Three Great Books #40
The one with only two books!
As the name of this newsletter would indicate, I usually have three books to recommend to you. Not this time! I was banking on a couple of new releases that turned out to be good, but ultimately just missed the mark (for me, that is — I know others are loving them). So this edition of Three Great Books has only two books, but I can wholeheartedly endorse both of them. Enjoy.
The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper, by Roland Allen
I adore notebooks (shout out to the Rollbahn A5!), and the feeling of possibility sparked by their blank pages. But until I read this delightful, wide-ranging survey of how notebooks emerged and evolved, I’d given no thought to the role they’ve played in history. The ability to conveniently put your thoughts on paper — whether to wrestle with a new idea, confide something you couldn’t even tell to a friend or just jot down an observation — is now widespread, but it wasn’t always so. Allen chronicles the spread and impact of this technology, in short, lively chapters. There are a wealth of fascinating examples, including how notebooks contributed to the emergence of double-entry bookkeeping, the spread of industrial knowledge, Darwin’s theory of evolution, the end of a Florida senator’s political ambitions, and helping ICU patients process their experiences. I loved this book, and welcome the argument that my notebooks might actually change my life.
Suddenly, by Isabelle Autissier
What would you do to survive, and what wouldn’t you do? The questions raised by this slim, fast-moving novel (written by the first woman to sail solo around the world in competition) are still rattling around in my head. It begins with a young French couple, Louise and Ludovic, pulling up their dinghy on the shores of an island that used to house an active whaling station and is now off-limits to the public. The two have put their regular lives on hold to sail around the tip of Cape Horn in their boat, the Jason, and because the island is an unauthorized stopover, no one knows they are there (cue ominous soundtrack). They go on a hike, and experienced mountain climber Louise, noting the changing weather, wants them to turn back and return to the boat; Ludovic, the kind of guy to whom nothing bad has ever happened, thinks she’s being a spoilsport. A terrible storm hits, the Jason is lost, and Louise and Ludovic are stuck on a barren island with little to eat besides penguins. What happens to them as a couple and as individuals makes for a wrenching, thought-provoking story. (Thanks to Dave Pell’s NextDraft newsletter for the rec!)