WV15 On reading, note-taking, parenting, creativity v/s mediocrity, and a few brilliant photo works to savour.
2025 Reading Log, Edition 04, Feb. 15-21
A lot of this list will be links to other substacks…shows how my reading habit is changing from rummaging through the internet in general to rambling through Substack.
01
A six year old article but its findings still resonate well with a post-pandemic society.
“For both mothers and fathers, we found that children’s emotional health was higher when parents believed that family should come first, regardless of the amount of time they spent working. We also found children were better off when parents cared about work as a source of challenge, creativity, and enjoyment, again, without regard to the time spent. And, not surprisingly, we saw that children were better off when parents were able to be physically available to them.”
How Our Careers Affect Our Children
https://hbr.org/2018/11/how-our-careers-affect-our-children
02
Talk about being obsessed! When Geoff Dyer got really focussed on getting a specific edition of Woolf’s diaries.
“Life went on. I had other little bibliographic targets to hit, was preoccupied with and distracted by the usual jumble of half-formed intentions. I had books to write, friends to see, drinks to drink, promises to keep. But always there was the ongoing project of looking out for volumes three and four of the Woolf complete diaries.”
Looking for Virginia Woolf’s Diaries
https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2023/09/12/looking-for-virginia-woolfs-diaries/
03
Jeanette Winterson writes about creativity and capitalism and mediocrity in her Substack ‘Mind Over Matter.’ I dare not add my words :)
“Tons of creativity goes into Bond. Creativity is the lifeblood of being human. Then along comes an envious-eyed businessman wanting to cash in on what is not his.”
Bond…James Bond or Envious Mediocrity
https://open.substack.com/pub/jeanettewinterson/p/bondjames-bond?r=ga5th&utm_medium=ios
04
Someone who hopes to be a ‘beginner’ every day, this was an interesting and affirming read. The six essays referenced by her, and also the overall approach she takes towards reading is making me conscious of my reading patterns and the need to add a bit more of an effort in cultivating my reading practice compared to stumbling through various works and hoping to strike gold.
“Today’s newsletter, then, is my public version of a craft journal. These days, I’m thinking a lot about how to begin—as in, very literally, what makes for a good beginning to an essay?
Below, I’ve chosen 6 essays that I return to often, because their opening paragraphs are so compelling. I’ll include my own analysis of why they’re good and and what minute decisions are being made.” -Celine Nguyen writes in her Substack ‘Personal Canon’
How to begin
https://open.substack.com/pub/personalcanon/p/how-to-begin?r=ga5th&utm_medium=ios
05
What a wonderful, ‘wonder full’ discovery it was to stumble across Finn Hopson’s work on his Substack newsletter. I’ve been to Brighton twice in life, and to read this was to imagine myself there once again, and look at the world through different eyes. It also made for a beautiful introduction for my child to ‘murmuration’ and he was enamoured with it in a way only five-year-olds can get. We may be traveling to Brighton some day in the future and I’ll blame Finn for the expense ;)
In the bird bath
https://open.substack.com/pub/finnhopson/p/in-the-bird-bath?r=ga5th&utm_medium=ios
06
I’ve always been interested in keeping a ‘Commonplace Book.’ My father had one and it now is a treasured possession for me. I could never keep an analog one though Pinterest and screenshots in my photo library came closest to this. This post though adds a deeper meaning to simply capturing something that caught your attention. Do give it a read.
A Writer’s Commonplace Book as “Transitive Diary”
in which Bronwen Tate talks,
“As a writer and writing teacher, here's what I think a Commonplace Book practice can help us do:
• develop a deep reading practice
• pay sustained attention to form (the how of writing on the page)
clarify and extend our thinking by engaging with specific passages (from poems, interviews, essays, etc.), reflecting on why they inspire, puzzle, delight, or infuriate us
• make connections between what we read and our own preoccupations and questions
Reading with a focus on how a poem or essay or story makes meaning is an essential part of growing as a writer. We learn what is possible—and what might be possible— from noticing what moves us, what frustrates us, what surprises us, and then taking the time to figure out how exactly each effect is achieved on the level of the transition sentence, poetic turn, metaphor, rhyme, or semicolon.
In selecting quotations to collect, we make choices about what matters to us and what we want to sit with.
In our reflections, we practice thinking on the page without a particular destination or outcome in mind. In this way, we open ourselves up for discovery.”
07
As Petya K. Grady says in the Substack ‘A Reading Life’,
“This one will leave you with a reading list AND the aching desire to upgrade your note-taking game.”
Issue 104: The Reading Life of Celine Nguyen
https://open.substack.com/pub/petya/p/issue-104-the-reading-life-of-celine?r=ga5th&utm_medium=ios
08
As a middle-class dad raising a five-year-old, this resonated with me a lot.
“Navigating social mobility and dealing with working-class guilt is often challenging. But it’s also an opportunity for growth, self-discovery, and making a positive impact. By acknowledging our struggles, embracing our roots, and actively working to bridge worlds, we can not only find peace with our own journey but also contribute to a more understanding and equitable society.”
Social Mobility and Dealing With Working Class Guilt
http://www.diaryofthedad.co.uk/social-mobility-and-dealing-with-working-class-guilt/
09
Can’t recommend reading about this project and photo book enough. CPH mag as always shares a deeply thoughtful article.
“If we can’t imagine a stranger’s cruel fate, if we cannot attempt to feel their pain — what hope is there left that we might build a better future?”
The rest is memory
https://cphmag.com/the-rest-is-memory/
10
What an interesting project! I loved the intentional serendipity of it. And so much fun! Inspired.
“It’s 5:00pm on Sunday, April 1st, 1979, and Sophie Calle has one rule: her bed must be occupied at all times, between now and 10:00am next Monday. She has a plan, or so she thinks, because she has meticulously scheduled twenty-seven friends, friends-of-friends, and curious or bored strangers to come over to her apartment and sleep in her bed with the chronological synchronicity of a relay race. Logistically, she has prepared a menu to offer upon arrival or departure, fresh sheets if desired, a voice recorder, a camera, and a questionnaire through which these volunteers will divulge everything from their dreams to their occupations to their histories of bed-wetting. Symbolically, she has purchased a goldfish which will stand watch in her bedroom to demarcate this week of…art? labor? slumber exchange? espionage? That is for the “sleepers” to define.”
Photobook ‘The Sleepers’ review by Britland Tracy
https://blog.photoeye.com/2025/01/the-sleepers-reviewed-by-britland-tracy.html
And in the spirit of making the right life and reading choices that most of this week’s links might generate, here’s the poem of the week:
“When you are old, and your child is checking
his phone by your hospital bed,
and you push out, you pull in, you push out, you pull in,
you pull in, you pull in, you pull in
and then our old friend with his very still hands
reaches in and holds your diaphragm down”
-Satyajit Sarna
Read the full poem here:
https://www.aloksaini.in/dhai-aakhar/diaphragm
Thanks for taking the time. Hope you like to go through these links as much as I enjoyed sharing them.
-Alok