Listen to the podcast version of this blog entry! In the summer of 2020, the pandemic beginning to rage, after a school year shut down 3 quarters of the way through, trying not to think about what the next school year might look like, I had a creative impulse. Inspired by a number of whatContinue reading “The Book I Read: I Had An Idea–The Failed Magic Mountain Reaction Videos and a Redemptive Attempt at Podcasting Instead”
Author Archives: michaeljarmer
The Book I Read: Works Unfinished, Finishing the Appalachian Book of the Dead, and a Prayer for October
Listen to the Podcast version of this blog entry here! True confession: I often abandon books before I finish them. Sometimes I go back, sometimes I never do. The reasons for the abandonment vary–but rarely, is it because I am disinterested. Only a couple of times have I ever stopped reading because I thought theContinue reading “The Book I Read: Works Unfinished, Finishing the Appalachian Book of the Dead, and a Prayer for October”
The Book I Read: Choices! More Books of the Dead! Climbing the Mountain! and the Freakout Commencement
For this entry in The Book I Read series (which is also a podcast, by the way), I am writing about, not what I’ve read, but what I’ve started to read, AND, what I’ve tried reading and then abandoned. I had these ideas that I might get well into one of those things, or wellContinue reading “The Book I Read: Choices! More Books of the Dead! Climbing the Mountain! and the Freakout Commencement”
The Book I Read: Wisdom Lit, the Power of Allusion, Lincoln in the Bardo, and the President’s Hat
As a student of literature, always a beginner, and one interested in a wide variety of wisdom literature or philosophical texts, certain books of historical and literary significance have crossed my radar, have maybe even made it into the home library, but have never been read, you know, famous philosophical or spiritual texts like theContinue reading “The Book I Read: Wisdom Lit, the Power of Allusion, Lincoln in the Bardo, and the President’s Hat”
The Book I Read: Podcasts (Apparently, They’re Not All That Easy To Do)
Recently, Sara Silverman did a stint as a guest host on Jimmy Kimmel Live. One of the last bits in one of her monologues was an uproariously funny satire on the proliferation of podcasts in the world. It was brilliant. I laughed out loud, but it also made me seriously self-conscious. The bit was framedContinue reading “The Book I Read: Podcasts (Apparently, They’re Not All That Easy To Do)”
The Book I Read: Books as Gifts, The Hidden Life of Fifteen Dogs, and Budgie Danger
I have admitted in previous entries that I am a relatively slow reader. I read well, I think, but slowly. Perhaps I’m a better reader because of it. But because I love reading, and because I have the English major’s obsession with a list of things I want to (and think I should) read, IContinue reading “The Book I Read: Books as Gifts, The Hidden Life of Fifteen Dogs, and Budgie Danger”
Introducing: The Book I Read (a podcast by Michael Jarmer Writer Guy)
(What follows is a text version of the first Michael Jarmer Writer Guy podcast. It’s gonna be short and sweet–a tiny little trailer to introduce listeners to the new thing and to spell out a few tantalizing descriptors and some enticements for listening and subscribing and perhaps even donating to the cause. If you’re justContinue reading “Introducing: The Book I Read (a podcast by Michael Jarmer Writer Guy)”
On Starting a Podcast, Because, Why Not?
All through April and into the summer months, I noticed something new in my publishing options on my WordPress blog: hey! you can turn this blog entry into a podcast! It was an intriguing idea for me, for one, because I enjoy reading out loud, think I have a pretty good knack for it, andContinue reading “On Starting a Podcast, Because, Why Not?”
The Book I Read: Rock Star Fiction, Erasure, and Mother Love
(Books discussed in this blog: Wolf in White Van, John Darneille; Her Read, Jennifer Sperry Steinorth, and Paddock, Mary Lou Buschi) In April of 2019 I thought I would begin a series of book review blog entries titled after one of my favorite early Talking Heads songs, “The Book I Read.” So I did that.Continue reading “The Book I Read: Rock Star Fiction, Erasure, and Mother Love”
A Journal of the Plague Year: #29
It’s hot. Is it hot? It’s hot in here. It’s hot out there. It’s so hot. Squirrels are dying. Baby hummingbirds are abandoned. The crows are clearly pissed. For three days in a row Portland saw temperatures in triple digits—three record breaking days in a row. The fourth day promised to be a chilly 97Continue reading “A Journal of the Plague Year: #29”
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