“My interest is in the future because I am going to spend the rest of my life there.” – Charles F. Kettering Wednesday, May 21 2008

It’s summertime, and that means time for summer reading. This summer, as always, I welcome suggestions on rounding out my reading list. Last summer I was all about the classics. Jack Kerouac. Ernest Hemingway. F. Scott Fitzgerald. This summer I’m focusing on the future, instead of the past. So two things: 1) how our existence will be in the time ahead and 2) bettering myself for the future.

I started, and am nearly halfway through, “A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future” by Daniel H. Pink. It’s about how the Industrial Age favored left-brain dominated thinking – analysis, calculation, sequence – and how the new age we’re in, the Conceptual Age, favors right-brain dominated thinking – innovation, creativity, design. Jobs are quickly heading overseas or being replaced by computers, and the way to keep your job is to bring something to the table a computer or underpaid foreigner can’t – creativity.

Don’t worry; it’s not an argument for the dismissal of logic. Rather, it’s a case for both left- and right-brained dominated thinking to be a part of our everyday existence. Not just utility and function, but beauty and experience. This especially appeals to me, as I am part of a generation who doesn’t just want to make a phone call, we want a full experience with our phones – customizing with colors and ringtones and music to our hearts desires. We don’t just want to own a pair of shoes, we want them branded with our own designs and wording.

It’s the future.

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“If this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is.” Friday, Jun 29 2007

I’d like to report that I do wonderfully artistic and useful things when I’m not writing, but it just isn’t the case. However, I did finish The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway and A Man Without a Country by Kurt Vonnegut since I’ve last posted. Therefore, I have become a better person since then.

Both books were incredible readings and not surprisingly so. The Sun made me long for Europe, making me at times unbearable, but I sifted through it without much mishap. A Man was one of the more relatable books I’ve ever encountered, which to me seems perfectly natural. I’d recommend it to anyone, most especially those with a healthy sense of humor and a love of honesty. (Can you see now why I took such a liking to it?)

I shall be better still after Gatsby. Are you better today than yesterday?

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paris > everywhere else Saturday, Jun 16 2007

I’m craving wine at the very break of the day and that can only lead to trouble. Other things I’m craving include a new favorite song, sunshine and a really great kiss. But those are all things that happen upon you and therefore there is nothing to do but wait.

With the onset of rain, it seems to be the perfect afternoon for a warm blanket and a good book. I am currently reading The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway for the first time. I fall more in love at the turn of every page. It is the first in my summer reading series of classics, to be followed by The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, then Kerouac. I am open to all suggestions for my reading list, though as implied I would prefer to stay within the realm of well-known authors and books that change lives or at least make some sort of statement.

It’s funny how reading a book can alter your entire mindset. While reading Hemingway, I morph into an expatriate living in Paris and frequenting coffee shops on the Champs-Élysées. It’s not too odd since my heart is always in Paris anyway, but reading makes the mentality all consuming. I’m a bit worried these books will intensify my desire to live abroad and make living anywhere else miserable, but it’s a risk I’ll take in the name of literature.

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