Category: Paper Chase

Posted in Paper Chase

Herta Muller – the fox was ever the hunter

Posted on by Michael

the fox was ever the hunter by Nobel Prize winner Herta Muller is set in Romania where Muller is from during the reign of Nicolae Ceausescu. The book focuses on a group of friends and how they go about their daily lives. It is not written in straightforward manner and is instead quite poetic and beautiful. 

However, that style also makes the story a bit hard to follow. While reading, I’m not certain I would have been able to say exactly what is going on in the story but even with that, it never failed to hold my attention and keep reading. This was another find through the Winnipeg Henderson library that is a always a welcome resource into other worlds than the usual internet reading lists.

6/10

Posted in Paper Chase

Charles Duhigg – supercommunicators

Posted on by Michael

supercommunicators is Charles Duhigg’s deep dive study into why some people are able to quickly build connections with others through conversations. The book focuses on three main types of conversation questions that must be answered to understand what is trying to be accomplished – “What’s this really about?”, “How do we feel?”, and “Who are we?”.  Duhigg uses examples from business, law enforcement, medicine, entertainment, etc to show real life examples including a lengthy analysis on the inner workings of Netflix. 

supercommunicators as a whole is interesting and brought up a few ideas that I was able to quickly adopt into real life conversations.  Ex) What kind of conversation is this?  On the downside, the book does feel a bit long and unlike his book The Power of Habit, was not as quickly read.

7.5/10

Posted in Paper Chase

Cal Newport – Slow Productivity

Posted on by Michael

Over the last several years, writer Cal Newport has become a very popular figure in the productivity/business world.  His seminal book, Deep Work, is an essential read for knowledge workers. His latest book, Slow Productivity, came out in the late winter of 2024.  With a subtitle of “The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout”, the book’s three main tenets that are written about extensively are Do Fewer Things – Work at a Natural Pace – Obsess Over Quality.

This is a very important topic for office workers who are in a constant state of busyness to the point of burnout. Several of the ideas presented by Newport in the book are quite good.  An example is estimating the amount of time a project will take to give others a realistic idea of when it will be complete. This along with keeping a running list of upcoming projects will help you and others see where you are spending your time.  Other ideas do not seem as fleshed out and seemed rushed.  Better than the book, listening to Newport’s appearance on the Art of Manliness podcast may be all that a curious person would need on this topic.

7/10

Posted in Paper Chase

Steven Pressfield – The War of Art

Posted on by Michael

In The War of Art, Steven Pressfield describes the ways in which resistance keeps us from achieving our goals. Resistance comes in many forms such as procrastination, fear, and self doubt. While the book’s main focus is on writing, the same concept can be applied to self-improvement, house projects, office work, painting, etc.   Overcoming this resistance and putting in the work is the difference between an amateur and a pro.

Like his other non-fiction books, The War of Art is an easy to read book with chapters being just 1-2 pages long.  It’s easily relatable as Pressfield touches on many topics that stop the average person from doing what they set out to do and ways to overcome this.  There is a reason this book keeps getting recommended by so many people/websites – it’s an inspiring bit of quick reading to help refocus on the task at hand whether it’s writing, painting, learning, or working.

8.5/10

Posted in Paper Chase

Albert Camus – The Stranger

Posted on by Michael

The Stranger written by Albert Camus was first published in 1942 during the Nazi occupation of France.  The book is written in the first person of Meursault and is broken into two parts.  At the start of the book, Meursault attends his Mother’s funeral in the country.  He shows little emotion during the small, sparsely attended ceremony before returning to his home in Algiers. Several days later while at the beach with friends, he kills an Arab stranger for no apparent reason. 

The second half of the book then deals with the trial as everyone tries to figure out what made him do it.  Meursault wonders why everyone keeps trying to attach meaning to the events that lead up to the murder.  The book is highly celebrated as being one of the best novels ever written. It’s a simply written, straightforward story that is filled with far deeper meaning than what is written on the page. Far smarter people than me will say it’s a book on existentialism and absurdism.  I just found it utterly fascinating. 

10/10