Book Notes Digest #8

February 11, 2020

Hey all,

One of my goals this year is to write more.

Like most people, I’m fairly insecure about my writing abilities, and I haven’t had much practice since college. So pushing myself has been a challenge.

However, I recently read a fantastic book that kicked off a lot of thinking around why I read, and what my reading goals should be. It helped to generate my first post of the year, Read to Write, and Write to Learn. Please check it out and let me know feedback and thoughts.

And if you’d like to share these emails out more broadly, you can use this link where anyone can subscribe: https://booknotes.substack.com/

Matt

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1 - How to Take Smart Notes

Amazon

This was an incredible book (for me) on how to take notes effectively and how to turn those notes into publishable writing. For my details on the biggest takeaways, you can checkout my post, Read to Write, and Write to Learn. You can also checkout this amazing summary by Tiago Forte.

2 - Where Men Win Glory

Amazon

"In war, truth is the first casualty." - Aeschylus

Pat Tillman can be described as nothing other than fascinating. He walked away from a successful NFL career, joined the army, and then died half-way around the world in Afghanistan from friendly fire.

Sadly, this book is primarily a vehicle for Jon Krakauer to share his narrative around the Iraq War and the Bush administration. Not that I disagree with much of his position, but Tillman feels like a tool being swung around for political purposes. Still, an interesting read to learn about the broad strokes of Tillman, his life, and ultimately his fatal flaw (as reported by Krakauer): extreme loyalty.

3 - All the Pretty Horses

Amazon

All the Pretty Horses, is the first book in McCarthy’s Border-trilogy. It’s a tale of two teenaged boys who ride horses down to Mexico to seek adventure and life as cowboys. They barely escape with their lives.

If you haven’t had the privilege yet, read some Cormac McCarthy to feel wholly inadequate. I sometimes wonder whether he and I speak the same language—his command of English is next-level. Here’s one passage I highlighted. It’s nothing particularly special for him, but to me its some phenomenal prose:

"Shrouded in the black thunderheads the distant lightning glowed mutely like welding seen through foundry smoke. As if repairs were under way at some flawed place in the iron dark of the world."

I liked this one too, after the main character receives kindness from strangers:

"And after and for a long time to come he'd have reason to evoke recollection of those smiles and to reflect upon the good will which provoked them for it had power to protect and to confer honor and to strengthen resolve and it had power to heal men and to bring them to safety long after all other resources were exhausted."

And finally, I just really like this message:

"Courage [is] a form of constancy...it was always himself that the coward abandoned first. After this all other betrayals [come] easily."