20 good books I read this year

In this week's newsletter: my favorite reads of 2018 and more...

In this week's newsletter: my favorite books, music, tv, and movies of 2018... View this email in your browser Hey y'all, Here are 10 things I thought were worth sharing this week:  A list of 20 good books I read this year.   Best of the blog this week: on the origin of the phrase "surfing the 'net," how there are more than four seasons, and a reminder for next year: Don't discard. Keep all your pieces in play.   Current reads: still making my way through Emily Wilson's translation of The Odyssey, started this annotated Walden, and I'm flipping through a gorgeous reissue of Saul Steinberg's The Labyrinth.   TV I enjoyed this year: The Good Place, Atlanta, The Americans, Detectorists, Parts Unknown, Queer Eye, Patriot, Killing Eve, Better Call Saul, Grand Designs, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and Billions.    Movies I enjoyed this year: Phantom Thread (saw it at least four times), Won't You Be My Neighbor?, Nacho Libre, The Beguiled, Black Panther, Thor: Ragnarok, Three Identical Strangers, Coco, and Faces Places.   Albums I enjoyed this year: Parquet Courts, Wide Awake!; Mary Lattimore, Hundreds of Days; Chilly Gonzales, Solo Piano III; Pusha T, Daytona; Jonny Greenwood, Phantom Thread soundtrack, Balanescu Quartet, Possessed and Senor Coconut, El Baile Aleman (both albums of Kraftwerk covers); Prince, Piano & A Microphone 1983, the White Album remix; John Coltrane, Both Directions At Once: The Lost Album; and Basement Beehive: The Girl Group Underground. (A lot of this stuff is on my 2018 playlist.)      More ear candy: I didn't get to post this in time for Christmas, but I love these DOOM XMAS remixes of rapper MF Doom. (I'm also sifting through Ted Gioia's 100 Best Albums of 2018.)   The best epigraphs of 2018. (I love that I requested this and the folks at Bookriot made it exist.)   Coming in January: the Super Blood Wolf Moon Eclipse! (Sounds like a death metal band.) Related: 50 years ago astronauts took the famous "Earthrise" photo.   RIP Sister Wendy Beckett. I really enjoyed this interview on Desert Island Discs. Okay, that's the last newsletter of 2018. Thanks so much for reading. If you like this newsletter and want to support it, forward it to a friend, tweet me some love, or best of all, buy a book! If you're seeing this newsletter for the first time, you can subscribe here. See you in 2019. (It's gonna be a wild year!)  xoxo, Austin Austin Kleon is the author of Steal Like An Artist and other books. Subscribe to this newsletter   Copyright © 2018 Austin Kleon, All rights reserved. My mailing address is: Austin Kleon 4301 W. William Cannon Dr. Suite B 150 #241 Austin, TX 78749 You're getting this email because you signed up for it at austinkleon.com. Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list. Amazon Affiliate links offset the cost of sending these missives. (And pay for diapers.)

Stay alive, get weird

In this week's newsletter: staying alive, writing with kids, and lots of music... 

