Rants and Raves

Category: raves

Book Rec- Hands of Time: A Watchmaker’s History

I recently finished Dr. Rebecca Struther’s book Hands of Time: A Watchmaker’s History and would recommend it, especially if you’re interested in some history of horology and concepts of time and the history of how we keep time.

I found out about the book via an interview from the author with a watch podcast (yes, I dig watches…) called The Grey Nato. If you’re interested in her interview the episode # is 272 – link here: https://thegreynato.substack.com/p/272-dr-rebecca-struthers

I Think I Broke A Rule Last Year

Probably because it’s January, I’m thinking about goals again. I had a good one a few years ago that I added and maintainted for a while. I could have sworn I wrote a post about it, but I can’t find it. But the goal was more raves, fewer rants.

I was reminiscing about that this morning and I think I’ve done a decent job of keeping up with that goal. But I remembered that in early 2023 I broke that rule (slightly) and it was weighing on me a little.

I wrote a less-than-stellar review of a restaurant on Yelp about a year ago. I went back and re-read the review and -fortunately- it’s fair, but it’s not great. But I think it’s weighing on me a little because in the post-pandemic times we’re in it’s not cool to write negative reviews of restaurants. I could have just skipped a negative review altogether.

Yes, Yelp is problematic for many reasons (look up their lawsuits and allegations of review-gaming) – but positive reviews there (and more often on Google – via Maps / Zagat) are still helpful. Yes I feel a little guilty obviously but the point is I’ll try to get back of the goal to only rave.

EOY Book Notes

Looking back at my list of the books I read this year I have a few standouts. I likely have some recency bias but I really enjoyed Hernan Diaz’s two books- In The Distance and Trust. Both are incredibly well-written. Of the two I think I’d recommend Trust more, as some of my friends may not enjoy the story in the earlier book. But they’re both great.

The cover of the book Trust
cinema speculation by quentin tarantino

I’d also recommend any of the Ray Celestin books in the City Blues Quartet; Outlive (although I think I’d lower my previous score- but it did have a lot to think about (maybe I’ll revisit that in a later post); and Quentin Tarantino’s Cinema Speculation.

You can see more of what I read last year under the links to my Goodreads Profile – and I think I have a widget on my About page.

Kareem’s Playlist

I’m a subscriber to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s newsletter on Substack. He’s a great writer – check out the Mycroft Holmes books he’s written – or re-watch season 3 of Veronica Mars- or look at the long list of articles, posts and books if you don’t believe me. Or subscribe to his newsletter!

One of the great things I love about the newsletter is that he usually has a music recommendation or three towards the end. I’ve been trying to save the recommendations to a playlist on Spotify. I don’t have everything on here- but I go back a bit from when I started paying attention. Save the list below and give it a listen sometime.