Bonnie > Recent Status Updates

Thanks to the first 20 pages, I’m now obsessed with American chestnut trees.

“There is a hole, an emptiness in us all, that we strive to fill. If it doesn’t get filled with something noble and elevated, modern society will quickly pump it full of garbage.” (pg. 216)

This book is preaching to the choir, in that I am the choir. There is nothing in it that I don’t already agree with; I’m just looking for specifics to frame my reasoning and decision-making around my kids’ future interactions with social media and smartphones. But I’m finding this book to be a slog. Arguments are made compelling through narratives. This book is, instead: Chart. Chart. Explanation of chart.

I didn’t realize until now that this book is formatted as a 100-day journaling challenge. So now I guess I will be working through this book for 100 days. And I guess I will need to buy it, cuz the library ain’t letting anyone keep a book for 100 days.

“What I have most wanted to do throughout the past ten years is to make political writing into an art.” (pg. 8)

This section called “Interlude” is 54 pages long. Like having a two-hour intermission at a show.

Omg 600+ dissertation-style pages on the life and loves of James Baldwin. By the time I’m done reading this book, I’ll have a master’s degree in James Baldwin.

I love this book.

This book is incredibly hard to read but I am pushing through it.

“If an abyss is where I shall be for the rest of my life, the abyss is my habitat. One should not waste energy fighting one’s habitat.” (pg. 74)

I just happened to stumble onto some reports this morning that there are now some questions being raised about the truth of certain major elements of Winn’s story. While that is a bummer for everyone involved—author, readers, and fans all—it doesn’t significantly impact my own reading of the book as primarily a story about walking and perseverance.

Kinda heavy-handed so far, but all good.

I swear I did read the first two books of the series, but I’m on page 42 of Onyx Storm and so far I have no idea what’s going on.

“Recognising the direness of the situation, it is high time for the movement to more decisively shift from protest to resistance: 'Protest is when I say I don't like this. Resistance is when I put an end to what I don't like…’, as one West German columnist wrote in 1968, relaying the words of a visiting Black Power activist.”