Dear Procrastinators, this year instead of sharing the reading lists of The New York Times or The Guardian, we decided to make our own, so we reached out to our friends and contributors (two days ago!) and asked them to share those books they enjoyed procrastinating the most with during 2014. These are the answers we got, truly great recommendations from fellow procrastinators sharing the joy of reading. Enjoy and add yours to the comments!
1. The Making of the Atomic Bomb: 25th Anniversary Edition, Richard Rodes
2. The Martian, Andy Weir
3. Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster, Jon Krakauer
"All of them are highly recommendable. The first one is dense, more than 800 pages, but it's -give or take- the best book I've read in my entire life. It's about the discovery of the atom, about the physics of the beginning of the 20th century, the world wars, the atomic bomb, etc. Very interesting narrative from a critical point of view. The second book is fiction, it tells the story of an astronaut that ends up in Mars, alone. Very geek, but fun (and I read that the movie is on its way and it'll be directed by Ridley Scott). Finally, the 3rd one, I read it on the middle of my Himalayan fever. It's the real story of an Everest expedition in 1996 that ended up tragically. The author is Jon Krakauer who survived that expedition and reached the top (he's the same authot of Into the Wild). You can read the book in two days, is one of those you cannot put away (and btw, I also read they'll be doing this film next year!)"
Luis, Geophysical Engineer.
Bogotá.
1. My Year of Meats, Ruth Ozeki
2. The Goldfinch, Donna Tartt
"These are two books that are far from being masterpieces but I devored them in few days and they made me stop doing stuff that I should have done... I think that's the Procrastinator's spirit, right?"
"2014's procrastination: Southern Reach trilogy by Jeff Vandermeer (that honestly is one book divided in three episodes.) Imagine a book that condense the adventure and mystery essence of Verne with Lovecraft's strangeness and suspense, the best WTFery of Lost, and X-Files conspiracies involved with the decadent and dystopic spectrum of Terry Gilliam circa 12 Monkeys. Now imagine that everything that does not imply knowing what happened in the 12th expedition and what the hell happened in the X Area are just secondary stories and voilá... perfect procrastination."
Germán, Illustrator & Animator.
Caracas.
1. The Art of Asking, Amanda Palmer.
"One
interesting fact is that through her twitter account she connected
people that couldn’t purchase the book with people that offer to
purchase book and deliver them worldwide for free! Her community of fans
is one of the most powerful and enacted I’ve ever seen. And this book
reveals a bit about this phenomenon. I think that depending on the eyes
you read it with, you can reach different “insights". For me, the book gives a
very personal and artistic explanation on the “economy of sharing”
phenomenon."
Lily, Interaction Designer.
New York.
1. Lens on Life: Documenting Your World Through Photography, Stephanie
Calabrese Roberts.
2. Steal like an Artist, Austin Kleon.
3. Show Your Work, Austin Kleon.
"The first book I discovered it at the library of the Pompidou Center, just after leaving the Henri Cartier-Bresson exhibition. I loved that there was an interview with Elliot Erwitt, one of my favorite photographers. I discovered "Steal like and artist" and "Show your work" both from Austin Kleon, thanks to some friends in England. We were talking about how to promote and sell our work. Also, I just started Mirages: The Unexpurgated Diary of Anais Nïn, 1939-1947. No idea how that book fell into my hands."
1. What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, Haruki Murakami.
"The only book I can think of is this Murakami one, after which I quit smoking, started running and decided to become my own boss... but that was in 2013." (After that introduction, I think that book deserved to be here, right?)
1. Uncreative Writing: Managing the Language in the Digital Era, Kenneth Goldsmith.
2. Maps of the imagination: the writer as cartographer, Peter Turchi.
"This year I read a lot of books, but mainly thesis-related ones, these two I found them on a Saturday morning in one of Broadway Market's book shops and decided to buy them as they seemed to have some loose relation with the themes I was exploring (actually I was just looking to procrastinate). Goldsmith's Uncreative Writing turned out to be exceptionally related, and his point of view on writing/copying/re-contextualizing/originality, and all things language related in the digital era in fact ended up giving a whole new twist to my dissertation project. Goldsmith is known for being the guy that tried to print the Internet, and most recently it was mentioned a lot because he will be offering a class at the University of Pennsylvania called "Wasting Time on the Internet". On the other hand Turchi's work -and beautiful maps- helped me a lot when facing the challenge of creating a story, a universe, specially in a language that is not my own. It's not super extraordinary, but the time I spent procrastinating with this book inspired me enough to start a new project that hopefully you will discover soon! Finally, if you must know, I am fighting with Albert Camus's The Myth of Sisyphus. Maybe this time next year I'll be done with it... maybe not."
Ana, Procrastinator.
The Cloud.
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