Notes on Books — MAY 2017
Every month, I want to share notes on books I’ve read. I like taking notes because it feels like I’m having a dialogue with the book. I’m sharing these notes and thoughts on these books in the hope others will agree or disagree with them and share their own thoughts. I read these books with the greatest of intentions to enjoy them and be better for reading them. I’m not interested in critiquing these books, so you’ll only find positive notes here.
Here are the books I read in May and my thoughts.
“Ego is the Enemy”, Ryan Holiday (2016)
Ryan ends the prologue with “I hope you will be less invested in the story you tell about your own specialness, and as a result, you will be liberated to accomplish the world-changing work you’ve set out to achieve.” And like that, the book has been set-up. As I’ve grown accustomed to with Ryan’s work, it’s personal, honest and incredibly researched. There are countless stories of historical figures and how ego, or lack thereof, guided them.
Highly recommend this book to anyone starting out in their careers. The book glorifies the notion that success comes from humble beginnings and that passion is a bad motivator. When you’re starting out a career, you have the lack of patience and an abundance of intensity. We hear the stories of people who “made it” because of passion, but we never hear the stories of the many more who didn’t. One can’t define themselves by the praise others put onto us. It’s comparison with our peers that will kill us.
“Fahrenheit 451”, Ray Bradbury (1953)
Short. Stimulating. Science Fiction. Bradbury paints the picture of a dystopian future where firemen create fires instead of preventing them. They invade people’s homes and burn every book they find. The idea of firemen putting out fires is merely a myth. Most of the firemen don’t remember how this started nor have they ever read a book themselves.
People in this world embraced new media (film and television) and in turn developed a shorter attention span. Books were shortened themselves to account for this. One of the characters, Mildred, loves interactive entertainment. She spends her days watching the “parlor walls” which are large televisions on the walls of her living room. Bradbury channeled his contempt for mass media through this character.
This book will continue to be relevant as it serves a cautionary tale. Like a lot of other science fiction (Read anything by Isaac Asimov), it poses questions about our society in the present and future. The book is a love letter to the act of reading and it’s need in a society. The book was published during the rise of television, now referred to as the “Golden Age of Television” and television has only grown in influence.. The mindless entertainment the characters are given through mass media in the book persists in our society. Television helps marginalize the reading of literature. That’s what I believe this book was about. Though much attention is paid to the burning of books as an act of censorship, it’s merely a secondary theme that more serves to distract from the true theme. The fact is Bradbury’s fear was correct, people are reading less.
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