January ‘23 Recap

This episode of Books for Men is a short recap of all the books and authors we covered in January '23. It also shares a little theory (I believe) about creativity. Listen for more!

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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 before I jump into the recap episode, I did just want to send a big thank you to everybody who has supported the podcast thus far. And whether you are aware of it or not telling a friend, a family member, or anybody who you think might like it about the podcast, really, really goes a long way in spreading awareness for the initiative, right? I mean, the title of the podcast is Books for Men. And so it's kind of hard to screw it up in that what our goal is, is to inspire more men to read books. And so just by telling 'em about the podcast, that goes a really, really long way. So I can't thank you enough for that support, and I hope that you will continue to spread the word because whether you know it or not, you are making a difference.

(01:08)

And I usually mention this at the end of the episode, but I will mention it now, if you want to double down on that support, the best way for you to do that is to rate this podcast, review it, subscribe, follow all of that good stuff on whatever podcast platform you listen to this on. All right, now let's jump into the recap episode for January 2023. I cannot believe it's already 2023. This past week on Instagram, one of my buddies posted a photo of me, him, and another one of my buddies. It was taken close to 13 or 14 years ago, and it felt like it was taken just yesterday, not in the way that it looked, but in my memory. And so it's wild that we are in 2023 already. But anyway, the recap episode, it was a short month because I took the first week of January off, and so we only had three weeks of episodes.

(02:07)

And I also introduced a brand new episode format called Bad Advice. So basically it's a new segment where I debunk advice that I think is given far too often. And my hope is that these segments are taken in the gist or in the spirit, I should say, of how they are intended to be right. I really have no idea what's happening or what the best advice is or the right way to do something. These are just my opinions, so hopefully you'll enjoy them, and hopefully, I can have some fun with them. And I think that the first episode was a solid one. It's called “All You Have to Do…” And for me, it was the perfect first episode because it addresses what I would consider to be the foundation of bad advice. And so if you're interested in what the foundation of crappy advice actually is, then go back and listen to all you have to do, which again was the title of the first edition of Bad Advice.

(03:13)

And so since we introduced this new segment that only left two weeks for two book episodes, and we featured one fiction book in one non-fiction book, and they were both really, really good books. So I am confident starting the year with these two gems. The non-fiction book was Scenes from My Life by Michael K. Williams, which is a tragic and touching portrait of an artist's life. So Williams played some of modern TV's greatest roles, Omar Little in The Wire, Chalky White in Boardwalk Empire, among many other roles. And this book does a good job of showing what the total aspect of an artist's life is like, the glory, the struggle it touches on addiction, creative process, and community involvement. It's a book that I can honestly say surprised me and touched me in a way that I didn't think it would, and that's why I featured it here on the podcast.

(04:13)

And then as for the fiction book, this month, we featured The Thief by Fuminori Nakamura, which is a novel about a skilled Japanese pickpocket who must answer for a job that he did years prior. And so it really hinges on and around this idea of fate and can you escape fate or is fate inevitable? And it really addresses some larger questions about life. And the story is written in a very bleak and subtle way. It's chilling in many, many ways. And so I wanted to pick a novel that I just love to be honest with you, to start the year. And so that's why I picked The Thief. And I am fully confident that you will enjoy it if you do pick it up. So all of these books and episodes that I had mentioned, you can go back, you can listen to them, they're short enough.

(05:08)

One of my goals for 2023 is to keep the episodes all under 10 minutes or around 10 minutes. I went a little bit longer in many episodes in 2022. I feel like restraints are good for the creative process. So if I can hold myself to staying under 10 minutes for the book episodes, then that will be a good thing for you, the listener, and for me, the creator. And for the recap episodes, I'm going to try to stay in the five to seven minute range depending on how many books I have. I think, again, the same theory, restraints are good for the creative process. People think that they limit creativity. I have a belief that restraints actually breed creativity. As long as you have those restraints, then you can have the freedom to create inside of that restraint. So anyway, that's a little extra creative theory there from me for this week's episode.

(06:06)

But I wanted to thank you for listening. I hope you enjoyed it. I'll save you the spiel that I usually give at the end because I already said it at the beginning. But I do want to remind you that you can get more information at BooksforMen.org, where you can also sign up for the monthly newsletter, which is a monthly roundup of all of these episodes, as well as additional book recommendations, which I have three coming up in the newsletter this month. And that will be going out, I believe, tomorrow or the day after. And so, if you want to sign up for that newsletter, then you could do so at BooksforMen.org. And again, thank you so much for listening, and please keep spreading the word.