Austin Kleon

A Great and Glorious Game: Baseball Writings of A. Bartlett Giamatti by A. Bartlett Giamatti

That's the opening of "The Green Fields of the Mind," collected in this slim, wonderful volume. Recommended if you like thinking about America, baseball, and The Odyssey.

on austinkleon.com · 14 Jan 20268mo

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

I love Tolstoy because you get a third of a way into his book about a lady having an affair and the best chapter is about a dude experiencing a state of "flow" while mowing a field with his country peasants.

on austinkleon.com · 14 Jan 20268mo

Art Work: On The Creative Life by Sally Mann

This book has more of a DGAF tone than Hold Still, I think, and it works best for me when Mann is telling stories instead of trying to extract a lesson for the reader.

on austinkleon.com · 14 Jan 20268mo

Brothers by Alex Van Halen

Alex Van Halen's memoir Brothers is the 3rd good book I've read about Van Halen.

on austinkleon.com · 14 Jan 20268mo

Deliver Me From Nowhere: The Making of Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska by Warren Zanes

I love the beginning of the book when Zane just lists the stuff that Springsteen was into while he was making Nebraska

on austinkleon.com · 14 Jan 20268mo

Four Quartets by T.S. Eliot

A re-read of one of my favorite books of poetry, and an excellent traveling companion

on austinkleon.com · 14 Jan 20268mo

Love is a Mix Tape by Rob Sheffield

Several people recommended this memoir to me after learning about my monthly mixtape project.

on austinkleon.com · 14 Jan 20268mo

Muybridge by Guy Delisle

I think this book is a contemporary masterpiece? A cartoonist at the top of his game, a perfect meeting of subject and medium, and beautiful book design by Drawn and Quarterly.

on austinkleon.com · 14 Jan 20268mo

On Conan Doyle by Michael Dirda

I also read critic Michael Dirda's On Conan Doyle, a lovely short book I'd never heard of that I spotted on the shelf at the library — hooray for the serendipity of the stacks!

on austinkleon.com · 14 Jan 20268mo

Processing: 100 Comics That Got Me Through It by Tara Booth

Booth's formally trained (and her grandparents are watercolor artists!) but her use of color is just so free and unexpected, it makes you want to experiment yourself and join along in the fun.

on austinkleon.com · 14 Jan 20268mo

Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties by Ian MacDonald

I think the absolute best book I've ever read about The Beatles is Ian MacDonald's Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties.

on austinkleon.com · 14 Jan 20268mo

Story of A Poem by Matthew Zapruder

Could a book be more up my alley? The way he unpacks his feelings about giftedness, overachieving, language, disability, and difference really spoke to me.

on austinkleon.com · 14 Jan 20268mo

The Grammar of Fantasy: An Introduction to the Art of Inventing Stories by Gianni Rodari

One of the most gorgeously-produced books I read, with illustrations by Matthew Forsythe.

on austinkleon.com · 14 Jan 20268mo

The Hedgehog and The Fox by Isaiah Berlin

Probably the most illuminating thing I read about Tolstoy was Isaiah Berlin's long essay, The Hedgehog and The Fox.

on austinkleon.com · 14 Jan 20268mo

Tolstoy: A Biography by A.N. Wilson

A.N. Wilson's Tolstoy: A Biography is excellent.

on austinkleon.com · 14 Jan 20268mo

Train Dreams by Denis Johnson

It's as sad and beautiful as I remembered, but also funnier.

on austinkleon.com · 14 Jan 20268mo

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

While reading War and Peace, I marveled over and over again at how something written so long ago can be so applicable to our times while still being very much of its own time.

on austinkleon.com · 14 Jan 20268mo

Written Lives by Javier Marías

I had a lot of fun reading it, thanks to Elisa Gabbert's annual year-end list of every book she read.

on austinkleon.com · 14 Jan 20268mo