Books

Norse Mythology 

Neil Gaiman retells a few choice cuts of Norse mythology. 

If you’re tempted to blow this off because Marvel made you think Norse mythology is bland, here’s an antidote: Loki gets banged by a horse at one point. This is the real, unhinged thing. Not some sanitized soap opera adaptation. 

The stories are great, the writing is masterful, the graphic novels are excellent, the audiobook (read by Gaiman) is outstanding. Everything about it fires on all cylinders. 

It’s one of those times where the right person for the job takes on the task at the perfect point in his career. 

Maybe you’ve made a New Year’s resolution to read stuff with a longer shelf life. Maybe you just want to mix some fiction into your usual how-to-run-a-startup rotation. Whatever excuse will work, find it and read this book. 

Five stars.

In My Time of Dying

Sebastian Junger comes within spitting distance of death, and writes a book about it. 

It’s especially fun to read it in the context of his other books. All the uncertainty about meaning and purpose that came through in Tribe and Freedom evaporates in the face of death. 

He spends more time talking about his family in this book than in the rest combined, which I suspect is not a coincidence. He’s always had a knack for making readers sympathetically feel things deeply, and clearly the near death experience shook him to his core. 

He gets a bit squirrelly about theories of supernatural experience, but as always, his storytelling, writing, and research are amazing. Even the opening anecdote about cold water surfing sticks in my mind. 

If you like SJ or books about death, this is essential reading. If not, I recommend it nonetheless. 

Four stars by SJ standards.

This sounds so interesting, I have always been interested about this topic.

Only squirrely for a person who hasn’t experienced it :)