In Emergency, Break Glass1 has to be the strangest book that I’ve read this year. Nate Anderson is convinced that Friedrich Nietzsche can teach us “about joyful living in a tech-saturated world.” I ran across a recommendation for this book shortly into my Instagram break at the beginning of the summer and it was so different from anything else I was seeing about our use of tech that I picked it up. It was odd, and yet I kept coming back to devour it, pages at a time, as swiftly as possible.2
In the opening pages, Anderson wonders if Wordsworth would have composed his poetry if he had been busy texting about all of his solitary experiences to friends or if we can listen to Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem in D minor the same way receiving a string of texts as we could if we sat undisturbed as we listened. Anderson is no luddite. He’s not asking people to go off-the-grid or drop their cell phones into the nearest pond. He’s simply asking us to use our devices with intention. I would argue that tech should assist our lives, not disrupt them.
Since I decided to stop using Instagram, I’m concerned that others will think that I intend for everyone to do the same. I do not. There are people using social media in wonderful ways. Here, here, here, and here are four people I am very much missing since I am not using that space. And obviously, I am still using the internet. This is arriving via your inbox from Substack. I am still writing on the blog. I find recipes, read the news,3 and listen to podcasts because of the internet. I’m so grateful for the internet and technology. Interestingly, technology wasn’t even what I thought about mainly as I read the book.
Last month, when I read this book, I started keeping a different list related to my reading. I recorded my main takeaway or question after reading each book. Often it had nothing to do with the author’s intention and that is a beautiful facet of reading. We get more from books than what is there because we bring ourselves to the material. It’s not just true of books either. This is why people will walk out of church with radically unique takeaways from the sermon. It’s why two people will listen to a podcast and grab onto two different action items. It’s why you and I can perceive a conversation differently even if we were both there for the same dialogue.
We take ourselves everywhere. If we have questions, we notice those themes in the world around us. If we are obsessed with a topic, we will find obscure related thoughts in unexpected places. It’s like buying a car and suddenly seeing that car everywhere.4
When I read In Emergency, Break Glass what I realized was that I wanted to go back to practicing the piano. I’m not a great piano player. I took lessons as a child. I took lessons for a few years as an adult when my children were tiny. I’ve taken enough lessons to know that I’ll never be great or even useful at playing the piano. And yet, I love it. I love how learning to play music stretches my brain and how it’s different from other work that I do. My time with Covid in June threw me off but I’m aiming for fifteen minutes of practice a day.
It might be a fun exercise with your fall books or podcasts or tv shows to write down what they make you think about even if it’s not at all related to the author or producer’s intent for their work. I read God of the Garden by Andrew Peterson and wondered if we could have footpaths in Lynchburg. It would be rather the perfect place. Perhaps I could also taken a reconnaissance trip to England to investigate their footpaths? Shoutin’ in the Fire reminded me that we are (still) forcing black people to live the same story while pointing to our own “progress.” It’s reprehensible and we should stop. I skimmed Urban Ecology for a final project and went back to read the whole thing. I care deeply about nature and I’m waiting to see how that matters for my life and work. I Guess I Haven’t Learned That Yet taught me to start writing my newsletters with “the thing I want to say is” and then come back to write an intro when the rest of the work is done. Oops if I send them without editing that out.
I’m going to share all of my reading from the month in Thursday’s post. However, because June had no report, you should know that I read Project Hail Mary and was absorbed. I loved it. I was very satisfied with the ending and, for a while, I was afraid he would ruin it. 10/10 for me, but I love science fiction and fantasy. If you don’t, maybe not a 10/10 for you. I also read No Land to Light On and it was a heartbreakingly beautiful novel about two Syrian refugees who fall in love in America and have to learn to live somewhere else.
What have you been reading this summer? What questions has your reading prompted?
The books links are to Amazon because that is accessible to more people. If you can, go buy from a local bookstore.
I am not necessarily recommending the book to you. It was strange. However, I was intrigued.
Just this week, I answered an email about what news I read. Most mornings, I read The Morning Dispatch and the NYT Briefing.
You should know that there are apparently more Toyota Rav4’s and Chrysler Town and Country’s than any other vehicle.
I read Project Hail Mary after seeing your recommendation in an email a few weeks ago. It's probably one of my favorite books now! And it made me want to learn more about science and try grade school science experiments at home, just for my own fun.
I seriously want to make every recipe in the food post you linked to! My in-laws gave us so much sweet corn this week—now I'm thinking about using some of it in a low-country boil.
I like the idea of writing down one thought or question from each book I read. It's so much more challenging to do this than to simply take notes by copying quotes from a book! It makes you think about what you're reading differently, and I'm pretty sure my retention is better when I do it.
I read a book called How to Take Smart Notes before starting seminary and it basically suggested you do this with everything you read. It was just too time consuming and overwhelming on top of being a new student. But I think I could handle writing down just one idea!