Happy fourth of July
One thing (among many) I like about my Kindle is that before purchasing a book, you can download a 10-15 page sample of any book you’re interested in. Which is good when the book doesn’t measure up to its digital back cover. It’s not so good when you get sucked into a book that you a) don’t have the time for, or b) don’t have the money for. Those damn Amazon people must have a voodoo doll of my bank account somewhere.
So when I saw that Katie Couric’s new book Best Advice I Ever Got: Lessons from Extraordinary Lives was recommended to me, I figured I should at least give it a look. And when prompted to either gnash my teeth at the thought of leading an incomplete life by not finishing the book or purchase it for $12.99, I opted for the latter. My need for resolution trumps frugality every time.
Luckily, it was a good purchase after all.
The book is made up of short essays written by public figures and/or successful people in their fields. Bill Cosby, Arianna Huffington, Maria Shriver, Stephen Spielburg, Melinda Gates, et al. Inspired when Katie Couric was writing a commencement speech of her own, she decided to pull from the other friends and wise people she’d brushed shoulders with in her career. The resulting collection is inspiring, motivating and super great for ADD readers (like me). The essays are succinct and perfect for a quick read during commercial breaks while watching “CBS Evening News with Katie Couric.”
Bill Cosby tells us about his botched “big break,” Melinda Gates reminds us that sometimes it takes the encouragement of another, Mitch Albom shares more advice from Morrie and Meryl Streep discusses the importance of empathy in acting and living alike. All of these successful (and sometimes unsuccessful) people share delightful little morsels about what is important to them in life and how they arrived at that place.
This book is about success, yes, but it is also about making the choices that lead to fulfilling your purpose and owning your corner of the universe. That could mean packing up your career at Microsoft and starting a charity that provides books as well as a livelihood to students in Nepal like John Wood. It might be forgetting “what” you are in favor of “who” you are, as Ellen Levine did when she started as a reporter. Or perhaps, as author Salman Rushdie learned from Angela Carter: “F**k the lot of them.”
This book offers a glimpse into the lives of some of our county’s, if not the world’s brightest, boldest and most influential people who see the importance sharing with us their path to success.
In reading this, you may not become the next Steve Jobs or Meryl Streep, but you can take their advice and become the person you were meant to be. Or, at the very least, a person with entertaining celebrity anecdotes to bring out at parties.
This is how I was greeted every morning for a week. One blissful week.
I grew up without childhood pets. Yup, that is correct, we were not a pet family. So when a black cat showed up at our front door it was an unusually exciting event for us. We tried to feed him once, but he didn’t eat. From this we concluded that he has a family and a home where he is fed and cared for. As we were deducing the life story of the freeloading cat it dawned on me that as a 24 year old, living with my parents, I was not much different than this confused cat. I am taking advantage of the fact that I have a home and food, but desperately attempting to remove myself from my family and find a place in this world.
Looking good, London!
Usually, I make sure to have anything Anglo-related directly downloaded to my Kindle, set on my TiVo months in advance and/ or generally on my radar. So when I heard that BBC was making an updated version of Sherlock Holmes entitled “Sherlock,” I was at least curious. Especially because I’m a fan of both its lead actors: Benedict Cumberbatch (Atonement, Amazing Grace) and Martin Freeman (Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Love Actually).
However, I had my reservations. On the heels of the Sherlock Holmes film starring Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law as the detective and doctor, respectively, I wasn’t sure I was on board with the remake. I reminded me all too much of the vampire influx post-Twilight (“Vampire Diaries,” “Teen Wolf,” et al.).
Which is why the series never got recorded and was nearly forgotten until this week when I was searching for something to do for two hours that didn’t involve polishing off the box of chocolate mints I had started earlier. Plus, I had just discovered that Amazon Instant Video is faster, cheaper and more diverse than iTunes.
The point is, I found “Sherlock,” and decided, heck, what else am I going to spend $5.99 on (food, gas, clothes, trips to actual Great Britain)? So I bought the first episode, which was one in a series of three, ninty minute episodes.
