audio
House Rules	Jodi Picoult	2010	Mar 20	F	Audio
Short Night of the Shadow Catcher	Timothy Egan	2012	Mar 28	NF	Library HB
Time Reborn	Lee Smolin	2013	Mar 28	NF	Audio
The Major of MacDougal Street	Dave Van Ronk	2006	Apr 01	NF	Audio
Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversation	Peter Evans	2013	Apr 06	NF	Library HB
Die Empty	Todd Henry	2013	Apr 08	NF	Audio
Brittle Innings	Michael Bishop	1994	Apr 10	F	Hardback
In the Heart of the Sea	Nathaniel Philbrick	2000	Apr 18	NF	Audio
Accelerando	Charles Stross	2005	Apr 29	F	Audio
The Robots of Dawn	Isaac Asimov	1983	May 06	F	Audio
Goslings	J. D. Beresford	1913	May 10	F	Audio
All Flesh is Grass	Clifford Simak	1965	May 11	F	Paperback
Odds Against Tomorrow	Nathaniel Rich	2013	May 17	F	Audio
On Looking	Alexandra Horowitz	2013	Jun 03	NF	Audio
The Martian	Andy Weir	2014	Jun 09	F	Library HB
Possession	A. S. Byatt	1990	Jun 11	F	Audio
Robert A. Heinlein – volume 2	William H. Patterson	2014	Jun 23	NF	Hardback
Survivors	Terry Nation	1976	Jun 28	F	Trade PB
How Jesus Became God	Bart D. Ehrman	2014	Jul 07	NF	Library HB
Capital in the Twenty-First Century	Thomas Piketty	2014	Jul 17	NF	Audio
Did Jesus Exist?	Bart D. Ehrman	2012	Jul 19	NF	Library HB
The Bell Jar	Sylvia Plath	1963	Aug 03	F	Trade PB
Herland	Charlotte Perkins Gilman	1915	Aug 08	F	Audio
Factory Man	Beth Macy	2014	Aug 20	NF	Audio
The Postman	David Brin	1985	Aug 21	F	Library HB
Wide Sargasso Sea	Jean Rhys	1966	Aug 25	F	Trade PB
Ancillary Justice	Ann Leckie	2013	Aug 26	F	Audio
Breakfast at Tiffany’s	Truman Capote	1958	Aug 27	F	Audio
The Second Machine Age	Brynjolfsson & McAfee	2014	Sep 04	NF	Audio
Lock In	John Scalzi	2014	Sep 08	F	Audio
Dimension of Miracles	Robert Sheckley	1968	Sep 10	F	Audio
The Everything Store: Jeff Bazos	Brad Stone	2013	Sep 13	NF	Library HB
Stoner	John Williams	1965	Sep 15	F	Audio
The Perks of Being a Wallflower	Stephen Chbosky	1999	Sep 18	F	Audio
The Death of Ivan Ilyich	Leo Tolstoy	1886	Sep 19	F	Audio
Home is the Sailor	Robin Lee Graham	1983	Sep 25	NF	Library HB
A Separate Peace	John Knowles	1959	Oct 03	F	Trade PB
My Life in Middlemarch	Rebecca Mead	2014	Oct 07	NF	Audio
Hellhound on His Trail	Hampton Sides	2009	Oct 09	NF	Library HB
Fire and Rain	David Browne	2011	Oct 13	NF	Audio
Hieroglyph	Finn & Kramer	2014	Oct 21	F	Audio
The Collapse of Western Civilization	Oreskes & Conway	2014	Oct 31	NF	Kindle
The End of the World	Martin H. Greenberg	2010	Nov 06	F	Audio
The Five Elements of Effective Thinking	Burger & Starbird	2012	Nov 10	NF	Audio
Disgrace	J. M. Coetzee	1999	Nov 10	F	Trade PB
Nova	Samuel R. Delany	1968	Nov 14	F	Hardback
The Shallows	Nicholas Carr	2010	Nov 19	NF	Audio
Summertime	J. M. Coetzee	2010	Nov 26	F	Hardback
Life After Life	Kate Atkinson	2013	Nov 29	F	Audio
The Innovators	Walter Isaacson	2014	Dec 02	NF	Library HB
The Glass Cage	Nicholas Carr	2014	Dec 05	NF	Audio
Timescape	Gregory Benford	1980	Dec 13	F	Library PB
The Secret Life of the Grown-Up Brain	Barbara Strauch	2010	Dec 16	NF	Audio
Timescape	Gregory Benford	1980	Dec 22	F	Audio
Daring	Gail Sheehy	2014	Dec 26	NF	Library HB
Everything I Never Told You	Celeste Ng	2014	Dec 31	F	Audio

Plans for 2015

I want to continue reading even more nonfiction and newer books. Like I wrote the other day, I’m ready to leave the 20th century behind. My goal is to read two-thirds nonfiction next year, with most of them published in 2014 and 2015.

