Sophia > Recent Status Updates

Edinburgh library ‘reads’ featured audiobook for the new year. More of a memoir rather than a guide on ‘how to get out of the consumerism cycle’. A bit repetitive (editing issue?) and mostly focused on author’s experience of addiction and how it links to other areas of her life which was interesting enough but dominated much of the book. Handy short guide at end could have been woven throughout her story.

Definitely a memoir rather than guidance on how to consume less. Author shares quite concerning stories especially about blackouts and abuse, I hope she sought out professional help as well as writing this. Some useful tips scattered through the chapters so far (unsubscribing, peer support, desensitising to triggers)

Insights into vulnerability, courage, and shame. Brené’s writing is relatable and funny. Enjoying learning about her research and real life stories.

23 Sept
In Rivers Remember, her book about the 2015 floods, Krupa Ge describes the systematic injuring and forgetting of Chennai's rivers over centuries. 'We displaced them,' she writes…
But Chennai's rivers, Ge continues, are beings with long memories - memories which reawaken in times of flood. 'We didn't think they'd remember,' she writes ruefully, "but they did'

27 Aug
It was on Ecuador's ice-clad volcanoes… 220 years earlier that the explorer-naturalist Alexander von Humboldt developed his understanding of the natural world as an interconnected web of life, in which nothing existed in isolation and humanity was not the central actor, merely a node among many in an immense, rhizomatic network…
Everything is connected to everything else, I think, relation is life.

“Nothing is good in and of itself; everything must be good for something.”
“We have become increasingly waterproofed: conceptually sealed against subtle and various relations with rivers, even as they continue to irrigate our bodies, thoughts, songs and stories. Rivers run through people as surely as they run through places.” pp.20

Good stuff so far! Putting names to thoughts and concepts - like how we all need someone to be a container for emotions.

Audiobook narrated by author.
Common sense approach is like a balm to the soul. What reasonates: importance of reacting to attention bids in maintaining relationships.

This man loves his philosophers.
Author’s take on children and adolescents is questionable. Rather than bargaining and transactional relationships, he talks a lot about narcissism and selfishness. Not everything comes down to punishment or reward. The message is there but his logic is flawed (and f ed itself).

“The more we experience, the more our brain learns to solve problems.”
Narrator keeps it interesting. Author very focused on stories from his personal life - good at dealing with stress or actually just detached?

Recommended by Libby.
Learning psychology concepts between amusing personal stories. Southern narrator.

We need rituals because rituals make our values tangible. You can’t think your way into valuing something. You have to live it. You have to experience it.
3:02:31

(On Meta von Salis)
Like a hidden thread, she would hold the world together despite being barely seen and quickly forgotten.
4:02:23

Still very sweary, kind of obsessed with Newton, some funny bits though.

Chapter 2: Damasio, thinking brain vs feeling brain, and the illusion of self-control.
Brash American who loves the shock factor.

Trying out audiobooks 🎙️
Narrated by the author.

Really wanted to like this story. There’s a certain type of irony in trying not to critically review a book that champions doing just that.

Trying to read with my heart. Started great with opaline’s quest for independence and liberation. Let out the biggest sigh when realised she falls in love with every man who shows attention, even knowing they will just use her. Why can’t a woman apparently grow without multiple toxic romances?

One to read with your heart rather than your head I think. Two lives connected through some mysterious link… what’s behind the wardrobe?

Still far fetched but some laughs when I manage to ignore that 🤷🏻‍♀️