The best quotes from the books I've read this year

I think I've mentioned in a post or two this year that I'm reading more. It's been great. I read novels, business books, self-help, and non-fiction. I like the variety. I think it's helped me with my writing too. Not here, obviously, but at work and on other projects.

So I thought it would be fun to gather some of quotes from most of the books I've read this year and put them here for all of you. Maybe they'll inspire. Maybe they'll make you want to read. Maybe they'll give you a peek into my psyche.

Who knows?

“I always feel uncomfortable when people speak about ordinary mortals because I've never met an ordinary man, woman or child.”
― Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth

“My daddy always told me to just do the best you knew how and tell the truth. He said there was nothin to set a man’s mind at ease like wakin up in the morning and not havin to decide who you were. And if you done somethin wrong just stand up and say you done it and say you’re sorry and get on with it. Don’t haul stuff around with you.” ― Cormac McCarthy, No Country for Old Men

“The story is not in the words; it's in the struggle.” ― Paul Auster, The New York Trilogy

“...being happy and fulfilled is probably one of the most attractive traits you can offer a partner.”
― Amir Levine, Attached: The New Science of Adult Attachment and How It Can Help You Find and Keep Love

“The truth will set you free. But not until it is finished with you.” ― David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest

“He was there for you, and yet at the same time he was inaccessible. You felt there was a secret core in him that could never be penetrated, a mysterious center of hiddenness. To imitate him was somehow to participate in that mystery, but it was also to understand that you could never really know him.” ― Paul Auster, The New York Trilogy

“Mythology is not a lie, mythology is poetry, it is metaphorical. It has been well said that mythology is the penultimate truth--penultimate because the ultimate cannot be put into words. It is beyond words. Beyond images ... Mythology pitches the mind beyond that rim, to what can be known but not told.” ― Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth

“When Fortuna spins you downward, go out to a movie and get more out of life.” ― John Kennedy Toole, A Confederacy of Dunces

“Anyone too undisciplined, too self-righteous or too self-centered to live in the world as it is has a tendency to idealize a world which ought to be. But no matter what political or religious direction such idealists choose, their visions always share one telling characteristic: in their utopias, heavens or brave new worlds, their greatest personal weakness suddenly appears to be a strength.” ― David James Duncan, The Brothers K

“You never know what worse luck your bad luck has saved you from.” ― Cormac McCarthy, No Country for Old Men

“Logical validity is not a guarantee of truth.” ― David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest

“The man who believes that the secrets of the world are forever hidden lives in mystery and fear. Superstition will drag him down. The rain will erode the deeds of his life. But that man who sets himself the task of singling out the thread of order from the tapestry will by the decision alone have taken charge of the world and it is only by such taking charge that he will effect a way to dictate the terms of his own fate.” ― Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West

“Basically, secure people feel comfortable with intimacy and are usually warm and loving; anxious people crave intimacy, are often preoccupied with their relationships, and tend to worry about their partner’s ability to love them back; avoidant people equate intimacy with a loss of independence and constantly try to minimize closeness.” ― Amir Levine, Attached: The New Science of Adult Attachment and How It Can Help You Find and Keep Love

“[On having a rival] Women intrinsically understand human dynamics, and that makes them unstoppable. Unfortunately, the average man is less adroit at fostering such rivalries, which is why most men remain average; males are better at hating things that can't hate them back (e.g., lawnmowers, cats, the Denver Broncos, et cetera). They don't see the big picture.” ― Chuck Klosterman, Chuck Klosterman IV: A Decade of Curious People and Dangerous Ideas

“You will become way less concerned with what other people think of you when you realize how seldom they do.” ― David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest

“If you just sit and observe, you will see how restless your mind is. If you try to calm it, it only makes it worse, but over time it does calm, and when it does, there's room to hear more subtle things - that's when your intuition starts to blossom and you start to see things more clearly and be in the present more. Your mind just slows down, and you see a tremendous expanse in the moment. You see so much more than you could see before. It's a discipline; you have to practice it. [Steve Jobs]” ― Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs

“Chronic remorse, as all the moralists are agreed, is a most undesirable sentiment. If you have behaved badly, repent, make what amends you can and address yourself to the task of behaving better next time. On no account brood over your wrongdoing. Rolling in the muck is not the best way of getting clean.” ― Aldous Huxley, Brave New World

