Reading Notes
At the beginning of the year, I wrote about what I'm focusing on in 2026 - that whole piece is linked here, but the salient point is that I'm now posting about things beyond 'deconstruction-oriented' topics.
As part of this expanded/inclusive new framing, I’m going to start sharing what I’ve been reading more regularly here. I’ve read a lot in the first three months of the year, and have quite a few recommendations for you.
One programming note (that's a tad personal): I have started planning some longer-term, more seasonal content, that may take months to develop. I'm also still very much settling in to the day-to-day balance of establishing a new creative chapter and the duties and privileges I have to my family. I never know how much to communicate these things, and whether such updates yield interest or indifference. If there were interest in more behind-the-scenes aspects of what I'm working on and learning, perhaps I could turn that into a series of its own. But suffice to say: I'm still learning, I'm still trying, I'm still working on it all - it's just not fallen into a steady production & release schedule yet. (And I'm not planning to make this type of emotional preamble a thing, but I got that old "sorry it's been so long since the last post!" feeling and decided to address it. IYKYK.)
On to the post!
The Broken Earth Trilogy, by N.K. Jemisin
I received the first book of The Broken Earth trilogy, The Fifth Season, for Christmas this year. I tore through it and immediately went and got the two additional books from the library.
There’s a lot to love in this series. For one, the narration is unlike anything I’d read. While I’ve read plenty of books where POV character shifts from chapter to chapter, I hadn’t read one that used second-person before (outside of choose-your-adventure books I read as a kid). This perspective shifting is most effective in the first book, and has a revelation that is very enjoyable to read and experience for yourself.
The story takes place in a world where unpredictable “fifth seasons” plague humanity. The fifth season is always some form of geological calamity that effectively reduces human civilization to rubble, as if the Earth itself hates the life that lives on it. There are people born with the power to control the Earth, called orogenes, who are feared and discriminated against while also being absolutely necessary for the continuation of life. (There’s a lot of potent metaphors within the book.) Orogenes can stop earthquakes and tremors, but the majority of people fear them because that power is also affected by their emotional state and can be dangerous. There’s some really great world-building in this series.
Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It, by Cory Doctorow
The latest book by Cory Doctorow is a book-length treatment of his viral WIRED essay that introduced the world to its title term. Doctorow provides several examples of how digital apps & services devolve over time: at launch, they’re good for the users who provide meaningful content & experiences; at scale, they’re good for businesses who can monetize captured audiences; eventually, they’re good for no one but the platform owners, who increase costs and decrease value over time.
On Fire for God, by Josiah Hesse; Eve: A Novel, by B.K. O’Connor; God, Sex, and Rich People, by Mattie Jo Cowsert
I’ve recently written about this trio of books - I appeared at an event this month alongside these wonderful writers. I’ll refer you to my post about that event here:
Blake Chastain
You can see my interview with Josiah on YouTube:
I hope to have both Mattie Jo and BK O’Connor on the show soon!
Amateurs! How We Built Internet Culture and Why It Matters, by Joanna Walsh
This book from Verso dives into multiple eras of “creator content” online from the early 2000s to today. It has a strong media theory/media studies lens. It considers the economics of being a “creator” during all these periods as well as how primarily-online content is seen as distinct from “establishment” art & literature (my term here, not the author’s - who is much more precise).
(Sidenote: I got this book, and the next, as part of my Verso membership, which provides me with ebooks of their entire catalog each month. The only other publisher I’m aware that does this is Haymarket Books, which I also subscribe to. I wish more publishers/imprints would offer this.)
Hyperpolitics: Extreme Politicization without Political Consequences, by Anton Jäger
I’m still thinking through this book and even how to summarize it. It’s an overview of the various postures to political and economic change in the US and Europe across several eras, including our present one. Some of the passages, describing the depth of the morass we are in, are haunting,
No Bad Parts: Healing Trauma and Restoring Wholeness with the Internal Family Systems Model, by Richard C. Swartz
I really enjoyed this book. It’s likely the best-known book on the IFS model, and while IFS does have its critics and books like this should be seen as a supplement to working with a therapist, it is a great resource to become familiar with the underlying concepts. It helped increase my own sense of self-compassion and understanding.
Super Nintendo: The Game-Changing Company That Unlocked the Power of Play, by Keza MacDonald
This was a fun overview of Nintendo’s approach toward video game design, as well as a generally-positive portrayal of their business leadership. Like so many elder millennials, Nintendo has a special place in my heart. Hell, look at me in my Mario shirt opening the author copies of my book:
This is the sort of book that, if you’re a gamer, you’ll strangely get hits of nostalgia while reading.
The Score: How to Stop Playing Someone Else’s Game, by C. Thi Nguyen
Why do the rules and restrictions and score-keeping in games make things fun, but pursuing metrics (which has a lot in common with score-keeping in games) sucks the joy out of life? That’s the animating question for philosopher of games C. Thi Nguyen’s The Score.
This is my favorite philosophy book I’ve read in a while. The question itself is so fascinating, and Nguyen follows it down a number of interesting avenues. The prose is light, his examples are embodied. It’s a hard thing to make abstraction concrete, and it’s done very well in this book.
Furious Minds: The Making of the MAGA New Right, by Laura K. Field
This book was recommended to me by Katherine Stewart when we spoke earlier this year. It’s an intellectual history of several strands of conservatism (and the influential thinkers within these groups) that have served to build moral and philosophical support for autocrats like Trump, both within and without academia. It’s a good primer on the main characters of this (regrettably) influential crowd, detailing how they think and how they network.
What are you reading? Let me know in the comments.