Austin Kleon - The Four Energies ⚡

Hey y’all,

Here are 10 things I thought were worth sharing this week: 

1. October is my favorite month. Every night we watch a spooky old black and white movie (I follow @nitratediva for recommendations) and then I read a spooky short story before bed. (Two years ago it was Ray Bradbury’s The Illustrated Man and two years before that it was Lufcadio Hearn’s Japanese Ghost Stories. This year I’m either going to go with The Haunted Looking Glass or I’m going to re-read the classic Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark to figure out which ones I might be able to read to my kids before bed.)
    
2. This week I re-read John Cheever’s “The Swimmer” (spookier than I remembered!) and right afterwards I started Sally Rooney’s Beautiful World, Where Are You? I was a bit surprised by how smooth the transition was between the two, and then the next morning I listened to novelist Anne Enright read “The Swimmer” in her Irish accent, and I felt like it unlocked something...
    
3. Being a writer (or an artist) is “a perpetual act of self-authorization.” 
    
4. Four energies that fuel creative work: “Blissed, blessed, pissed, and dissed.”
    
5. Illustrator and pal Wendy MacNaughton on giving her TED Talk.
    
6. Some of the best TV writing I’ve read in a while: “Why Is Every Young Person in America Watching ‘The Sopranos’?”
    
7. Comedian Joe Mande embroiders baseball caps.
    
8. A slam-dunk viewing from last week’s pizza night: Kiki’s Delivery Service. Just a wonderful movie. My boys liked it way more than My Neighbor Totoro. (I bought them the novel.)
    
9. If a book can be summarized, is it worth reading?
    
10. Assignment for the weekend: Rewinding your attention.