After starting the series, any comparison between Downey Jr.’s Sherlock fell away when I realized it was an updated, as well as modern, take on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic. In this version, Sherlock is a young, tall, and handsome man living in London in the modern era. It’s like all my literary and film dreams got together to have a charming, British television baby. Even more impressed was I with how they made the story fit into the 2010s without making it all Law and Order: Baker Street.
BBC’s Sherlock Holmes is a consultant to law enforcement (read: “The Mentalist,” “Lie to Me”) as well as a genuine sociopath. I mean it makes total sense. The guy is exceptionally detail-oriented, good at manipulating seemingly unrelated clues and yet, as Watson points out, can be “staggeringly ignorant” toward matters he deems “dull.” Like the fact that the Earth revolves around the sun. He’s also unnervingly fond of the exclamation “WRONG!”
Our modern Sherlock may be a genius at solving crimes, but he lacks more than a little social grace. He is narcissistic, slightly manipulative and is oddly attracted to morbidity. And despite his quirks, you are still rooting for him. He’s like House M.D. with murder. With a little Dexter thrown in.
Watson, on the other hand, is a war vet returning home from Afganistan and is the witty foil to Sherlock’s social ineptitude. His therapist has diagnosed him with a profound “lack of trust” but when Watson is introduced to Sherlock, we, as well as they, are surprised by their uncommon friendship. As it turns out, Watson shares Sherlock’s obsession with murder and crime.
This is our odd couple. The chemistry with the two actors is brilliant, the stories are engaging, and London never looked better.
I have a vice. Most people drink coffee, gamble, or watch porn. I eat Mexican food. On my weekly ritual to the vice gods I go to Chipotle for my share of pinto beans, guacamole, and delicious lime-infused corn chips. One day, I walked into Chipotle and, to my horror, the calorie contents were plastered on the overhead menu next to the corresponding food item. The availability of nutritional information surprisingly was not the problem. The five hundred and seventy calories sitting comfortably by the side of chips option was. Five hundred and seventy was out there. Just hanging out there. How many times have I eaten these chips alongside a meal, when the calorie contents of the chips was almost a meal itself? I suppose I should have known that salty, lime-infused chips couldn’t be so innocent, but oh the blissful ignorance. The good old days. So with that, Chipotle chips, as delicious as you may be, you are dead to me. Rest in peace, or in the bellies of others.
As an avid reader and consummate seeker of new ways to spend money I don’t have, I am constantly looking to satiate my needs. I have a Kindle and since my acquisition of this bright and shiny magical tablet, I have finally found something to place blame for these hard-to-break vices.
And now the people of Amazon have seemingly tapped into my deepest needs and desires and created the Kindle Single. Amazon describes them as “compelling ideas expressed at their natural length.” Imagine the literary equivalent of the 100-calorie pack. Snack, bite-sized morsels perfect for the modern attention span.
You should know that I am a lover of the novel. But this concept is cheaper, hipper and allows all the satisfaction of a larger portion. And I’ve already devoured two small portions that delivered a sense of accomplishment in finishing both on one evening.
The first, “Sparkle” by Mara Altman is an anecdotal tale of one young women’s quest to get to the bottom of the personal and cultural purpose of the engagement ring. How cultural norms shape what is expected of us in ritualistic activities, what we want from them and, more importantly, what we think want from them. In the end, the essay isn’t so much about finding the perfect engagement ring and really, it isn’t about marriage so much as it’s about extrapolating your personal truth from the world’s perception of it.
And the second Single I read, “Poke the Box,” is about starting things. The author, Seth Godin, asks the reader to stop making ideas and start making them happen. He tells us to be promiscuous with our idea seeds, planting them with abandon. That our fear of failure is the single best way to inhibit success. After all, there is no success without the risk of failure.
Novel, isn’t it?
[Disclaimer: at the time of writing, “Poke the Box” was being sold as a Kindle Single, but has now been upgraded to “ebook” status. Unfortunately, so has the price.]
the Z collision 