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2018 in Books #1 : Outliers

My membership at the Evanston Public Library is my best-worst decision. Best, because I now have e-books delivered right into my Kindle without having me trudge in snow to borrow or return a book and the worst, because it is going to make me lazy and unfit.  Cut to the chase, Outliers has been a good start to 2018. At a modest 300 odd pages, Malcolm Gladwell writes a deeply researched and critically analysed account of success stories that we know of.  | The biggest takeaway you can get from Outliers  is the "other side" of stories, which are often ignored for the sake of glorification of the achievement. | It was enjoyable to see how tiny, seemingly inconsequential factors can help a person go a long way. A popular example the book talks about is Bill Gates' rise as a billionaire when he was a college dropout.  Treating his story superficially has led to popularizing the opinion, "hey, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg were college drop outs
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Cannot. Stop. Listening.

Steven Wilson's sublime album, Hand. Cannot. Erase. is a work of art. Here is my take on some of the best songs I have ever heard. While I have had this album and heard it before, there's something soulful in it that has me hearing it over and over again and stirs me in these solitary hours.

3 Years Older has you reevaluating your life as each verse ages with time.
The line, Shame on you for getting older everyday really had me taken aback wondering what I am doing with my time here.

Hand. Cannot. Erase. comes as a surprise hearing the king of prog rock venture into frickin' POP! I simply could not believe this deceptive track lying in here, yet I absolutely enjoyed Wilson crooning.

Perfect Life talks of a love once shared briefly, yet strong. The song took me back to a time where ...for a few months everything about our lives was perfect, it was only us, we were inseparable... Memories of an old love really move you. They do make me happy and I'd give anything for that time once again.
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The album takes a dark turn from here on, leaving behind all experiments in the first half. Each track has you reflecting on a number of things, typical of what Steven Wilson's music does to me. The music mirrors the thoughts and leaves you to a few minutes of introspection. Here are the tracks in the second half of the album.

Routine is a heartrending masterpiece, with excellent music, lyrics and a video. It is the kind of wholesome song that consumes you within. It also rings so true, routine, as much as I dislike it, has helped me get over grief, kept me in line, helped me sleep, pass the time. 

 Home Invasion instills the fear that I am way too addicted to the internet and wasting my time on it. Another day of my life has passed me by, where am I now and what have I done with the day? A question that is always followed by an unwelcoming sinking feeling.

Things that meant so much mean nothing in the end, the function if dysfunction and to hide the truth. Living in a sickly age of post truths, Ancestral (the irony of the title) only seems to echo the circumstances of today, the kind of social and political atmosphere we live in. Chilling.

And to end my post with a line from Happy Returns,

But I'm feeling kind of drowsy now, so I'll finish this tomorrow.




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