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John’s Year In Books

John’s 2025 Year in Books

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John Everett Branch Jr.

Goodreads Author

Born

in Irving, Texas, The United States

Website

https://ifitbenotnow.wordpress.com/about/

Twitter

JEB54

Genre

Fiction, Nonfiction

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June 2011

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/john_e_branch_jr

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Popular Answered Questions

What books are on your summer reading list this year?

John Everett Branch Jr. Why do people talk about “summer reading”? No one thinks of any other season of the year in this way: there’s no autumn, winter, or spring reading. (N…moreWhy do people talk about “summer reading”? No one thinks of any other season of the year in this way: there’s no autumn, winter, or spring reading. (Northrop Frye employed the seasons in one of his analytical approaches, but he didn’t propose reading by the calendar.) No one who has finished school, and not everyone who’s still in it, has extra time for reading during the summer; parents whose children are of school age may have less time in those months. The whole idea is, I think, largely an artifact from that period in our life when we did (if we grew up in America, anyway, for things are different elsewhere) have whole days free, or when, if we worked, at least we had no homework.

But it might be amusing to resort to fantasy in answering the question. Summer, then, is a dream of freedom and time, and summer reading would mean living in a book for hours on end; it would mean catching up on old desires as well as picking new things at leisure, as they struck my fancy. A visit to a bookstore now and then, to wander among the continent-shelves and island-displays… A few book readings or author discussions, to hear a writer’s second voice… A plunge into some hefty volumes in the stacks I have at home, such as The Tale of Genji, by Lady Murasaki, or The Novel: A Biography, by Michael Schmidt, or The Big Book of Science Fiction, edited by Ann and Jeff Vandermeer… I’d read Apollo’s Angels: A History of Ballet, by Jennifer Homans; I’d escape into the novels in the Aubrey-Maturin series, by Patrick O’Brian, that I haven’t yet enjoyed; I’d get around to Walter Benjamin’s Arcades Project and a few other books pertaining to Paris that are half hidden on a lower shelf. And William Gibson’s nonfiction collection, and Jorge Luis Borges’s essays on literature. Most of these are books that I already have. Who knows what I might think of, or hear about, or find in a shop? The sun would rise and loll about endlessly in the sky as I read. Each day would be long and full of adventure, and when I went to sleep at night I’d know that another one, very much like it or very different, would follow.(less)

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How do you deal with writer’s block?

John Everett Branch Jr. I don’t deal with writer’s block, because I have never yet had writer’s block. I’ve never lacked ideas to write about; while I seldom know, from the m…moreI don’t deal with writer’s block, because I have never yet had writer’s block. I’ve never lacked ideas to write about; while I seldom know, from the moment I pick up an idea, what the first words should be, I can always start jotting notes and find the beginning later; and though I don’t always finish what I start, it’s almost never because I can’t but only because I don’t. If for now I don’t see how to conclude a story, I simply set it aside, knowing that I can return to it later.

For myself, I don’t even believe in writer’s block. In part this is because it doesn’t happen to me, and in part it’s because the concept is fishy. As I noted in a blog post, other creative endeavors are not, that I know of, attended by blocks. I’ve never heard of architect’s block or chef’s block. In any case, there are ways around the kind of obstacle that the term “writer’s block” connotes; there are ways to stimulate the imagination, a few of which are mentioned in a New Yorker web article that my blog post links to.

If the question really means “What advice do you have for dealing with writer’s block?” I can answer that. Write down ideas whenever they occur to you, keep them in a file, and read through the file now and then. If you don’t know how to begin a project, start by writing notes. Work consistently. If you start to run out of steam in any given session, stop and do something else. If you find yourself stalled, try a creativity exercise.(less)

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John Everett Branch Jr.’s books

Average rating: 4.0 · 1 rating · 0 reviews · 1 distinct work

Identity & Anonymity: An Artful Anthology
by

Jonathan Talbot (Editor),

Leslie Fandrich (Editor),

Steven M. Specht (Editor)

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John Everett Branch Jr.'s Blog

Desultory thoughts on lawyers, chatbots, Russians, etc.

Singer-songwriter Jackson Browne playing an electric guitar in a concert, in an image with visual distortions.

A distorted view: Jackson Browne in concert in the 1980s. (Original image from Mediapunch; photographer not credited, date not specified. With effects added by me. Licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.)

A friend recently told me that someone we know was getting married. Because AI is in the air (literally), that led me to wonder how AI might make a difference to a wedding. Then I wondered what kind o

John is Currently Reading

John Jr. is currently reading

Ubik

by Philip K. Dick

bookshelves: currently-reading, sf

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Dec 23, 2025 03:23AM

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Literary Essays and Reviews of the 1920s & 30s

by Edmund Wilson

bookshelves: currently-reading, literature-history-criticism

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Dec 11, 2025 07:16AM

John Jr. is currently reading

The Annotated Arabian Nights: Tales from 1001 Nights

by Yasmine Seale

bookshelves: currently-reading, fiction, literature-history-criticism

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May 23, 2025 05:06AM

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John Jr. is on page 105 of 227 of Ubik: Another minor instance of weirdness: “Did you know that Toscanini used to sing along with the singers when he conducted an opera?” Joe said. “That in his recording of Traviata you can hear him during the aria ‘Sempre Libera’?” Ubik by Philip K. Dick progress:	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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John Jr. made a comment on Brian Clegg’s review of The Christmas Clue " Thanks for this review, Brian. If I could get a copy of The Christmas Clue delivered to me today, via drone, I'd take your suggestion and read it on C ...more "
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John Jr. and 2 other people liked Brian Clegg's review of The Christmas Clue: "This entertaining Christmas mystery novella is genuinely different. Nicola Upson likes using real people as her detectives - she has a whole series where the detective is Josephine Tey (the 'golden age' writer whose detective at one point solves the " Read more of this review »
Dec 24, 2025 09:39AM · see review
John Jr. is on page 32 of 227 of Ubik: A very minor example of the weirdness of the world in this novel: “Five cents, please,” the door said as he seized its knob. “Pay the door,” Joe said to G. G. Ashwood. Ubik by Philip K. Dick progress:	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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John Jr. is currently reading Ubik by Philip K. Dick	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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Dec 06, 2025 04:22AM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of README by W. Patrick McCray. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — README by W. Patrick McCray <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
John Jr. rated a book really liked it The Lesson of the Master by Henry James	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
This story, published in 1888, could be called a hybrid in the James oeuvre. It contains some of his thoughts on the making of art—similar to, for instance, his novel The Tragic Muse, which was serialized beginning in 1889, and “The Figure in the Car ...more
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John Jr. made a comment on Anna’s review of Blue Mars (Mars Trilogy, #3) " You've done a great job of summarizing a very capacious book and accounting for much of the rest of the trilogy as well. And the two quotations give u ...more "
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John Jr. and 8 other people liked Anna's review of Blue Mars (Mars Trilogy, #3): "This final instalment of the Mars trilogy was published in 1996, which makes it all the more audacious and impressive that Kim Stanley Robinson thoroughly dismisses globalised capitalism as unstable and archaic. In ‘Blue Mars’, he evokes a postcapita" Read more of this review »
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John’s Quotes

“Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life.”
― Terry Pratchett, Jingo

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“There’s something heroic in a woman–-Brigitte Bardot, Anita Ekberg, Marianne Faithfull–-who takes great beauty, smokes it down to the filter and grinds it out under her sole.”
― Farran Smith Nehme

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