Recently Read for 2025
This is my running list of books I've read or listened to so far in 2025.
Three Uses of the Knife by David Mamet: Mamet's essay on what makes good drama, how we dramatize our every-day lives and that the theater, ultimately, is the pinnacle of seeing great drama play out in order to make sense of our own lives.
Children jump around at the end of the day, to expend the last of that day’s energy. The adult equivalent, when the sun goes down, is to create or witness drama—which is to say, to order the universe into a comprehensible form. Our sundown play/film/gossip is the day’s last exercise of that survival mechanism. In it we attempt to discharge any residual perceptive energies in order to sleep. We will have drama in that spot, and if it’s not forthcoming we will cobble it together out of nothing.
Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #54: Mike Mignola's (Hellboy creator) wonderful take on Batman. If you were to apply "voice" to the visual arts of comic books, Mignola would be at the top of that list of comic book artists whose work is wholly recognizable off the bat (that pun wasn't intended).
The Bullet Journal Method: Ryder Carroll's (the creator of the bullet journal method) deep dive into how he came up with this unique way of task management/journaling/organization (it's also so much more), the process of how to bullet journal and the philosophy how capturing moments in your life can lead to profound changes. After years of either being too lazy or ... too lazy ... to look into how to bullet journal, I watched one of Ryder's videos on how to journal when you only have five minutes. That led me down the rabbit hole of other videos to then buying his book and starting my own bullet journal. I think at some point I'll talk about my process here on the blog.
Jurassic Park (audiobook): Maybe my favorite book of all time. I read it back in 1993 for biology class in the 10th grade before the movie came out. I don't think I've ever read a book so fast in my life. For a dinosaur lover, this book was everything I had wished for in a novel. And when the movie came out, let's just say seeing it nine times in the theater wasn't enough (but I was running out of money and I was also afraid the movie was going to lose its luster). Since the 10th grade, I've read it a few times again over the years and got sucked into listening to it on Audible recently. I wasn't planning on it, but Amazon Music had recommended it to me and next thing I knew Grant was marching the kids through the park.
Riding the Elephant (audiobook): I've always found Craig Ferguson hilarious. I'd put him fourth after Carson, Letterman and Conan in the list of late-night hosts. And his book on growing up in Scotland, fatherhood and adventures post-late-night hosting duties didn't disappoint. And it's hard not to be charmed by that great Scottish accent.
We Are Legion (We Are Bob) (audiobook): I really wanted to like this book more, but after about a third of the way through it lost its appeal. The beginning of the book was great and I loved the premise, but it reminded me of Ready Player One in that it seemed to suffer from its own need to spout nerdy technical jargon, much like Ready Player One with its sometimes obscure pop culture nerd p*rn references.
Greenlights (audiobook): Matthew McConaughey's wonderfully written memoir about his childhood, travels as a young man and rise to fame. It's as raw (in a good-natured, sublime way) and open as you think a McConaughey memoir would be. The man is an enigma and so much of that onion is peeled away to let you understand why the way he is. Plus, his narration is more like him having a conversation with you rather than speaking his book aloud.
The Princess Diarist (audiobook): Carrie Fisher takes you back to the mid-70s as she prepares to shoot Star Wars. She also dives into her affair with Harrison Ford during that time filming Star Wars: A New Hope. She's as sharp and funny as she's always been. And as a Star Wars fan, she's always had a special place in my heart.
Star Wars: Dark Force Rising: The Thrawn Trilogy: Book 2 (audiobook): The second book in the Thrawn Trilogy. I read the first when I was a teenager in the early 90s and listened to the audiobook last year. I'm going to start the third one soon, but finished this one earlier this year. It was a good sequel with decent action. The narrator, Marc Thompson, does a phenomenal job with the voices, effortlessly going between Luke, Leia, Han, Lando, Thrawn and many others. One thing I love about the Star Wars audiobooks is their production. The lean into making you feel immersed in the world with all the great Star Wars sounds and music.
Sci-Phi: Science Fiction as Philosophy (audiobook): So far, I've enjoyed all the Great Courses audiobooks I've listened to. If you want a crash course on the various science theories and philosophies behind some of the best-known sci-fi movies and TV shows, this course walks you through many examples from pop culture and explains the thinking behind these stories we love so much. Sci-fi isn't all rocket ships and laser swords. There is always so much more to these fantastical tales than what's on the surface, even if implied.
Daredevil: The Man Without Fear #1-5: Frank Miller and John Romita Jr.'s fantastic take on Daredevil's origin story. Miller's grittiness is perfect for the devil from Hell's Kitchen and I've always loved Romita's chunky, almost-geometric drawings with the scratchy inking style.
Aliens: Salvation #1: Another Mike Mignola masterpiece. A perfect pairing of his visual style and the Alien form. They were meant to be. And an interesting story from Watchmen illustrator Dave Gibbons.
Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #54: Another Mignola entry. "Sanctum" sees the Dark Knight battling a crazy killer in a Gotham cemetery, only to be stabbed and fall into delirium.
On the Incarnation
The Crow Special Edition
The Secrets of Character
The Voyage of the Space Beagle: A.E. van Vogt's space opera novel, compiled from four stories he wrote from 1939 to 1950. I'll admit it. It was a little dry and tough to read through at times, but I enjoyed the premise. It's like Star Trek before Star Trek. Plus, I finally got to read one of the inspirations for "Alien" in the section where the crew meets Ixtl, an alien from a race that existed before the creation of the universe. And of course, he implants parasitic eggs in some of the crew to propagate his race. Vogt actually sued 20th Century Fox and it was settled out of court. There was a documentary called "Memory: The Origins of Alien" where there's a shot of a typed page from Dan O'Bannon, one of the writers of "Alien," and his inspiration list.
Write. Publish. Repeat.: