Weird Books for Great Escapes

I have assembled an unusual list at Substack.

Participatory Journalist

 

Practical and Important

Ask someone to memorize ten random facts; they quickly forget them. Ask them to remember a story with those same facts, and retention rises sharply; the human brain evolved to think in cause-and-effect narratives, not isolated data points.

- From How to Be a Storyteller by Nicholas Bate 

[Note; This book just came out. I wish I'd learned its key lessons long ago. They would have made a positive difference in how I studied while in school.]

The Good Old Days

 

Just Ordered!

 

White Guilt: A New Documentary

 

I read Shelby Steele's book years ago, never dreaming how far the White Guilt infection would spread.

One Brutal Poem

 "Slough" by Sir John Betjeman.

[Photo by JEFF VRBA at Unsplash]

Carl Sandburg: "Happiness"

 Happiness

I asked professors who teach the meaning of life to tell me what is happiness.
And I went to famous executives who boss the work of thousands of men.
They all shook their heads and gave me a smile as though I was trying to fool
      with them.
And then one Sunday afternoon I wandered out along the Desplaines river
And I saw a crowd of Hungarians under the trees with their women and
      children and a keg of beer and an accordion.

 

 

Sandburg, Carl. Chicago Poems. New York, N.Y.: Henry Holt, 1916.

I Think I Need This Right Now

 

Let the Royal Navy Patrol the English Channel

Europe's military needs to control immigration.

[Photo by David Clode at Unsplash]