The only way to do great work is to love what you do

— Steve Jobs

Particular books are good for particular situations. I’ve been thinking about this recently because I read books during lunch at work, and I realized that even though I’m reading five books simultaneously, only two of them are good for reading during that time. Two of the books I’m reading are technical, so I don’t want to read those when I’m trying to take a break from all the coding and stuff that I’m doing during the day. And then one of the books I’m reading (The Elephant Whisperer) I have as an eBook, and I don’t want to leave my iPad in the car all day. So I still have two books that I’m reading that work for lunchtime amusement (Unlimited and History of Japanese Mathematics), but I’m almost done with Unlimited and don’t have too much left in the other. So much as I’d like to be whittling down the number of books I’m reading, it looks like I’m going to be reading several for a while. Another “wrong book for context” that occurred recently was this past weekend, when my sister and I were reading together. I kept laughing at various things in Elephant Whisperer and wanted to share them with her, but she didn’t find them funny. Bummer. So I just kind of feel like I should have been reading something else.

I just finished a Great Course today, The History of World Literature. It’s one of the best courses that I’ve listened to, and I’ve listened to a lot of good courses. I’m also listening to one on Famous Greeks which I don’t particularly like the lecturer of. I recently finished another on The Gilded Age and Progressive Era that was pretty interesting. And the one I just started, History of Christianity II, seems pretty good so far. I go through a lot of courses because my commute is so awful, though I’m starting to get into podcasts too (they’re cheaper :3). I listened to an episode of Masters of Scale today that was pretty decent, and I listened to one earlier in the week from Things You Missed in History Class, pretty interesting too. Hooray for media consumption. I’m going to move in May though so I don’t have to do so much driving. That is something I’m definitely looking forward to. But for the time being, Great Courses and podcasts aren’t so bad.

The world keeps turning, and there is so much media out there. I hope some of the books out in the world are ones that I’ve written, someday. Mmm :). But for the time being, I’m happy just being a little consumer. There is so much good stuff out there. Hope you’re in the middle of a good book or three!

Gophers at work!