WV14 On the critical importance of books for children, a search for identity in one’s homeland, joy of rereading, and Seattle’s Little Free Libraries movement.
2025 Reading Log, Edition 03, Feb. 08-14
01
I struggle with this a lot. Do I go back and reread one of my favourites or dive into one of the hundred new reads waiting? What about you?
“There is a perverse pleasure in turning down the promise of a new book, with pristine pages, tight spine and intriguing blurb, in favour of thumbing through a dog-eared old favourite. But just what is it, exactly, that inspires us to pick up a title old not new?”
The Joy of Rereading
https://www.faber.co.uk/journal/essay-the-joy-of-rereading/
02
I shared this with my family and close friends on whatsapp the moment i finished reading it. Essential reading for anyone interested in the future of children, theirs or not.
“But the main reason to help children seek out books is this: if you cut a person off from reading, you’re a thief. You cut them off from the song that humanity has been singing for thousands of years. You cut them off from what we have laid out for the next generation, and the next. It’s in the technology of writing that we’ve preserved our boldest, most original thought, our best jokes and most generous comfort. To fail to do everything we can to help children hear that song is a cruelty – and a stupidity – for which we should not expect to be forgiven. We need to be infinitely more furious that there are children without books.”
Why children’s books?
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v47/n02/katherine-rundell/why-children-s-books
03
Very very interesting ‘social feel good’ story.
Regardless of where each library falls on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, they stand on common ground. “There’s a line from [Khalil] Gibran: ‘Work is love made visible,’ ” Little Library Guy says in a phone call. “That’s what they’re doing. They’re showing that they love the community by doing something for them.”
Seattle’s Little Free Libraries Offer a Catalog of Collections and Connections
04
Short and sweet. Doesn’t get more to-the-point than this. If you do want to be a writer or any creative, start creating.
“But that’s not what most people see. They see the output, not the input. But let’s say they understood all this. Once they do, the advice couldn’t be simpler or clearer. If you want to be a writer, start writing. Without delay. And then don’t stop. Like anything else, the more you do something, the more you have a chance at getting good at it. Notice the ‘have a chance’ phrase in there. There are no guarantees. You have to commit to getting better, and that means knowing and accepting your current level, generally not easy to do. The work and the hope never end.”
If You Want To Be A Writer, Start Writing.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/eliamdur/2025/02/09/if-you-want-to-be-a-writer-start-writing/
05
Brilliant essay. Hooked me from the first paragraph. And didn’t let go. The thing is, it applies to so much more than only an Asian in the American South.
“Maybe the question is actually less complicated than I’ve made it out to be. You’re either from a place, or you aren’t; you’re Southern, or something else. I haven’t lived in the South since I turned eighteen. Ergo, I’m no longer Southern. What helps me undo this bind is the fact that so much of Southern identity is about missing a place from afar. This is a feeling many Asian Americans are also familiar with, even if the homes they pine for lie further east than Tennessee. To walk around with a vestigial geography in the mind, to feel shackled to a place whether you want to be or not: these are feelings an Asian Southerner gets from both sides.”
Being an Asian Southerner Means Being an Anomaly, Squared
https://electricliterature.com/being-an-asian-southerner-means-being-an-anomaly-squared/
06
Some science fiction level, ‘real science’ stuff from the week. What about a ‘telescope’ inside the depths of the ocean?
“The neutrino had 100 trillion times more energy than a typical particle at the centre of the Sun. It’s a trillion times more energy than medical X-rays, and ten billion times more than the most dangerous radioactive particles. Earth’s biggest particle accelerators can’t produce a particle with even one ten thousandth of this energy.”
3.5 kilometres underwater, scientists found a staggeringly energetic particle from outer space
And in the flavour of introspection that most of this week’s links might generate, even the neutrino one above, if you think of how much is unknown to us, here’s the
Poem of The Week
“Listen, I hate poems
about birds and grandparents and childhood friends.
I hate poems about birds and grandparents
and childhood friends almost as much
as I hate poems that break the fourth wall
like a cheeky high school play. It's just too easy.”
-Megan Fernandes
Read the full poem here:
https://www.aloksaini.in/dhai-aakhar/magical-realism-in-america
Thanks for taking the time. Hope you like to go through these links as much as I enjoyed sharing them.
-Alok