Tag: reading
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Rediscovering My Voice: How Blogging Revived My Writing
Until I began this blog, I hadn’t realized the writing skills that I had let wane over the years. I don’t mean writing for the sake of a report for school or work, ie. writing that strips any personality out of my thoughts. That’s the sort of writing that includes a lot of “as per… Read more
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The Number of Blog Posts
How I Became a Better Reader & Writer I was surprised by how many blog posts I wrote about the book There is No Ethan by Anna Akbari. Up until that point I was writing one or two posts about each book I read. For There is No Ethan, I ended up writing seven. I… Read more
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The Difference Between Subject-Matter and Content
What is a Creative Work Really About? In his book How To Be An Artist, Jerry Saltz makes the distinction between art’s subject matter and its content. The subject matter is what a piece is about, the content is what the piece is about. The subject matter of a painting, for example, might be a… Read more
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Thinking Like a Critic vs. Thinking Like an Artist
Critical vs. Creative Thinking One of my issues that I have with the modern school system is that it teaches students to largely think like a critic. We are taught to dissect things, find the problem and the solution. Creativity doesn’t work like that. Often the questions are open-ended and the answers are subconscious. It… Read more
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An Artistic Exercise
Art That Makes Me Uncomfortable In his book How To Be An Artist, Jerry Saltz suggests to list three artists whose work makes you feel uncomfortable and then list three reasons why you are uncomfortable. Fine, I’ll bite. I’ll do the exercise. I will write about one of those examples in this blog post. The… Read more
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When Does Standardization Benefit Originality?
Finding Creative Opportunity In How To Be An Artist by Jerry Saltz, he says in order to be creative, don’t just simply mash two distinct art styles together but instead focus on the space in-between these styles. I think this is great advice, not just for art. The modern world is expanding rapidly- socially, technologically,… Read more
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Book #11- Reflections on “How To Be An Artist”
Book #11 How To Be An Artist By Jerry Saltz Do You Want a Formulaic or Creative Life? In this book, Saltz is talking about artist Sol LeWitt when he says, “Rigid adherence to formula can trap you in a cul-de-sac….” This resonates quite literally with me. My bachelor’s degree is in mathematics. It is… Read more
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Motherhood Highlight Reel
Motherhood & Social Media In Highlight Real by Emily Lynn Paulson, she talks about the way mothers compare themselves to others. It seems like an unlikely place to find competition. Who can bake the best bread? Change the most diapers? Have the best relationship with their kids (or at least look like they do)? But… Read more
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The Joy of Writing
Writing As Meditation This blog is helping reignite the joy of writing within me. I hadn’t realized that I lost it over the years. I was writing because I had to, either for school or work, or not at all. I really like the feeling I have after I write about my own thoughts on… Read more
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The Politics of Gift Giving
Unhappy Christmases I was reading the part of the book Hate Follow by Erin Quinn-Kong, where the fractured family is celebrating Christmas. I have had a lot of those types of Christmases in my life; where instead of eggnog there are eggshells, instead of cheer there is fear, and instead of angels there are devils.… Read more
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How Many Blog Posts Can I Write About a Single Book?
