#195 | May 2024 Recap: Short Books, Big Impact—Identity, Mental Health, and Reading Like a Writer

episode SUMMARY:

Douglas Vigliotti recaps the month of May 2024, discussing the nonfiction book "Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness" by William Styron, the novel "Sugar Street" by Jonathan Dee, and a special edition episode that features 5 key questions to help you read like a writer. With engaging quotes and insightful commentary, this recap episode is a great starter for new listeners and book enthusiasts seeking inspiration.

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Welcome back to Books for Men, a podcast to inspire more men to read and bring together men who do. As always, with these recap episodes, the first thing I like to do is send a big thank you to everybody who listens to the podcast, and especially to those who have already subscribed or shared the podcast with a friend or family member. Subscribing and sharing are the two biggest ways that you can, one, support the initiative, but also help new listeners find the show. So if you've done that, I can't thank you enough, and if you haven't, then I'd love for you to go and do that. Now also, you've heard me share this on the past few episodes, you can now listen to the trailer for Slightly Crooked: Good Stories, Told Well season two, and it does feature my 2021 poem collection, mini heartbreaks (or little poems about life).

(01:01)

And it's more or less a mini-memoir in poetry form. It's unorthodox. It's sparse. It's something that I'm looking forward to sharing with the world in audio format because I think it will elevate the collection just a tad, especially since I'm the one reading it. So if you want to learn more about that, as I just mentioned, you can listen to the trailer episode, which is available on the podcast, Slightly Crooked: Good Stories, Told Well. Before we jump into the recap for the month of May 2024, I did want to remind you that you could visit BooksforMen.org to get full transcripts for all of these episodes, as well as sign up for the monthly newsletter, which is just one email every month that rounds up all of the episodes for that month, complete with full book and author information, episode summaries, all the key quotes from each book, as well as newsletter only book recommendations. So again, you could sign up for at BooksforMen.org.

(02:05)

Alright, now that I've gotten that preamble out of the way, let's jump into the actual recap for the month of May 2024. So it was only a three-episode month and it was a small but mighty month, not just in the fact that there was only three episodes, but also the books were very short. One other thing that you might've noticed this month is that I changed the episode titles. So if you're a regular listener, you probably are used to just seeing the book and the author, but I've switched it up to include the episode number as well as the key themes, questions, ideas, and topics that are included in each episode. Sometimes it's just a question as it was with the first work of fiction for the month, episode 192, which was called “Escaping Identity: Is It Even Possible in Today's Society?”

(03:07)

And that covered Sugar Street by Jonathan Dee. The book itself is about an unnamed protagonist who settles in a new town and he grapples with the question of whether it is possible to truly lose one's identity in today's society. And the novel and the episode explore themes of shame, guilt, identity, and the search for self. So if this is something that you're interested in, I would definitely go back and listen to that episode. The book itself is sparse, it's scintillating, it's really engaging in a lot of ways, and it clocks in at only around 200 pages or so. So if you're into shorter novels, then this might be something for you. One of my favorite quotes from that book, and it's also on the quote card on the website, it's just a featured quote that is on the corresponding page for the episode. And it's not something I usually mention on the podcast, but if you've ever visited the website, then you've seen it there.

(04:07)

The quote that I shared there for this episode was, “They might not see things that way, but if I concerned myself with how others see things, I'd be right back where I was.” And I think there's a lot to chew on with that quote. Most notably, this idea of change and what it means to concern yourself with the opinions of other people. If you like these types of sensibilities in this type of wit, then I would say you would enjoy the book Sugar Street by Jonathan Dee. If you're interested, like I already mentioned, go back and listen to the episode or you can just check out the book. So now let's pivot into the work of nonfiction for the Month, which was episode 193, “From Despair to Hope: One Man's Journey to Mental Health and Reducing Stigma of Depression in Men.” So as this title suggests, it is a pretty powerful episode, I would say, and it's fitting because the book itself is dark and powerful, but it's hopeful, and it's called Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness by William Styron.

(05:16)

And so in the book, the author recounts his life-threatening battle with major depression. It's gripping, it's harrowing, it's everything that you would expect it to be. And why it's hopeful is because he does get through it and there is light at the end of the tunnel. So for me, it really does provide a deeper understanding. But I think the one thing that you'll gain in the episode is not only a deeper understanding of all of this and the importance of addressing it within yourself if you are suffering from any kind of mental health issue but also this idea of the unseen. And I talk a lot about that in the context of mental health in the episode, but it bleeds over into other aspects of our lives. And Daniel Kahneman calls it, WYSIATI which is an acronym for “what you see is all there is.” And I think depression and mental health disorders fall into this bucket, and this book does a great job of unveiling that it's short, which is a good thing.

(06:27)

It's only around 80 or 90 pages because it's so deep and raw. But I think you will gain a lot from reading this book. Or of course, you can just go back and listen to the episode as I do expand upon a lot of these concepts and things that he touches on in a much deeper way. And for the last episode of the month, it was a special edition, episode number 194, and it was called “The Art of Reading, like a Writer.” These are quickly becoming my favorite episodes to record. They're almost like monologue versions of a blog article. I think that's the best way that I can explain it. And in this one, I share five key questions to help you read like a writer. Of course, I want to make it known that you don't have to read like a writer. This episode is for people who wish to read more like a writer would read, and it's really more of a technical read.

(07:25)

So it takes story and writing-level questions that I ask when I am reading works of fiction and nonfiction. So you'll learn the difference between fans, critics, and writers because in my eyes they read for different things. And you'll also discover the importance of the protagonist's journey, narrative layers in a story, point of view, and tense, and the importance of those are very critical, different writing styles and the differences between those, and then the ever-important aspect of believability. So if you want to know what those five questions to help you read like a writer are, then I would definitely go back and listen to that special edition episode. So the quote card on BooksforMen.org for that episode is: “Straddling the middle is boring. So is popular. I prefer art—books, movies, and music—that is willing to go far enough one way that there are just as many people who hate it as love it. That's risky, and fun, and entertaining.”

(08:29)

So of course, that's not particular to reading like a writer, but it is me sharing my opinion, which I do quite a bit in that episode. And I think that's the point of utilizing a consistent framework from book to book to evaluate what you are reading. If you're a writer, obviously this is to utilize things that you like and avoid things you don't like in your own work. If you're a reader, perhaps it's just to gain a better technical understanding of what you're reading or be able to describe what you like more or less compared to other books, because you have points of relativity right now. Of course, you don't have to do any of this, but if you're interested in it, that's what this episode is all about. Alright, I don't want to go on and on. That is the end of this recap episode. I hope you enjoyed it. If you did, as I led off with, please remember to share it with friends and family members. More importantly, if you just take two seconds to subscribe and if you really want to be a champion, rate the podcast on whatever podcast platform you're listening to this on. It will go a long way in helping more people find the show and of course, inspiring more men to read and remember for more, you could always visit BooksforMen.org.