JWH

Leaving the 20th Century Behind

By James Wallace Harris, Monday, December 29, 2014

I assume anyone choosing to read this essay remembers the 20th century, and that young people aren’t my targeted audience. Gen X (1965-1979) and Millennials (1980-2000) can remember last century, and I’m sure they have their own objects of nostalgia, although I find it hard to picture people in their forties getting all weepy over punk tunes, claiming, “Hey, they’re playing our song!” Gen X’ers and Y’ers are closer to their past, but it’s quickly becoming old like mine.

The other night I was checking out TCM and Warner Archive Instant, and realized I was prowling through the same old decades, looking for the same old favorites movies and movie stars, and wondered if it wasn’t time I got back to the 21st century. Trying to find a great Pre-Code flick or a gritty 1950s western that I haven’t seen is getting harder and harder. What I’ve discovered in my late night TV watching is I can choose to dig around the 20th century, or I can look for something new.

When I go the new route I’m often uplifted by an influx of current data about reality. I know I’m addicted to the past, yet I also know I get the best intellectual rushes from taking in reports from the event horizons of things going on now. I’m both a news junky, and a nostalgia addict, but I’m slowly discovering that keeping up with what’s new is healthier for my aging brain.

If you grew up in the 1950s and 1960s like I did, 2015 sounds like the far future. Most of my fellow baby boomers (1946-1964) identify more with the 20th century than the 21st. I’m not sure that’s good. We’re well into the 21st century now, and I think it’s time we leave the 20th century behind. Few people actually live in the pop culture moment. The old live in the past, and the young have so many choices that they experience the moment in an asynchronous consumption that is so diverse that it’s hard to imagine them identifying themselves as any particular generation. I guess they are the Net generation – because of Internet and Broadband networks – but the net connects them to everything. They can call up a 1965 TV show as easily as a 2014 show, which gives their pop culture content a timeless quality.

Back in my youth, baby boomers tended to watch the same few TV channels live, and listened to the same AM radio stations, and went to the same movies. This synced us up in ways that young people growing up today can’t understand. Boomers in the now tune into classic rock, watch nostalgia TV and collect DVDs of all our old favorite movies and television shows. For Christmas I got my wife a subscription to Spotify, and she immediately made playlists of her favorite 1960s and 1970s music.

Isn’t it time we left the 20th century behind? I don’t know about you, but nostalgia starting to run thin.

Among friends my age, the closest we sync with the present pop culture is with movies. Many of my friends go to one or two movies a week, and this gives us something to share. When it comes to music, we’re all living in our own isolated headphone space. There is some sharing of TV, but it’s few and far between. Sports is the one pop culture experience where millions focus on the same event at the same time, young and old. Unfortunately, for me, I’m not a sport fan, so I feel out of the loop there.

As a TV watcher, I stick primarily to PBS for live shows, and that syncs me mostly to my fellow baby boomers. I have a lot of friends who love NPR, and of all my friends who still watch the nightly news, we’re to a person watching NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams. Of course, the conservative people I know, stick to Fox News. As a group, baby boomers, whether liberal or conservative, are not that adventuresome when it comes to taking in new data. Neither NBC, PBS or Fox is cutting edge 21st century.

It’s only when I read new books and magazines do I get a feeling I’m living in the 21st century. When I’m reading about attacks on string theory, news of exoplanet discoveries, or the politics of wealth inequality, do I feel like I’m close to current. Reading the news feeds of Zite, Flipboard and News360, as well as digital magazines on Next Issue and Zinio, makes me feel like I’m actually keeping up with the present. And it’s documentaries on PBS and Netflix streaming that give me a sense of what’s really happening around the world now. Nightly news shows relentlessly show the same type of news stories so over the long haul of time nothing really feels new. Politics and weather disasters never seem to change, they’re so 20th century. It’s only stories about science and technology breakthroughs do I feel I’m actually hearing about current news, and feel I’m in the 21st century. Hell, the details from the Middle East seem like the same stories I read in The Bible.

When I buy used books, I ignore any nonfiction before the year 2000, and I’m getting to I don’t like anything published before 2010. And in some ways, I feel the same about fiction. I grew up in the 1950s and 1960s loving the old movies of the 1930s and 1940s, and for many years I loved film history up until the year 2000. More and more I want to see movies that are less than a year old. I was an English major in college, and have always loved books from 1800-1950, but even that taste is changing. I still love the 19th century, but now I often prefer it seen through 21st century eyes, like Elizabeth Gilbert’s The Signature of All Things.

In other words, if I look at the past, I want to be with a fresh perspective, with modern eyes. We can’t escape the legacy of the past, but we can avoid rigidly being frozen in old perspectives of reality. The 21st century is upon us, and I believe we need to pay attention.

JWH