#191 | April 2024 Recap: Machiavelli, Writing Secrets, Crime Fiction, and How to Read More

episode SUMMARY:

Douglas Vigliotti recaps the month of April 2024. He discusses the nonfiction books "The Prince" by Niccolo Machiavelli and "Bird by Bird" by Anne Lamott, as well as the novel "Every Man a Menace" by Patrick Hoffman. He also shares a special edition episode on how to read more, offering three strategies for building a reading habit. Overall, it was a diverse and engaging month of book discussions on the podcast.

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Welcome back to Books for Men, a podcast to inspire more men to read and bring together men who do so as always, with these recap episodes, I first like to just send a big thank you to everybody who supports the podcast, and as a reminder, there's two major ways that you could do that. The first is to share it with a friend or a family member because word of mouth is everything when you're spreading awareness about anything. So I can't thank you enough if you have done that already. If not, I'd love for you to do so. Secondly, you could just hit subscribe on whatever podcast platform you're listening to this on because in doing that, it helps more people find the show. And of course, ultimately that supports the initiative, which is to inspire more men to read. So if you've done either of those two things, I can't thank you enough.

(01:02)

And if you haven't and you're a regular listener, then shame on you. Just kidding. Of course, you don't have to do any of those things, but of course, I'd love for you to do either of 'em. Alright, so before we jump into the actual recap for the month of April 2024, I did want to remind you that the trailer for Season 2 of Slightly Crooked: Good Stories, Told Well is now live. And you can listen to that on the Slightly Crooked: Good Stories, Told Well podcast, which is available on every podcast platform. So whatever one you're listening to this on, and in case you missed the announcement in last week's episode, season two will be featuring my 2021 poem collection, mini heartbreaks (or little poems about life). And in the trailer episode, I explain a little bit more about how that collection came to be, what it's about, what you can expect in the season, and all that good stuff.

(01:58)

So if you're interested at all, I would definitely go check it out. You'll probably hear me mention it a few more times in a few more episodes before the season goes live. And now that I've got that out of the way, let's jump into the recap for April 2024. So it was a really big month. There were four episodes, and that isn't always the case since we do an episode every Monday. Sometimes it's only three, sometimes it's four and rarely, but sometimes it is five, I think. But anyway, four is a solid month and there were two nonfiction books, one work of fiction, and a special edition episode. I'm really enjoying doing those special edition episodes and I'll talk about that more momentarily. But first, let's knock out the two nonfiction books for the month. And the first one was The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli. And that book is really Machiavelli writing about how to be a prince or how to conquer a new land.

(02:59)

He does this by referencing his own experience, working closely with kings and rulers of his time, as well as referring back to examples of rulers and kings or princes from previous times. In the episode I talk about the genesis of the work, and why he wrote it. Also, some of the philosophies and strategies which are very divisive but are still very popular today. So you hear the word Machiavelli or Machiavellian thrown around a lot, and I think that any work that stands 500, 600 years, as this one has, is worth discussing and sharing with you. And you could kind of have your own take on the work if you do choose to read it, or you could just go get an overview by listening to the episode. Now, the second nonfiction work of the month was very different. It was a writing reference or writing resource book called Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott.

(03:56)

And I shared it because I haven't shared one from this genre or category before. And since I have a ton of them and I've read a ton of them over the years, I wanted to share perhaps one of my favorite ones for sure. In the episode, I give some of the techniques and philosophies that Lamont shares in the book, but none is more important than the core concept, which is of course, taking things bird by bird. And what she means by that is step by step. And this spotlights the importance of the compound effect, right? So taking small actions over time to create big results. And the genesis of that philosophy for her was from her father's advice to her brother at the time who was trying to write a bird report when he was 10 years old. And the father's advice was, “Just take it bird by bird, buddy. Bird by bird.”

(04:52)

So if you want to know more about that book, then go back and check out the episode. Now let's shift gears to fiction. There was only one book this month and that was Every Man a Menace by Patrick Hoffman. Although the book came out in 2016, I feel like it is one of those classic crime novels that has that kind of feel to it. So if you like classic crime, I would say, then this is a good book for you. It's about an ex-con named Raymond Gaspar who gets involved in this MDMA trafficking scheme that spans from San Francisco to Miami to Bangkok. And he basically gets out of jail and one of the guys that he is linked up with inside links him up with this scheme on the outside to get him on his feet. And of course, things spiral out of control.

(05:44)

And it's just a really good book. It's a really fun read. I talk a little bit about the author and some of the stylistic choices that he makes in the novel, as well as a core concept that I believe this book exemplifies that all good books exemplify. So if you're interested in finding out what that is, then I'd go back and listen to the episode and for the final episode of the month. As I already alluded to moments ago, there was a special edition and it was called “How to Read More.” And this really came on the heels of a reader emailing me, asking me this very specific question, I want to read more, how could I read more? It got me thinking about the subject matter, but also when I'm in social situations, one of the things that I hear most often is, I want to read more, or I'd love to read more, but I can't.

(06:34)

And there's this inherent baked-in competition with reading for some odd reason. And I talk a little bit about that in the episode when there shouldn't be because you don't actually need to read more, but something intrinsically is telling you that you should be or you want to. And I think that's the interesting thing about it. But it should be noted that you don't have to. This episode is designed for people who want to actually read more. And I talk about the three big ways that I think that you could do. So one is changing your view from books to pages. So narrowing the scope to make it more attainable. The second is, following your interests. So only reading the things that you truly want to read, not the things that people tell you you should be reading. And I get into the reason why that's important in the episode.

(07:24)

Lastly, if you want to be really tough on yourself, you could use a tool called tracking, which is basically, as it sounds, tracking the days that you adhere to the pages that you told yourself you were going to read. And it holds you accountable. Obviously, this has been used in other areas of life, and I get into the ins and outs of each of those three strategies, so if you're interested, I would definitely go back and listen to it. And as I alluded to earlier in this episode, I'm really enjoying doing these special edition episodes. I feel like they fit very well inside the context of the show, so I'm really looking forward to doing more of them. And of course, they will all be specific to reading and writing the publishing industry, all things above anything that falls under the umbrella of what I think you guys and gals will be interested in.

(08:18)

Big shout out to all the female listeners of Books for Men. Alright, so I think that's all I've got. I hope you enjoyed this recap episode for the month of April 2024. Since I already gave you a spiel at the top of the episode, I won't do so here. I just want to remind you that for more information, you could always visit BooksforMen.org, where you can get full transcripts for all of these episodes, as well as sign up for the newsletter, which is a monthly roundup of every episode complete with full book and author information, episode summaries, all the best quotes and newsletter only book recommendations. So if you're interested in that, all you have to do is head over to BooksforMen.org.