Category: READING

A short while ago I stumbled on a recommendation for Primo Levi’s autobiographical works ‘If This Is A Man’ and ‘The Truce’. Sadly, I cannot remember where this recommendation arose but it was clearly sufficiently attention grabbing that I ordered a copy. Last night I finished reading the first part – ‘If This Is A Man’.

Primo Levi was a (Jewish) Italian chemist who was swept up by German occupying forces towards the end of the Second World War and sent to a work/concentration camp linked to Auschwitz. He is one of the few who survived this experience and one of the very few who wrote about the experience. His reason for doing so was to try to ensure that what happened in the camps would never be forgotten or taken for granted by future generations.

Quite obviously, Levi’s account of life in the camp makes for harrowing reading, but he has a way of just describing the way it was without over-analysing that makes the account highly readable and interesting but never allows the reader to escape the fact that he is not writing a story. Over time the men in the camp had almost every aspect of their humanity stripped away from them, always with the ongoing threat of the ‘Selections’ which sent so many to the gas chambers. Levi’s story is one of ingenuity – the ingenuity of taking actions and controlling thought processes to survive from day to day for no reason other than to survive (the pursuit of freedom was never a viable objective).

At school I stopped studying history at the age of about 13-14 and so I missed out on the commonly taught ‘modern European history’ element that covers this ground. Obviously I was aware of the holocaust, some of the camps and the general topic but this was pretty much the first time I have properly exposed myself to thinking about what went on. I found it fascinating and challenging and this WAS a book that I would recommend as one that people OUGHT to read.

There were a few passages that particularly struck me, one of which contained the following quote, words written by a friend of Levi tat continued to run through his mind:

“…Until one day
There will be no more sense in saying” tomorrow”

A couple of nights back I finished reading George McDonald Fraser’s 12th and last written novel in the Flashman series – Flashman and the March. This one covers the period 1867-68 and finds Flashman embroiled in the rescue of British hostages from the mad King Theodore in Abyssinia. In typical Flashman style the plot involves him in a series of scrapes out of which he always comes up smelling of roses having apparently put the needs of Queen and country before his own safety and completed various heroic deeds. The truth is, of course, that Flashman is a bit of a coward who always looks to save his own skin but somehow manages to bring about circumstances where others believe he has been selfless and heroic. Along the way Flashman always has at least one encounter with a powerful female character who, how can I put this, falls victim to his physical charms and this book is no exception.

I found Flashman on the March to be one of the weakest of the Flashman series. There simply isn’t enough action or complexity to the plot. Flashman goes on a long journey, meets woman companion (etc.), escapes from danger, falls into danger again, escapes, falls into more danger etc. etc. until eventually in the final battle everything resolves itself in the way that you know it always will and Flashman’s reputation is enhanced even further. Overall, this adventure is just a bit boring.

I now have only one more Flashman novel to read to complete the entire series, which spans his adventures from 1839 through to 1894. This is Flashman and the Tiger (the 11th title written) and is split into three parts including a final part, the actual Flashman and the Tiger story itself, which brings in Sherlock Holmes as a character which sounds like an interesting twist. Judging by the rate I have been getting through this series, alternating titles with all the other random books and fictional series that I am working through, I should be reading that one in perhaps 18-24 months time.

After listening to an Art of Manliness podcast interview with Greg McKeown last week I went straight ahead and listened to the audiobook version of his work ‘Essentialism’. The basic idea of Essentialism is that it is a mindset in which you seek extreme clarity on where/how you can make your best contribution in life and then focus ruthlessly on paring back activity that does not align with this goal. The underlying principle is one of ‘less but better’. McKeown argues that there is an increasing tendency for people to adopt a non-essentialist mindset by default and that it is necessary to actively combat this by shifting toward Essentialism as a way of life.

There were two particular elements of Essentialism that struck a chord with me. First, there was the ‘less is better’ principle. I think it is hard to argue against this but very easy to slip into a mode of working which runs counter to it. ‘Less is better’ works for me because it is expressed so simply but captures a lot (so it is, itself, a great example of less is better!). Secondly, I liked the idea that you should look for your ‘essential intention’ and see this as one decision made now that saves you from one thousand future decisions. However, I do struggle to come up with one essential intention that covers every aspect of my work/life and think it would probably work better or be more useful to find several complementary essential intentions for the various roles that I have (bear in mind that my work is very much multi-faceted – a kind of portfolio job within a job). Overall, I found that Essentialism matched a lot of principles that I have been trying to adopt – doing things deliberately rather than accidentally, simplifying things as much as possible, trying to mono-task and remain in the moment as much as possible etc.

Whilst I enjoyed the book, I did feel that it became a bit confused as it went along. There were quite a few chapters that were not so much about Essentialism but, rather, seemed more like general productivity, self-management advice and I got the impression that McKeown was really just writing a general book about improving personal productivity but used the neat idea of Essentialism to hang things off even when the fit was not so good. I suppose the difficulty was that a book that explains ‘less is better’ really only needs to be very short and, so, would be unlikely to be very sellable.

I finished reading Jack Kerouac’s novel ‘On The Road’ last night. I read it because it was a that kept cropping up in podcasts that I listened to, I guess because it is very much an ‘in-the-moment’ description of a series of random incidents. The novel is written from the perspective of Sal Paradise, a youngish American man in the late 1940s/early 1950s who criss-crosses the USA, sometimes alone and sometimes with traveling companions (planned or otherwise). Basically, Sal has a series of adventures, none of which are especially dramatic or meaningful but which, nevertheless, add together into a journey of self-discovery. Sal comes across as a relatively level-headed guy which is more than can be said for his frequent companion Dean who seems to be a complete hot-head and totally out-of-control (marrying two women and having several children, leaving them multiple times, driving at incredible speeds, never sleeping, always partying etc). Dean clearly represents freedom and spontaneity and is a balance to the more measured and thoughtful Sal who is an observer of life and people (also a writer).

