What I'm Reading — April 2023

How Rick Rubin lost 130lbs, Jaron Lanier, Amy Jay, Sarah Fay, Holly Whitaker, Toni Bentley, Daniel Duane, Lyle McKeany, Soaring Twenties, Minda Lane, Thomas J Bevan, Charles Eisenstein & Flow State

📖 The Surrender: an outstanding (and very explicit) erotic memoir by Toni Bentley

📖 El Capitan: Historic Feats and Radical Routes by Daniel Duane

📖 The Desert and the Sea: 977 Days Captive on the Somali Pirate Coast, by Michael Scott Moore

can everyone kindly shut the fuck up about AI
by Alex Dobrenko`

I also love Jaron Lanier’s take, that There Is No A.I. “There are ways of controlling the new technology—but first we have to stop mythologizing it.”

I’m writing a utopian novel & essays imagining a more beautiful future by Elle Griffin

Words To Live by in 2023 by Lyle McKeany

The editorial code of Soaring Twenties a Substack writing collective

I Did What I Had To by Anna Fusco

Crazy Women by Rae Katz

Creation & the reclamation of my attention by Taylor Gage

No News Is Good News by Thomas J Bevan

Understanding the Dislocation Theory of Addiction — by way of Holly Whitaker’s Recovering Roundup, AI edition

Alex Perez on “masculine writing,” among other things — by way of Michael Mohr

Safety Third by Charles Eisenstein

The Rebirth of Rick Rubin — how he lost 130 pounds in 15 months

Loving Where You Live by Amy Jay

A classic from Holly Whitaker on 9 Reasons The Words “Alcoholic” and “Alcoholism” Should Die.

If It’s Advertised to You Online, You Probably Shouldn’t Buy It. Here’s Why. — NY Times → which reminds me how I’ve been saying that Advertising Is Obsolete.

Serialized memoir on Substack! Cured: The Memoir by Sarah Fay

Men, Myself, & I: Revelations of an Opened Marriage by Minda Lane

🎧 Sidirum—some great music to work by, from Flow State

🎧 Rick Rubin Says Trust Your Gut, Not Your Audience by Bari Weiss

And of course my own writing from this past month:

A desperate move, a mistake, and a wreck that made everything worse.

Think of the 🤍 like button as "I read the whole thing"—or just "I'm happy to be here."

Buying a house in front of a diesel bus stop with an old friend who didn't make enough driving a cab to cover his half of the mortgage and...making a run for it.

Sex is Better Sober

Early days in the advertising-industrial complex, why nobody wants to pay for writing online, and why most conferences are so terrible.

I never thought I'd be writing the words: "My Morning Routine" — and, Everything Cookies

E19 / Meditation and Intuition with Scott Britton

43 Of My Favorite Memoirs—Some of Which I Guarantee You Haven't Heard Of

Lycos the wolf spider, and meeting Jane in Boston

You can find all the past editions of What I’m Reading right here

Please let me know if you enjoyed this piece by mashing that cute little heart 🤍

👇🏻

and tell me, what are you reading?