recent reads, feb 2024
February’s reading proceeded in fits and starts — a dash through the first few books in the Vorkosigan Saga and then a sputtering of books DNF’d at 40 or 50%. I think, in part, this was due to a looming “to do” list of preparation for March events (programs at synagogue, a retirement party for my parents), and the pressure of what I should be doing. But now that March is fully in swing, and two of the three events have happened, the reading is coming more easily again.
A friend recently told me about the “two types of fun.” As she described it:
Type 1 Fun is enjoyable to do, and enjoyable to think about after
Type 2 Fun is difficult or challenging in the moment, but enjoyable to think about after
A bit of digging revealed this delightful illustration of three types of fun:
In thinking about my reading this past month, I wonder if there’s a Type 4 Fun — enjoyable in the moment, but unfulfilling in retrospect. I read a number of books in February that would fit in this category — easy, kept me reading, but made no lasting impression. (I didn’t include any of those below!)
DEEP SURVIVAL by Laurence Gonzales
The subject heading on this book says “Wilderness Survival,” but I have it shelved in “Psychology,” because it’s really about what happens to the brain/mind in extreme survival situations. Gonzales distills a number of common behaviors/mental states that mark someone as being a “survivor” rather than a “victim,” and his descriptions of what’s physically happening in the brain are clear and easy to understand. Sure, sometimes he goes off on a weird extreme-sports-fanboy tangent, but the core of the book is convincing and relevant, even to those of us who aren’t interested in climbing mountains/riding motorcycles/doing aerobatics.
THE MIMICKING OF KNOWN SUCCESSES by Malka Older
This is a quick, satisfying novella — the story of two former girlfriends who team up to solve a disappearance on semi-colonized Jupiter. One is an Investigator by profession; the other is an academic studying pre-collapse Earth as part of a very long-term plan to return/rebuild Earth. The world-building is interesting (Jupiter has been encased with rings, which support platforms where humans live, and trains that transport them from platform to platform) and the mystery’s conclusion is satisfying. I was happy to see that a second volume has just been released!