It’s an interesting book but also quite an odd one. I would say that I enjoyed it although I also found myself wanting to get it finished. It was almost as if I knew that being on the journey with Sal and Dean was never going to take me to an end destination and that the only way to escape was to jump off the pages.

One thing that particularly intrigues me is that my younger daughter (19) has told me that this is her favourite book, She is not a particularly avid reader and so I find it interesting that this particular title resonates with her. She has also read a few of Kerouac’s other novels (Big Sur, The Dharma Bums, The Town and The City) so there is obviously something about his style/message that catches her mind. Kerouac’s writing IS richly descriptive and somewhat hypnotic at times and ‘On The Road’ certainly captures a sense of youthful spirit and experiencing existence for it’s own sake.

On Sunday I finished reading Seneca’s ‘On the Shortness of Life’. It’s only a slim volume and I completed it in two chunks a few days apart. I have to say that I was hoping/expecting a little more from it. My disappointment could be because I read it relatively quickly and certainly not studiously but I think the rather drawn out and prosaic writing had something to do with this too, although it has to be borne in mind that it was written about 2000 years ago so perhaps that is understandable! Actually, writing the last sentence brings to mind that it really is quite remarkable that something written so long ago can still speak to a modern reader (of course the translator and editor of the edition I was reading are not quite so ancient).

Having skipped through the book I came away with three take-away messages. First, Seneca argues that life isn’t really short and that, in fact, it is plenty long enough if used correctly. Secondly, he is particularly critical of people who allow others to control their actions through their choice of work. Finally, he makes a case that the most worthy activity that you can indulge in is to learn to philosophize. Now, I may have missed the point a bit, but to my mind the last two are not especially helpful pieces of advice, which is why, overall, I ended up a little disappointed by the apparent lack of profundity from a book that I think is generally regarded as something of a classic.eneca

I recently finished reading Cal Newport‘s latest book ‘Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World’. I had come across Newport’s work previously via various podcasts that I listen to and had read some of his blog posts covering the same content but I found the book to be a much more satisfying and useful experience.

Cal Newport is a professor in Computer Science at Georgetown University and so, in theory, his work should share many characteristics with mine. However, he is clearly driven to pursue his research much more than I have ever been and I guess this is why he has worked so much more fiercely to develop approaches to working that build and protect time for Deep Work (which he defines as ‘professional activities performed in a state of distraction-fee concentration that push your cognitive capabilities to their limit. These efforts create new value, improve your skill, and are hard to replicate’).

A central tenet of Newport’s book is that just at the time when Deep Work is becoming so necessary (and valuable) it is become increasingly rare and so those who practical the skill of Deep Work are in a fantastic position to leverage their skill to reap great rewards. Amongst the things that Newport suggests are deliberately build in time to practice Deep Work, to learn to become comfortable with boredom (and so not seek distraction so readily), to quit social media (perhaps the key source of distraction in the modern world) and to ruthlessly eliminate Shallow Work.

For me, one of the most valuable aspects of reading Newport’s book was that re-energised a desire to produce the kind of outputs that would likely come from Deep Work (not necessarily research papers but anything that requires a significant amount of creation in its generation). I think I had lost that to some extent.

Over the last couple of weeks I have been trying out some practices inspired by the book. I have been blocking out sizeable (multi-hour) chunks of time to work on the tougher kind of problems that tend to get pushed back and in these time periods I have been stealing myself against distractions as much as I can. I have generally been trying not to fill small empty spaces of time with a circuit of website or email checking. I have culled the people and accounts that I follow on Facebook and Twitter, almost to vanishing point. I have set aside regular time each day to ruthlessly attack smaller tasks, and because of this I have felt more secure at other times thatchings are not being forgotten. So far, the results have been excellent. Not only do I feel I have worked more productively and made good progress on deeper tasks, but I have also found that I have enjoyed working this way.

There are a lot of books about ‘productivity’ out there and I have read a fair few, but I sense that Newport’s Deep Work is one that will likely make a lasting impact in my life.

I just finished reading Tenacious, the sixth novel in Julian Stockwin’s Kydd series. In this book, Kydd finds himself a junior Lieutenant aboard the ship Tenacious as it campaigns in the Mediterranean to combat Napoleon Buonaparte’s attempts to rampage his army through Egypt to Turkey. Kydd comes into contact with Admiral Nelson and is involved in the famous Battle of the Nile and, on the back of seeing Nelson’s brilliant and decisive leadership, he sets out to take opportunities, and associated risks, to show his own potential as a leader. His first attempt at leading a small action ends in failure and he is captured by the French but is then fortunate to be part of an immediate exchange of prisoners. He then plays a vital role in the defence of Acre against the advancing French army although, in the end, it requires a huge slice of good fortune for the city to withstand the siege.

I found the previous Kydd novel a little lacking in action, but I would say that Tenacious was the best of the series so far with a good amount of uncertainty in the plot, plenty going on and not too much emphasis on Kydd’s relationship with his ‘particular friend’ Nicholas Renzi – a character who I find to be somewhat tedious and over-blown. So Kydd’s story now moves on, with him being increasingly noticed by those in the higher echelons of the Royal Navy, something which will surely lead to rapid advancement of his career.