Want to dig a bit deeper, stretch a bit wider, discover unique insights in your reading? So do I! That's why we literary nomads explore beyond the comfortable beach read. Subscribe for podcasts and video, fiction and poetry, essays and online courses, unexpected freebies, and ways to lever your literacy into activism! For students of all ages, educators of all kinds, and just plain out litterateurs!
On the Heat, Cranky Readings, and Slow Down to Read
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6 July 2025 A C+ for My Automations SkillReader, For those curious, as my automations fire off (or fail to), I've put together a short list of platforms and reviews for their ease and reliability. If anyone knows simpler or more effective methods, let me know, but my budget does not allow for another paid service!
I had predicted I would produce a YouTube series of my travels, as well, but to date that has not gone as planned! (More to reflect on there later!) Literary Nomads: The Cranky ProfessorJuxtaposing two season journeys---Marvell's carpe diem diatribe and Le Guin's peaceful anarchies---has already discovered some rough spots! As I attempt to align their approaches and the philosophical roots of each (Greek Epicurus vs. Roman Seneca's stoicism, Garden poetry vs. science fiction commentary, etc.), I found myself getting a bit "cranky," what philosopher William James calls a "strenuous mood." At the roots of each writer are some preconceptions of the Roman/Western opposition of otium and negotium, of private leisure/nature vs. civic life. But I'm convinced, too, of two things:
And all this demands the opposite of passivity, of idle wishing that things will "get better" eventually. James's "strenuous mood" is philosophical and moral, an active engaging, a commitment to shaping reality through one's choices. This falls very close to our recent work in a Reader's Manifesto, and so I mark it here. Must we all be philosophers to read and understand texts? Le Guin will tell us no--the story itself can do this--but connecting the dots across time, culture, and genre, is one task of the podcast, to more fully understand what is at stake from story.
Up ahead:
Listener Survey for Journey 5 In Final Days: July 8 deadline
The Journey 5 Transcript collection is also available for purchase from Waywords: $2 for an immediate download! 240 dense pages! Arendt Remembers Dreyfus Arendt closes out the first section of her book with an examination of the Dreyfus Affair. Less concerned with the details of the case than its broader implications, this fourth chapter sees the case as a kind of dress rehearsal for the coming catastrophe. The skullduggery and political maneuverings dominated European talk for decades, but the key players themselves were often marginal: lower-rank officers, writers, and isolated activists across the demographics. What struck me most was how minor so many of the key figures were in social power and yet so significant. Couple this with our larger culture's amnesia over nearly all of it but its name until after the Holocaust itself. Are we, then, truly blind to prediction, to facing social corruption head on? No. In the end, in many ways, it was small individuals relying on universal principles of human rights, who (somehow) carried the day. But the endurance! And so we proceed to discussing Part Two: Imperialism . . . Join in on the reading! We're doing about 25 pages each week, but you can choose any speed! Find more here:
Book Reviews Scaling Back and UpIn order to meet my schedule to producing some other projects (and complete some started but slowed!), I will be producing fewer complete video reviews of books I've read, reserving these larger productions for titles of significance, whatever that means to me at the time, I guess. Other reviews will be the shorter 3-word reviews or simply written reviews. That said, the total number of books I review will likely go up, with probably two new titles per week. Here's a recent popular 3-word review: The longer review of this book is scheduled (!!) to post July 10. A Little Triolet at Mid-Year This form is similar to a rondeau, demanding repeated lines. Here I experimented with punctuation as a device for meaning. The Thick of Summer Thinking through our commitment to human rights and book-ending those thoughts with dessert! Some Recommendations Early Recommendation from My Reading: An Unnecessary Woman (2012) by Rabih AlameddineA book-lover's read, for sure. A novel of very little action, but a contemplation on family, aging, significance, and literature's role in all of it. An aging woman in warring Lebanon lives quietly in her apartment translating classic works in Arabic then storing them away, never to be read. Yes, but so much more. Alameddine humbles us in this incredibly modest protagonist. My second recommendation of his writing; read it! "Beirut is the Elizabeth Taylor of cities: insane, beautiful, tacky, falling apart, aging, and forever drama laden. She’ll also marry any infatuated suitor who promises to make her life more comfortable, no matter how inappropriate he is." "No nostalgia is felt as keenly as nostalgia for things that never existed."
Slow Reading, Slow Work, High Pay-off For all the teachers and students reading, here is a great article highlighting the pressures of speeding our way through goals and the satisfaction and success of changing that paradigm: "Snailed it!" Give John Spencer a follow while you're at it. But I also think it helps to recognize that you’re not falling behind when you slow down. You’re building something that lasts.
Whether it’s compacting or layering your standards or simply prioritizing the standards that matter the most, it’s okay to go slow. It’s okay to pause for reflection.
If you haven't looked at the US planting regions map recently, note the changes. Here in Michigan we now plant like it was North Carolina a few years ago. (Waiting for storms to blow all of this heat out. . . ). Time to grab some new Cli-Fi to read . . . . Stay cool! Steve What's Still Ahead?
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Waywords Studio
Want to dig a bit deeper, stretch a bit wider, discover unique insights in your reading? So do I! That's why we literary nomads explore beyond the comfortable beach read. Subscribe for podcasts and video, fiction and poetry, essays and online courses, unexpected freebies, and ways to lever your literacy into activism! For students of all ages, educators of all kinds, and just plain out litterateurs!