Unpacking My Library 📚

A private library isn't just an ego-boosting shelf of trophies; it's a knowledge management system.

But when I moved apartments this past week, that system was upended.

Now, with books lying across my office floor, a new system is starting to emerge.

In this week's issue of Writer Science

• Unpacking my library (ft. Walter Benjamin)
• Discussing the winner of the Bad Writing award
• Recommending unrecommended books

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Word of the Week 📖

Sessile (adj)

1. Biology (of an organism, e.g. a barnacle) fixed in one place; immobile:

• parrotfish inadvertently graze upon sessile invertebrates when cropping algae
• overall body shape is consistent with a sessile habit.

2. Botany Zoology (of a plant or animal structure) attached directly by its base without a stalk or peduncle:

• sporangia may be stalked or sessile.

The Index 📊

15: Number of times the word "former" was spoken in the September presidential debate by Kamala Harris
1: By Donald Trump
10: Number of times the word "they" was spoken by Kamala Harris
230: By Donald Trump
8: Number of times Donald Trump's "they" referred to illegal immigrants
5: to the Biden administration
8,500: Total number of words spoken in the September presidential debate by Donald Trump
5,500: By Kamala Harris
5: Number of times an ABC moderator fact checked a claim made by Donald Trump
0: By Kamala Harris

Unpacking My Library 📚📚📚

I am unpacking my library. Yes, I am. The books are not yet on the shelves, not yet touched by the mild boredom of order.

So begins the essay Unpacking My Library, of which I was reminded this past week while moving into my new apartment.

Written in 1931 by Walter Benjamin as he was also in the midst of moving, the essay explores the relationship between a collector and his possessions.

The collector, according to Benjamin, maintains "a relationship to objects which does not emphasize their functional, utilitarian value-that is, their usefulness."

The most profound enchantment for the collector is the locking of individual items within a magic circle in which they are fixed as the final thrill, the thrill of acquisition, passes over them.

But removing my books from the order of the bookshelf –the "magic circle in which they are fixed"–allows a number of new connections and synchronicities between them to emerge.

Habent sua fata libelli: Books have their own fate.

Here are 11 books that jumped out at me from that pile on the floor of my new home office.

1. The Gift – Lewis Hyde: True art is a gift; everything else is a commodity. (Amz→)
2. All the Pretty Horses - Cormac McCarthy: The ultimate cowboy story by my favorite American writer. (Amz→)
3. Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man - James Joyce: A bold pronouncement of the kind of writer Joyce would become: "I will tell you what I will do and what I will not do..." (Amz→)
4. The Collected Works of W.S. Merwin: Ezra Pound's advice to Merwin: Read seeds, not twigs. (Amz→)
5. Skin in the Game - Nassim Nicholas Taleb: Tawk is cheap; you've got to risk the walk. (Amz→)
6. Mating in Captivity - Esther Perel: Desire grows in space; don't let it be smothered by modern notions of relationships. (Amz→)
7. Sapiens (Graphic Novel) - Yuval Noah Harari: The author has a new book coming out in September, but did you know that his first book was re-released as a graphic novel? (Amz→)
8. The Beginning of Infinity - David Deutsch: No, the world is not going to end. Problems are soluble, and humans are the great problem solvers. (Amz→)
9. The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate - Peter Wohlleben: Nature–once thought red in tooth, nail, and claw–turns out to be quite benevolent. (Amz→)
10. The Vegetarian - Han Kang: Kafka meets Korea (Amz→)
11. The Overstory - Richard Powers: A superb drama about the sessile life. (Amz→)

Interesting Stories & Ideas 💡

• Parents should ignore their children more often by Dr. Darby Saxbe (It's better for the mental health of parents & kids, and it's evolutionarily natural).
  • Parenting has little effect on children's personality, intelligence, or socialization by Judith Rich Harris
• How to Succeed on YouTube according to a leaked internal document by Mr. Beast
• The importance of stupidity in scientific research, according to Martin A. Schwartz
• AI worse than humans in every way at summarising information (human summaries scored an average of 81% across all criteria; AI summaries, 47%): Amazon
• The 50,000+ book "library of the world" by the Italian novelist Umberto Eco

Roundtable 🚀

In this week's roundtable discussion, we're looking at the 1st place winner of the 1997 Bad Writing Contest, which was awarded to cultural critic Fredric Jameson.

Together, we'll be reading Jameson's passage and discussing its writing style.

Then, in next week's issue, I'll send a recap of everyone's comments, as well as my own analysis.

Join the Discussion→

Media 🎥

Check out the latest video→

Closing Thought 🤔

I loved this question from the writer David Perel:

So let me ask you:

What book do you recommend that was not recommended to you?

Let us know in the comments!

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