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In the last few years, maybe around the writing of my own book, I've developed the yips when it comes to finishing things. Even books I love. I just feel the page stack getting thinner in my right hand and then something comes over me and I start something else and another one gets added to this growing pile next to my bed, 60-80 percent creased. But there's something comforting about them all sitting there (and more on my ebook apps), because I really do feel like I'll get to them, and in the meantime, I can sample more widely while still scrolling on my phone for seven hours a day. (The end of Rap Capital is good, though.)
Nov 9, 2022
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I finish as many books as I want, which is never as many books as I want
Feb 3, 2024
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...and making peace with that. Been in the biggest reading slump because I wasn't vibing with The Idiot by Elif Batuman but desperately wanted to push through bc it got shortlisted for Pulitzer. 65% in, I just had to admit it wasn't for me and abandon it. Flying through books I've been wanting to read now and feeling so much better about myself :)
Nov 29, 2024
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I finished a book for the first time in a year yesterday. It was “my year of rest & relaxation”. Immediately after finishing it, I picked up another book & read 40 pages in a night. Will likely finish that book before the week is through. This will continue.
Apr 15, 2024
Top Recs from @joe-coscarelli
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My friend Jay recently mentioned in passing a 2010 story in The New Yorker, "Sleeping With Weapons" by Tad Friend, about the totally batshit feud between the actor and musician John Lurie and his protege John Perry. It's like 8,000+ words of mayhem and mental illness and I can't believe the magazine ran it or that I'd never read it, especially since there was a whole controversy afterward, including a hunger strike. It reminded me that there's just an endless array of weird old stores from 10 years ago, from 50 years ago, from last year, and you can just mainline them in one subway ride for no money. I always go back to stuff like Nancy Jo Sales on the Pussy Posse or the Golden Suicides, or Chris Heath's Fiona Apple cover story for Rolling Stone from 1998, or Tom Wolfe's "The Last American Hero Is Junior Johnson. Yes!" or Ta-Nehisi Coates on MF DOOM. (Use Pocket to get around paywalls.)
Nov 9, 2022
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I try to wear almost only all black (or dark gray), no shorts and no logos – mostly for aesthetic simplicity, though shout out to Naomi Klein and reading Adbusters at suburban Barnes & Nobles – but I'm softening. My friend Bryan, in a nod to his British and Mexican heritage, started rocking old school semi-shiny black Umbro shorts a few years ago and pointed out that they're cheap on Amazon (sorry Naomi Klein). I only have one pair but they're extremely durable and I wore them all summer: around the house, at the beach, to play softball, to go out. People love to remember Umbros. My other major go-to exception is keeping a small pile of Polo chino hats in various colors as a nod to Young Dro (Atlanta's Cam'ron) and because the various little bears on the hats are all wearing Polo themselves, on some mise en abyme-ish shit.
Nov 9, 2022
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I'm not exactly recommending the music – the sound is very specific: punchline Detroit rap about scamming over sped-up '80s samples – so much as the total package persona. When I first stumbled on Babytron in 2019, I was drawn to his ridiculous references (Jimmy Neutron, Dennis Schröder), unpopular music videos shot in electronics departments and beginner's mustache, but also the YouTube comments saying that he looked like Drake Bell or speculating about his race. In the years since, he's gotten some good press and grown out his hair yet almost everything else is the same: tons of music, low-budget videos, rapid-fire Gen-Z Mitch Hedberg bars. He still doesn't have a Wikipedia page. When I saw him live earlier this year, someone asked me how old I was, because they were pretty sure I was the oldest person there. (I’m 34.) He headlined for like 25 minutes and missed about half of his verses because he was hitting a blunt. Stop saying that I'm offbeat if I match the tempo.
Nov 9, 2022