There is No Ethan: A Book With a Lasting Impact For my 2025 goal of reading 52 books and documenting it in blog posts, I typically write one or two posts about each book and move on. For my latest book, There is No Ethan by Anna Akbari, I have so far written seven blog… Read more
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Book #8- Reflections on “There Is No Ethan”
Book #8 There Is No Ethan By Anna Akbari In this book, three women team up to find the person who has mutually catfished them. It is a wild ride. It speaks to the chaos, disingenuousness, and danger that the internet can bring. The women met their internet sweetheart on an online dating site. However,… Read more
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Early Thoughts on My 2025 Reading Challenge
Impact Over Numbers My goal in 2025 is to read 52 books to see how my life improves. I will be documenting this year-long journey in blog posts. I am now only a few books in but I have some initial thoughts on this experience. For starters, my overall goal is self-improvement. I want to… Read more
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Confidence vs. Self-Assuredness
I Don’t Want False Confidence, I Want Genuine Confidence I have been writing a lot recently about my low confidence and how I am struggling to get it back. While pondering this, I realized that I might be getting stuck in a negative perception of confidence and should instead seek a healthy self-assuredness. For me,… Read more
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Relief in the Realization: I’m Not Alone in Faking Bad
Stuck Thinking Things Are Worse Than They Are I was first introduced to the term “faking bad” in the book I Want to Die But I Want to Eat Tteokbokki by Baek Sehee. It refers to a tendency to view yourself as worse off than you actually are. It describes my overall mindset perfectly. I… Read more
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Book #4- Reflections on “Judgement Detox”
Book #4 Judgment Detox By Gabrielle Bernstein Ugh, Forgiveness This book snuck up on me in surprising ways. It is an unassuming book on spirituality. It is not one of Gabrielle Bernstein’s most well-known books so I guess I went into it without any sort of expectation. I found reading this book to be a… Read more
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Authentic Self-Expression
Thoughts in Progress I don’t want to get ahead of myself with this post, but I do want to get my thoughts down. All three of the books I have read so far have inspired what I am going to say: The Creative Act by Rick Rubin, The House of My Mother by Shari Franke,… Read more
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Book #3- Reflections on “The Top Five Regrets of the Dying”
Book #3 The Top Five Regrets of the Dying By Bronnie Ware Unfortunately Relatable Content When I was reading this book, I was immersed in the stories within it feeling sympathy for the people within its pages, but not empathy. Sympathy comes when you care about another person’s situation. Empathy is when you understand and… Read more
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What’s in a Name?
The Complication of Sharing a Name With Your Abuser My latest post was a review about The House of My Mother by Shari Franke and something about it got me thinking. As I was writing it, at one point I was typing the author’s name: Shari… then I went back and deleted that to write… Read more
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Book #2- Reflections on “The House of My Mother”
Book #2 The House of My Mother By Shari Franke Normally I Am Late to the Book Party Normally I am late to read popular releases. It has become a habit of mine to read a book about 5-10 years after it has become popular. I think I could make a career as a very… Read more
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Hesitation and Perfectionism
My last two posts have been musings on the book The Creative Act by Rick Rubin. As soon as I clicked “publish” for my latest post about four reasons for my own low creative self-esteem, I realized an incredible irony. I was unsure whether to post it and this hesitancy ironically revealed a fifth reason:… Read more
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Why Do I Have Low Creative Self-Esteem?
I drew this picture the other day but will regularly tell people “I am not an artist”. Sure, I do it as a hobby but I’ve never been formally trained. My general attitude toward my art is a sort of hands-in-my-pockets, playing-with-a-pebble-with-my-shoe sort of aww-schucks self-deprecation. Why? This low self-esteem is a terrible thing as… Read more
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How I Will Write
My Writing Approach During This Book Reading Challenge As I sat down to write my thoughts on the first book of my 2025 Reading Challenge, I felt myself being pulled into a familiar habit. That is, summarizing the book as opposed to focusing on the personal impact the book had on me. I am sure… Read more
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Measuring Success
Similar to my previous post about the rules for my 2025 Reading Challenge, I wanted to give myself a general direction for how to measure my success. This may be subject to change, but this is how I hope to see myself at the end of the year. Measuring Overall Success This may seem like… Read more
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Challenge Rules
I wanted to create a set of guidelines for my 2025 Reading Challenge, which is to read 52 books in 2025. I have decided that I am not going to give myself strict rules to follow, but I wanted to create a rough framework to give context to this challenge. As I look at these… Read more
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Getting Started… Late
What Am I Doing? My challenge to myself in the year 2025 is to read 52 books. I didn’t start the year off with this challenge in mind. It wasn’t any sort of New Year’s resolution. In fact, as I am writing this, it is currently February 26, 2025. So yeah, a bit behind schedule.… Read more