“Greatness and nearsightedness are incompatible. Meaningful achievement depends on lifting one's sights and pushing toward the horizon.” ― Daniel H. Pink, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us

“One way to remember who you are is to remember who your heroes are. [Steve Jobs]” ― Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs

“I am at the moment writing a lengthy indictment against our century. When my brain begins to reel from my literary labors, I make an occasional cheese dip.” ― John Kennedy Toole, A Confederacy of Dunces

“You can be shaped, or you can be broken. There is not much in between. Try to learn. Be coachable. Try to learn from everybody, especially those who fail. This is hard. ... How promising you are as a Student of the Game is a function of what you can pay attention to without running away.” ― David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest

What are some of your favorite books this year? Do you have a favorite quote you try to live by?

Because Josh Told You...

You guys,

I super just finished the BEST book.  Hands down, uh-the-BEST! And you know how when you finish a good book it's like you invented reading and you are probably the first person to read this amazing book you found off the New York Times Best Seller list?  Well, that's how this book went down, even though Josh totally told us all to read this book here.

So it's a book about kids with cancer.  Two teenage kids with cancer.  A girl with cancer and a boy with cancer.  And yes, it is super sad. And yes, you cry when you are in public reading it on your lunch break.  But also, it's so funny, and so well written. The voice of Hazle, the girl with cancer, who tells this story is so very funny and smart (too smart, perhaps, for a teenager) and you fall in love with her on the first page.  That is all I ever ask of a book, to have me love it on the first page. Don't hand me some book and tell me that you have to read a few chapters before I really get into it. That book is called a coaster. Nope, I need a book to tell me, in the first moments of reading, that I am gonna want to take the time to finish this book.

So, I would love to tell you all about it!  I mean I could talk about it for days, but you haven't read it and maybe to don't read books because you are behind on 'The Call of the Midwife'  (you should also be watching that, it's a British TV show about Midwives in the 50's in the East end of London...it practically writes it's self!) but this book is written in such a easy voice that you can blow right through it.  It took Lisa Clark two days to read it cover to cover, and you're just as smart as her!

So, my name is Patrick and I just read 'The Fault in Our Stars' by John Green and I loved it.  It's a book about two kids with cancer and I couldn't get enough. I hope you go down to your local library and check this one out...but you don't have to take MY word for it!

Read Me.

“The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.” 
― Jane Austen

So I think you should reread 'To Kill a Mockingbird'.   I don't have anything clever to say about it.  It was laying on the floor in our playroom and the kids were climbing on the ceiling so I thought I'd start at the beginning.  It's just so very good.  I'm 10 pages in and I can hear Scouts voice plainly explaining how it all went down.

Is there anything like a very good book?

Once when I was freshly married, I had friends come stay with us in our freshly painted one bedroom apartment in LA.  It was real fun.  But, at night, and we were all through with the day, I grabbed my book from my nightstand and dove in.  One of my friends, who had known me all through high school and had never seen me with a book in my hand, asked me if I was just putting on a show for my new wife.  I did like the idea, it would have been little 'Talented Mr Ripley' of me to present myself as a reader to my new wife and then three years in hold a book burning on our porch. But the fact is, I made it all the way through every grade of public school and never found my love of reading. It eluded me though, it seems like that's all I should have been looking for, but we never came together, Reading and I.

It was my friend Stacy, who offered to have a favorite book swap, when I was 22 years old.  Luckily, I had stumbled on to 'The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe' a year earlier and loved it, or I literally would not have had a book to swap her.

She gave me, 'To Kill a Mockingbird'.  She was right.  I was shocked how this mandatory English 2 reading could also, inexplicably, be a good book.  The thought had never crossed my mind.  But as you know, a book requires you to be in the right place and mind to capture you.

My wife tried to read 'Cold Mountain' but never got into it, too cold and mountainous I suppose. Then, when she was recovering from surgery and had to be in bed for weeks, out of the blue the book reached out and pulled her in, deep into it's pages and held her there for hours.  It's one of her favorites.

There is so much great entertainment out there.  This is not one of those turn off your tv and read a book posts.  But, if you are reading this and thinking that the last book you read was...'To Kill a Mockingbird' but in 8th grade, then at the very least, start there again.  The world has changed since you were 15 and so have books.

