Hi folks,
Welcome to the penultimate elimination round for the 2018 TOA Book Award. I’ve done these rounds based on loose ‘themes’ but I report today that the center is no longer holding – I have no idea why anyone would group these two books together (though I suppose this could be considered its own theme in my particular clueless way).
I Wrote This Book Because I Love You by Tim Kreider (October 2018)
I’ve always liked my fellow Tim’s work but I approached this essay collection with some trepidation. I’d always liked his writing because he seemed capable of exploring any topic with humor and insight; I feared that with a clearly defined topic, the work would fail to take advantage of his instinct for exploration and contemplation. As always, I was wrong, and his series of personal reflections on his various relationships with (mostly) women proved a valuable lesson for me – when you write about just one thing, it’s a ripe opportunity to write about everything.
Parting thought: A lack of reinforcement can quickly turn the desire for connection into its opposite.
This idea is a great reminder for me whenever I start an interaction. It doesn’t matter if the person is someone I’ve known forever or if it’s a person I’m meeting for the first time – it’s vital to be warm and responsive. This is surely not breaking news, reader, but this approach doesn’t come naturally to me and I therefore require reminders. Each moment in an interaction, from the initial greeting to the last word, is a reinforcement, and people shut down quickly in response to cold, negative, or merely indifferent responses.
Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami (December 2018)
I’m not quite sure where I stand on this book. There is a lot going on here, perhaps to the point where I might suggest it was too short, but the other side of me suggests that perhaps it was too long given how not all of the story proved relevant to the main idea. Ultimately, it’s a story about what we lose in the aftermath of a traumatic event and the great courage it requires to face our fears, regrets, and vulnerabilities when we choose to reclaim ourselves.
Parting thought: In genetics, the law of selections tends to trump the dominance of genes.
It’s too easy to look at what goes against us and bemoan the Powers That Be. And without question, life is full of setbacks thanks to forces beyond our control. It’s vital in such moments to remember what remains within our control and to never forget that any prophecy is to a significant degree self-fulfilling.
