Read

Reading is a free education. When I was young I read a lot, mostly adventure books mixed with a healthy dose of western lore. Good guy, bad guy, gold, a woman, lots of shooting and then good guy kills bad guy, gets girl, finds gold and scores the amazing property with a river running through it. I couldn’t get enough. During school my reading fell into the more predictable categories of course books, homework and research, and reading became a grind of sorts, not the mind-adventure it had once been. A few years ago I made a decision to delete my social media accounts, stop going online unless I absolutely had to and read as much as possible. Last year I read eighty books. Something strange happened. My brain changed. My focus changed, and believe it or not, I actually began to feel more intelligent. The more I read the more I feel like I’m finally beginning to understand things, as each day I move through a written world of love, war, adventure, history and the human diaspora.

Read: This Machine Kills Secrets

As you know, I have a thing for hacking, those who hack, those who leak and those who provide the platforms for leaking. I actually don’t do any of these things myself, nor do I actually know anyone who does, … Read More

Read: The Book Thief

Yes, that is a photo of a Kindle. Get over it. There are more on the way. I love the Kindle, when I travel. As soon as I get home I go back to paper. It’s awesome having both. Much … Read More

Read: Desert America, Boom and Bust in the New Old West

Any book that details life in Northern New Mexico is worth a look, and Rubén Martínez hits a home run with “Desert America, Boom and Bust in the Old New West.” The book covers Martínez as he makes he way … Read More

Read: Finding Beauty in a Broken World

This book haunted me right from the beginning. A part of me didn’t want to read this book, and I’m not sure why? Perhaps I was feeling fragile and KNEW what I was in for, but this book turned out … Read More

Read: Seven Brief Lessons on Physics

Okay, before you go thinking I’m intelligent and that I read physics books for sport just know that I will need to read this little book at least a dozen times before any of the contents will even begin to … Read More

Read: The Spectator Bird

Man this guy can write. The photography world has it’s share of what we will call shenanigans when it comes to the elite telling everyone else what is good or bad, but photography doesn’t hold a candle to the literary … Read More

Read: Chasing the Scream

The War on Drugs is one of those things I find fascinating/depressing from a variety of angles. We’ve probably all been singed by it at some point. Family members, friends, friends of friends, caught up, locked down, shut out or … Read More

Read: All the Wild that Remains

As many of you know, I’m a man of The West. I love open spaces, and when I find someone who understand this region, and can write about it, well, I just about fall in love. David Gessner’s “All the … Read More

Read: Dead Wake

I know little about history. I make no claim otherwise. And even the things I THINK I know about, often times, turn out with different endings. But that’s okay. What other choice do I have? So I read. Trying to … Read More

Read: The Billion Dollar Spy

I love a cyanide pill as much as the next guy, so what’s not to like about David E. Hoffman’s “The Billion Dollar Spy?” Being forty-seven-years-old I remember The Cold War, and I remember the underlying threat simmering just below … Read More

Read: Almost Somewhere

Humor goes a long way with me. I spend much of my time around photography, and there is a dire lack of humor floating around the Halls of Photo Justice. But Suzanne Robert’s “Almost Somewhere” has enough humor to cover … Read More

Read: Dirt Work

I loved this book. Christine Byl’s “Dirt Work, An Education in the Woods,” reads so smoothly I found myself reading and rereading passage after passage just because I found them so demanding of my contemplation. Her fluctuating definitions of wild … Read More

Read: Buried in the Sky

I have no interest in climbing high mountains. Well, let’s say anything over about 14,000 feet. I’ve been higher in the Andes, but it wasn’t a pure climb unless you consider a Mercedes Sprinter Van “unassisted climbing.” Things like Everest … Read More