The last book to really pull me all the way in was 'The Lonely Polygamist'. In the end I didn't really like it, but I loved the moment 15 minutes before my lunch break when I would remember that I had a good book in my bag and I was by myself for a whole hour and I got to read it.  An exquisite feeling.

I am always ALWAYS looking for another good book... why, do you have one?

15 Books For Your 15 Year Old Boy

I've always been a big reader. In fact, my first job was at the Provo Public Library. I was a page (really!) that meant that I was the guy that pushed the cart around and re-shelved the books. I loved it, and I worked there until I left on my LDS mission. I was upstairs in the adult department for about a year and then moved downstairs to the children's library. We would frequently get frantic mothers coming in saying "My son will ONLY read Goosebump books. How do I get him to read something better?" And our answer was always the same, "Leave your son alone. He's reading. Just let him read."

And I firmly believe that. If you kid only wants to read books about weather (we went through that phase) or graphic novels or Goosebumps (Ermagerd!!) then leave him alone and just let him read! Reading is the key. And if he gets to read what he wants, then he enjoys it. And then he reads more. And then he reads new and different kinds of books. But if you try and force him to read "something else" (i.e. the books you like) then reading becomes a chore, and he doesn't want to do it and then he stops reading.

I get it. My son Jonah reads a lot but will get obsessed with series and read those and only those (He's 8 and right now is really into Andrew Lost.) For Christmas I gave him The BFG, Big Red and Danny the Champion of the World which were three of my favorite books when I was a kid. And he has completely ignored them. Every once in a while I ask about them casually, but I don't push. He's reading. Leave him alone and just let him read.

But if you have a tween/teen boy who is looking for something to read, here are 15 of my favorites that would be good for boys (or girls!) who are 13-17. Let me know if the comments what I missed.




(Disclaimer: while I would feel comfortable letting my kdis read these books when they are old enough, some of them have grown up themes about sex, violence, mean people, monsters, etc. If you are sensitve to those things, do your research before letting your kids read and decide what's right for you and your family. i.e. Don't send me angry emails if you or your kids are offended.)

Is Audiobook Listening Considered Reader Cheating?

I'm listening to audiobooks now. In the past, I avoided them for two reasons: I didn't have a long enough commute and I thought that if I didn't actually pick up the book and read it, then it didn't count.

Of course, technically, listening isn't reading. But, in theory, the activity of listening vs reading is only different in the method of input. When you read, you see the words and your brain creates images and creates a world for you to live in. When you listen, your brain still does those same things. You still have to imagine it all. Perhaps the biggest difference is that you can't go at your own pace or stop to take notes when you're listening.

So, today I believe that when I listen to books, I've legitimately consumed that book. However, I still think there are certain books that can't simply be heard and must be read. I plan to practice some basic rules to determine if I go book vs audiobook:

1. Books for improving my job need to be audiobooks because they normally take me months to read. Good info, not very fun.
2. Humor books read by the author are great audiobooks, e.g., Tina Fey's Bossypants.
3. I'm torn on "classics" because some you just HAVE to read and others are Moby Dick.
4. Sci-fi, Fantasy and Horror make great audiobooks and can really freak your ___ while you're driving home from work and it's dark.
5. Any audiobooks read by Kirby Heyborne because he's a friend and doesn't suck at it.
6. Read books by authors who love and play with language because that is a visual experience and can't be duplicated by listening. Authors such as Hemmingway, Beckett, Chabon, Cather, Poe, Pynchon, Shakespeare, and Faulkner, for example.
7. Read books that your book club is reading if at all possible just because. I don't belong to a book club but I feel like I would prefer to have read the book myself. Maybe it depends on the book. Thoughts, book-clubbers?

But enough about me, let's hear (ok, read) what some other people have to say about the question.

"Is listening to a book as good as reading it? I contend that it is not ... I choose audiobooks that are heavy on plot, but relatively light on character development and lyrical descriptions." – Mary McCauley of the Baltimore Sun blog

"Audio books are not cheating. In fact, I think that in some cases hearing a story spoken aloud can bring a new depth to the experience. I no longer stumble over the phrase “I’ve read that book” if, in fact, I have listened to it instead of reading the print version. The end result – hearing the tale – is the same whether you’re reading or, in essence, being read to." – @suddenlyjamie of the New Hampshire Writer's Network blog

I listen to audiobooks with the Audible app for the iPhone. Now, on my way to work, I listen to books all the time. I look forward to every moment I have in my car now, even with work-related books. I once again feel like a "reader" because I'm finishing books.

