Time to hit the road

This week: my upcoming book tour dates, the magic of collage, and more...

In this week's newsletter: upcoming tour dates, book recommendations, and more... View this email in your browser Hey y'all, Here are 10 things I thought were worth sharing this week:  Keep Going comes out on Tuesday, so you only have a few days left to pre-order and get a free print. (Here's how.) Monday, I'm hitting the road on a 25-city tour. It's my biggest ever. First stops: Austin, Philadelphia, and NYC. Come see me. Bring a friend or two or ten. (And please read this before saying, "Why aren't you coming to my town?")   I've been doing tons of interviews to promote the book. Here's a nice one with CJ Chilvers in which we discuss parenting, Indiana Jones, and my librarian background. I'm trying hard to enjoy this moment, the quiet before the cyclone, but book tour has me anxious (gotta try to channel my inner Rick Steves!), so I'm making a lot of collages, treating the page as a place to escape.   This week I read Dryer's English, a writing guide by Random House's longtime copy chief, Benjamin Dreyer. It's funny and fun to read. (For desk reference, he recommends Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary [gotta have a paper dictionary!], their Dictionary of English Usage, and their twitter account: @merriamwebster. He also recommends The Chicago Manual of Style and the out-of-print Words into Type.)    I've been feeling extra addicted to my phone lately, so I read Cal Newport's Digital Minimalism. Newport writes, "doing nothing is overrated," so I'm gonna chase him (or his book, rather — that was a funny image) with Jenny Odell's How To Do Nothing.    I'm currently reading How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk, which has one of the greatest opening lines I've ever read: "I was a wonderful parent before I had children."   The late great Amy Krouse Rosenthal was a big influence on Keep Going (she was up on the bulletin board), so I was happy to see her daughter Paris carrying on her legacy with Project 1, 2, 3, a journal based on Amy's Instagram project. (Speaking of the bulletin board, the Van Gogh Museum is posting a bunch of great stuff about David Hockney on their Twitter feed.)   On the blog I wrote about the friendship of Saul Steinberg and Kurt Vonnegut and the connection between Corita Kent and Albert Camus.   A couple of poems: "Poem" by Joe Brainard (you've read I Remember, haven't you?) and "Berryman" by W.S. Merwin. ("if you have to be sure don't write")   Ear/eye candy: watch harpist Mary Lattimore do her thing at The Art Institute of Chicago.    RIP musician Scott Walker. Thanks for reading. If you like this newsletter and want to support it, forward it to someone who'd like it or, even better, buy them a copy of Keep Going. If you're seeing this newsletter for the first time, you can subscribe here. xoxo,  Austin PS. Thanks to @cigelske's 5-year-old for perfectly capturing how I feel right now: Austin Kleon is the author of Steal Like An Artist and other books. Subscribe to this newsletter   Copyright © 2019 Austin Kleon, All rights reserved. My mailing address is: Austin Kleon 19885 Detroit Road Box #222 Rocky River, OH 44116 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.)

How to read more

This week: 5 tips for reading more books, ear and eye candy, and more...

In this week's newsletter: how to read more, the wisdom of Spinal Tap, and much more... View this email in your browser Hey y'all, Here are 10 things I thought were worth sharing this week: How to read more.   I laughed all the way up until the end of Andrew Sean Greer's novel Less. Then I cried. Wonderful book.    The wisdom of This Is Spinal Tap: "It's such a fine line between stupid and clever."   Ear candy: Cocteau Twins' Heaven or Las Vegas.  (If you listen to vinyl, it's super cheap here.) The album is #1 on Pitchfork's list of best dream pop albums and I was happy to see "Iceblink Luck" on Frank Chimero's annual spring playlist.    The manuscripts of Emily Dickinson. (I love the book The Gorgeous Nothings: Emily Dickinson's Envelope Poems.)   Random recommendations: Setting time limits on your phone with Screen Time. Hot water with honey and lemon in the morning. Drinking cheap wine out of juice glasses.   This Curbed piece on what happens when you find lead paint in your house is a great example of reporting with hand-drawn illustrations integrated into the story that looks great on the screen. (For more hand-drawn journalism, check out Wendy MacNaughton's Meanwhile column.)   Damon Krukowski on how Myspace lost 12 years worth of music. (I really liked his book The New Analog, and I can't wait for Ways of Hearing, which is based on the terrific podcast of the same name.)   Keep Going comes out in 10 days and then I hit the road for two months (still time to get your free pre-order print!), so I'm in "The Gulp": the moment when something you made is out of your hands, but it's not really in anybody else's yet. (Somebody asked me what being in The Gulp is like, and I said, "Well, it's like waiting on Christmas morning...")   RIP poet W.S. Merwin. RIP filmmaker Barbara Hammer. RIP guitarist Dick Dale. Thanks for reading. If you like this newsletter and want to support it, forward it to someone who'd like it or, even better, pre-order a copy of Keep Going. If you're seeing this newsletter for the first time, you can subscribe here. xoxo,  Austin PS. I love seeing these prints out in the world! Austin Kleon is the author of Steal Like An Artist and other books. Subscribe to this newsletter   Copyright © 2019 Austin Kleon, All rights reserved. My mailing address is: Austin Kleon 19885 Detroit Road Box #222 Rocky River, OH 44116 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.)

You’ve got to be kind

This week: kindness as a verb, tour dates, and more...

In this week's newsletter: kindness as a verb, tour dates, and more... View this email in your browser Hey y'all, Here are 10 things I thought were worth sharing this week:  You've got to be kind.   I've posted the first stops on the 25-city Keep Going tour starting in April. First up is Austin, with a special screening of Groundhog Day at the Alamo Drafthouse. (!!!) Then Philly and NYC. Many more to come. (Have you preordered for your free poster?)    More fun tour news: Heather Havrilesky agreed to join me onstage in Pasadena. I just re-read "The Miracle of the Mundane" and it sent me back through What If This Were Enough? Holy moly, the essay "A Scourge of Gurus" is fire. (My own thoughts, here.) Her latest Ask Polly about how time moves is very much worth reading, as is How to Be a Person in the World.   I started reading Andrew Sean Greer's novel Less and it's very funny so far.   Always obsessed with maps, I posted about maps of teaching and maps of scenius and maps of Joan Miró.   Diagram-saturated math books from the 1950s.   Ear candy: I've been walking around to this Numero Group Spotify playlist, "Escape from Synth City." I liked this piece about teens who listen to mall wave, and I can't wait to hear this Kate Bush rarities set.   Eye candy: I saw Peter Bogdanovich's The Great Buster on a plane ride, and it made me, more than ever, want to watch absolutely everything Buster Keaton did. (I love The General.) My wife and I watched his short One Week for the first time and we loved it. Since the films are silent, I like to mute the TV and play modern music to go along with them. (Inspired by my buddy, who told me he had a student who would watch Keaton movies while playing trap music.)   Worth streaming: my wife and I binged Sex Education, which is smutty and surprisingly sweet. (Speaking of: season 4 of Catastrophe dropped last night.)   RIP drummer Hal Blaine. Might be time to re-watch The Wrecking Crew. Thanks for reading. If you like this newsletter and want to support it, forward it to someone who'd like it or, even better, pre-order my new book. If you're seeing this newsletter for the first time, you can subscribe here. xoxo,  Austin PS. People are already getting their free posters and there's still time to get yours! Here's John T. Unger's: Austin Kleon is the author of Steal Like An Artist and other books. Subscribe to this newsletter   Copyright © 2019 Austin Kleon, All rights reserved. My mailing address is: Austin Kleon 19885 Detroit Road Box #222 Rocky River, OH 44116 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.)