What to Read Next: Meditations for Cold Days
Issue #357, featuring Amy Tan, Karl Ove Knausgaard, and Marcus Aurelius
Happy Friday, readers!
As the temperatures drop, my reading time tends to go up. The darkness and cold equate to much less yardwork, and time spent hanging outside with kids is compressed into the pre-dark hours.
It also means that my reading can be a little more meditative — I’m not in the mode of cramming as many pages as I possibly can into my limited reading time.
So this week I’m featuring three books that offer a slower-paced and more thought-provoking reading experience. These are not books that hinge on a story, but rather on simple observations of life — both in a physical sense and on a psychological level. They’re best consumed maybe a dozen pages at a time rather than in gulps of chapters.
The Backyard Bird Chronicles by Amy Tan
After hearing Amy Tan read a selection from her new book on NPR, my father-in-law immediately bought me a copy of The Backyard Bird Chronicles. I’m so glad he did.
It’s the first I’ve read of Amy Tan, best known for The Joy Luck Club, and it was immediately clear why her books have resonated with millions of people across decades of writing. It’s the kind of writing that gets completely out of the way of itself — it’s not wowing me but it’s also not hindering in any way. Each sentence just effortlessly flows from one to the next.
“If there is anything I have learned these past six years, it is this: Each bird is surprising and thrilling in its own way. But the most special is the bird that pauses when it is eating, looks and acknowledges I am there, then goes back to what it was doing.”
These birding chronicles are a collection of her journal entries over the last six years as she observed the birds fluttering in and out of her Bay Area backyard. These are not exotic creatures, but the avians we see every day: hummingbirds, crows, jays, chickadees, and wrens.
As a delightful addition, Tan has included her drawings of these birds along with documenting her budding artistic efforts.
The Backyard Bird Chronicles is not a page-turner. But it will speak to you and move you — and most likely encourage you to turn your backyard into a bird haven. What a lovely book.
PSA: I announced The Big Read’s 2025 lineup this week. Click here to see the books, or learn a bit more at the bottom of this newsletter.
Autumn by Karl Ove Knausgaard
Knausgaard is one of those polarizing authors who people seem to either love or hate. Interestingly, I think I find myself more in that middle space after listening to Autumn, which is the first book in his seasonal quartet.
Best known for his massive six-volume autofictional My Struggle series, I’ve had a few readers recommend this slimmer series as an entry point into the Norwegian’s catalogue.
Autumn, technically a memoir (or is it an essay collection?), is framed as a series of observations on the eve of his daughter’s birth. Each chapter is just a few pages long and documents the minutiae of some thing: apples, blood, plastic bags, war, birds, rubber boots — nothing is off limits.
Some chapters are rather Proustian, connecting Knausgaard to some distant memory, while others are seemingly random and even plain weird. Thankfully, given how concisely Knausgaard covers each object, it was rather easy to just keep listening.
Honestly, I don’t quite know how to assess this book. I appreciate Knausgaard’s exercise of pointing out and appreciating the small things we take for granted. I suppose I’d recommend Autumn (and this series) to those interested in somewhat random observations of daily life. But, despite a few powerful moments, I can’t say it was enlightening or particularly memorable. At least not for me.
I’ll definitely read more Knausgaard, but I think I’m more interested in his fiction moving forward. I’d love to hear about your own experience with his work.
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
I first read Marcus Aurelius’s classic Stoic guide in 2017 and was quite moved by the ancient philosopher-king’s words. I’ve re-read it at least once more and have dipped into its pages a number of times. In the last week, I’ve finished it once again, this time as our IRL book club’s December selection.
“While you live, while it is in your power, be good.”
While it’s hard to critique a book that’s been a beloved pearl of wisdom for over 1,800 years, Meditations didn’t hit me quite the same way during this reading. And I have no idea why.
Maybe I was looking for some through-line — any narrative at all. (If you’re unfamiliar with it, Meditations is functionally a collection of proverbs which was never meant to be published.)
Maybe it lost some power after having already read, and deeply internalized, its incisive guidance. The ideas weren’t as mind-blowing as they had previously been.
Maybe I’m simply at a point in life where Stoic philosophy — which I think lends itself quite well to one’s twenties — doesn’t resonate as much as it used to.
I still 100% believe that Meditations is required reading, but it should come early in life, as you’re forming the foundation of your character. Once you’re more sure of yourself, I don’t know if it has the same punch.
Again, I want to stress this: I’m not saying I didn’t like Meditations on this re-read. It’s that I expected the book to yet again move me, and instead, I surprisingly found it a little dry and cold.
How interesting.
The Big Read 2025
If you missed it, I recently announced the 2025 lineup for my online book club, The Big Read. Highlights include:
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
Huck Finn / Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard
Check out the full lineup here.
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Be good to each other. And thanks for reading.
-Jeremy
I agree about "Meditations." It's great for dipping into, and contains many pearls of wisdom. But he's not making a sustained argument the way philosophers are supposed to do.
I've not read Meditations all the way through yet, but dry and cold is my take too. However, there are definitely quite a few gold nuggets of wisdom in it, foremost the one you quote about being good. At 53, I just may be at the age that it's a small doses thing. I do wish I would have known about Meditations in my late teens or twenties.