Are audiobooks cheating?

Single

Lately, I've become addicted to the Kindle Single. A Kindle single is essentially a short story, or long-form article but in a shiny and new techno friendly package. I'm a sucker for shiny and new. It's pretty much a given that at any restaurant I will order whatever is the weirdest thing on the menu, I always want to buy those limited edition Ben & Jerry's cartons and if there is a new TV show that has strong buzz I feel physical pain until I jump on the bandwagon.

The odd thing is, in their traditional form (ie. in books) I never read short stories. I can't get into them for some reason. Something about knowing that the characters I am reading about will only exist for a small number of pages in that big thick book of stories looses my interest. But when the "book" is my Kindle or my phone, I don't have that same barrier.

So here is my top whatever number I get to list of favorite Kindle singles. And if you don't have a Kindle, no problem. Just get the Kindle app on your smart phone. These singles are short enough that reading on your phone during a couple of lunch breaks is realistic. If you don't have a smart phone, first of all, wow. How do you keep yourself occupied at doctors offices? Or waiting in line? Or stoplights? And secondly, you can read Kindle books on your web browser. Once you buy one, Amazon will tell you how. Please do enjoy:

1. I'm Starved for You by Margaret Atwood. 

I love, love, love, love, love Margaret Atwood. She paints great dystopian futures that are both terrifying and totally believable. In this Single, she imagines a world where people live half their life normally and half in voluntary incarceration. It is mysterious and dystopic and fun.

2. The Sum of my Parts by James Sanford
This is a memoir about a man who, in his late 30s, is diagnosed with testicular cancer. It is touching and funny and entertaining and makes you think about how you react to people around you who have cancer.

3. The New World by Patrick Ness.
There is no point in reading this Single, which is basically a prequel, unless you have read Patrick Ness's brilliant Chaos Walking series (starting with The Knife of Never Letting Go.) They are a little tough to get into - they series tells about a group of interplanetary settlers who are looking for a place to live after Earth is destroyed. They come across a planet that is perfect in every way, except there is a virus on the planet that causes all of the thoughts and emotions of men to be broadcast out loud where anyone can hear them. But they are great tales of loyalty and terrorism and how do you know who and what is evil. Please read them. And then you can read this free single about the settlers arrival on the planet.

4. Shaken, Not Stirred by Tim Gunn
Yes, THAT Tim Gunn. If you haven't read Mr. Gunn's fantastic biography Gunn's Golden Rules you should. It will change the way you look at the world and he is quite a talented and believable writer. This Single is about his dad, who was in the FBI and worked for J. Edgar Hoover and later in life developed Alzheimer's. Poignant and charming.

5. Don't Eat Cat by Jess Walter
I know, I know. Even I'm getting a little sick of the Zombie thing. But this is a funny and well told story about a world where people voluntarily become zombies and zombies work at Starbucks and eat cats. And Jess Walter is a great writer (read his Beautiful Ruins, too.)

6. The Heart of Haiku by Jane Hirshfield
While this biographical essay of Basho, the 16th century Japanese master of the Haiku, can at times be a little dry, it is worth it to read a variety of Basho's work. He was a genius.

7. The Getaway Car by Ann Patchett
If you are a writer, or a wannabe writer, or remotely interested in writing, or an Ann Patchett fan, then this is required reading. Ms. Patchett elegantly describes so many things about writing that I have always instinctively known to be true: that it is a craft and super hard, that the idea is the easy part and that the discipline of writing is like any other discipline. I wish those things weren't true. Why can't I just come up with a great idea for a YA novel and then Stephanie Meyerize it into book deals and movie rights? Because you have to sit down and do the work.

So if you have never read a Single, there are a few choices to get you started. And you could probably buy all of them for less than $20. And, yes, you could just go get a book of short stories from the library and get much the same affect. But you can't read those paper short stories on your shiny iPhone, so what's the point, really?