In this week's newsletter: staying alive, writing with kids, and lots of music... View this email in your browser Hey y'all, Here are 10 things I thought were worth sharing this week:  Stay alive, get weird.   I'm reading Hanif Abdurraqib's They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us (it's been a good year for music books) and John Gall's book of his collage work from 2008-2018.     Writing with kids. (Related: how being a parent is like being an artist.)   What if we paid attention to "late bloomers" more than prodigies? (This is a theme in Keep Going — and certainly nothing new.)   I snatched up this glow-in-the-dark print from Olimpia Zagnoli so quick. (I love her.) I might hang it next to my glow-in-the-dark lunar calendar.   Worth following: music writer @TedGioia. In true Show Your Work! fashion, his terrific twitter feed makes me want to read his books on jazz.    Ear candy: 'tis the season for the year-end playlist. I'm dipping into Fluxblog's, although half of it is reminding me why I ignore most contemporary pop music. (Snobby, but true.) What I really love is when people like the Ross Brothers make a yearly jukebox of new and old stuff they listened to throughout the year. (This is what I do with my musical diaries. Here's my 2018 playlist so far.) I also dig a good old-fashioned thematic playlist, like this one called "Mapping The Moon."   How stereo was first sold to a skeptical public. (I love old ads for music equipment.)   Eye (and ear) candy: I saw Roma at the Capitol Theater in Cleveland. I can't say I enjoyed it, but it is beautiful, and disturbing, and downright gut-wrenching at times. (My favorite film critic, Stephanie Zacharek, put it at the top of her 2018 list.) If you've seen it, here's some essential historical context. The picture was striking on the big screen, but I thought the sound was actually what made it worth seeing in the theater. (Lighter than Roma, but still disturbing: Three Identical Strangers.)   RIP Penny Marshall and Nancy Wilson. Thanks for reading. If you like this newsletter and want to support it, buy a few of my books as gifts — to yourself or others! — they're cheap and they fit in most stockings.  If you're seeing this newsletter for the first time, you can subscribe here. Happy holidays, y'all. Take care of yourselves and stay light. Be the light or reflect it. I'm grateful for every one of you! xoxo,  Austin PS. Remember the icy Lake Erie photo in last week's newsletter? Here are my sons checking out that same dock a few days later: Austin Kleon is the author of Steal Like An Artist and other books. Subscribe to this newsletter   Copyright © 2018 Austin Kleon, All rights reserved. My mailing address is: Austin Kleon 4301 W. William Cannon Dr. Suite B 150 #241 Austin, TX 78749 You're getting this email because you signed up for it at austinkleon.com. Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list. Amazon Affiliate links offset the cost of sending these missives. (And pay for diapers.)

Wintry mix

In this week's newsletter: the poetry of winter, library tourism, and how art and kids are very similar...

In this week's newsletter: wintry poetry, library tourism, and how art and kids are very similar... View this email in your browser Hey y'all, Here are 10 things I thought were worth sharing this week:  My family and I are spending the winter up on Lake Erie, so I'm reading Thoreau's journal, and thinking about the seasons, and learning to love the winter like Thoreau did.    I'm also reading the wintry poems in Tomas Tranströmer's The Deleted World. (I love this video of Tranströmer playing the piano.)   A searchable database of over 200k Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock prints. (My pal Adam Norwood recommends a search for "ghost.")   The bad news: Alan Jacobs (author of some of my favorite books, The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction and How To Think) has left Twitter for good. The good news: he started a newsletter. (Actually, it's all good news, since everyone should probably leave Twitter.)   Remember how I wrote about my love for library tourism? Here's a crowdsourced Lonely Planet for libraries.   Artist John T. Unger (he's quoted in both Show Your Work! AND Keep Going) is Kickstartering his wonderful anatomical mosaics — rewards include actual rubies (for only $25!) and life-size prints.   I've been battling some nasty crud, so I need to make a few more gallons of Sonia Harris's ginger, lemon and maple syrup tea. (You may remember her excellent NSFW Swearing Patterns from a previous newsletter. They would make delightful holiday gifts for the lover of profanity.)    Ear candy: The wind blowing on Mars. (I listened to it on the Sony noise-cancelling headphones recommended by The Wirecutter. My wife bought me a pair a few months ago they are probably my favorite headphones ever. [Protip: I saw them for $179 at Costco.] Added to The 2018 Kleon Holiday Gift Guide!)   Eye candy: My friend Lance keeps recommending A Christmas Movie A Day.   Being a parent is like being an artist.  Thanks for reading! If you like this newsletter and want to support it, forward it to a friend, tweet me some love, or best of all, buy a book. If you're seeing this newsletter for the first time, you can subscribe here. xoxo,  Austin Austin Kleon is the author of Steal Like An Artist and other books. Subscribe to this newsletter   Copyright © 2018 Austin Kleon, All rights reserved. My mailing address is: Austin Kleon 4301 W. William Cannon Dr. Suite B 150 #241 Austin, TX 78749 You're getting this email because you signed up for it at austinkleon.com. Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list. Amazon Affiliate links offset the cost of sending these missives. (And pay for diapers.)