Shelf Source: Tom MacWright

What Book Changed How You Think About The Internet Or Consumer Technology?

The World Beyond Your Head (Matthew Crawford) was a really pivotal read for me. I had ideas about craft and how we interact with technology — I was a big Bret Victor follower — but this book provided the structure for a real philosophy about technology and being embodied.

Books that are directly about technology or the internet always annoy me. Most of them are too academic or too pop-nonfiction. This one broke from that mold with its own unique writing style and lots of references and stories that are fresh and relevant.

When You Finish a Book That Moves You, What's Your First Instinct?

I write a quick review and choose the next book on the list!

I'm not really the type to keep reading the same author multiples times in a row, even if I like their writing. Good writing is like a magic trick and I don't want to experience it as intended, naive and open-minded.

Has A Book Ever Inspired You To Build Or Change Something On Your Site?

Nothing in a major way because I don't like reading about the internet or technology, but The Elements of Typographic Style (Robert Bringhurst) inspired some microscopic tweaks, like using tabular numbers for the list of published dates for blog posts.

It also prompted me to use proper ellipses instead of three periods and simplify my punctuation. Bringhurst was writing in 1992 so there's the care of print typography but not much guidance for the web.

Matthew Butterick's Practical Typography is less poetic but more concise and relevant for the modern day.

What's A Book You've Recommended The Most, And What Does That Say About You?

Whenever a friend is just looking for a good book, I'll call out Patricia Lockwood's Priestdaddy. It's poignant and funny, almost universally appealing.

I've also recommended Piketty's Capital and The World Beyond Your Head a lot, but I don't think anyone has read either on my recommendation. Understandable, given that Capital is about 700 pages and not exactly a page-turner.

How Do You Decide Which Books Deserve a Place on Your Site Versus Staying Private?

For better or worse, I'm a completist. I finish almost every book that I start, and review every book that I finish. I'll stop liking a book at page 50 and keep reading till the end. Someday I'll change this behavior.

Reviewing every book has gotten a little more complicated as I've known or been connected to more authors. Luckily they write good books, but I don't want to write a two-star review of something a good friend wrote. I've also had two authors contact me, one of them mad about a bad review. So far this hasn't changed how I read and review though.

What's Something You Believe About Reading Most Would Disagree With?

I agree with the common advice that to write well you need to read a lot. But I think the opposite is also true: to absorb, process, and appreciate what you read, you need to write.

It's like how trying to paint a master study completely changes the way you look at a classic painting you've seen many times before. You notice the technique and traces of a human being in the art because you just tried to do the same thing, and your brushstrokes were way different than Rembrandt's.

Writing on a regular basis does the same thing, makes you notice beautiful sentences and storytelling skills. Of course not enough people read, but even fewer people write.

If You Could Design a Library That Reflected Your Site's Ethos, What Would It Look Like?

It would probably look like Head Hi in Brooklyn — some good looking books, quiet music, locally-made craft objects for sale.

All I want is perfect minimalism and sprawling creativity at the same time. A big clean space with tools, projects, books and notebooks everywhere.

What's A Genre Or Type Of Book You Used To Dismiss But Now Love?

I ignored classic sci-fi until a few years ago. Ted Chiang was my entry into that genre but now I'm reading a lot of Octavia E. Butler and just finished The Employees by Olga Ravn.

I still don't like the world-building component of sci-fi. I just don't care about alien languages, foods, and fauna. But as a vehicle for exploring social, cultural, or religious concepts, sci-fi is so cool.

I'm always on the hunt for more authors like Chiang who are able to sketch out ideas within a few dozen pages.

How Has Having a Personal Website Changed the Way You Read?

I moved all my book reviews from Goodreads to my own website in 2017, which is now the distant past.

I try not to let the fact of my list being public have any impact on what I read. I do feel a little self-aware when I'm reading a lot of nonfiction and the mix of authors becomes predominantly white and male.

Despite having a big list of books that I've read with dates attached to them, I'm trying not to gamify or quantify it. I don't have goals for how many books I read and I'm not trying to read 'the classics' or anything like that.

Some pressure does creep in when I'm in a rut or I'm reading something big that takes a long time, but I try to ignore that. Some recent books are poetic and I want to read them slowly, like Every Day is For The Thief and Intermezzo. So I'm happy to spend a month on a relatively short book.

What's A Book You Wish More People Would Read, And Why?

It's a tough pick between sharing the beauty of literature or inculcating people with good politics. I'll choose politics.

So probably Piketty's Capital. I wish more people read recent political-economic books that have fully-formed ideas about what's wrong and what could be better. Piketty uses lots of arithmetic, data-crunching, and common sense instead of fancy theory. He makes pretty bold recommendations like a global wealth tax.

I live in America, a country that is not doing very well, and everyone's upset but we don't know what to do. Books like Capital put names and figures to the problems we're experiencing. Plus, his reframing of taxes, salaries, and housing is so cool to experience.

It is 700 pages though. So The Triumph of Injustice by Saez and Zucman is a good alternative at 232 pages, if you don't have the time for all that.