yoko.cool / Recently read

Was reading a lot of books lately, so not a lot of articles. I hope to get back on that soon.

Don’t Be a Stranger
Adrian Chen, The New Inquiry
An article that legitimizes online friendships. Sent to me by my friend Ken, whom I first interacted with through a forum online when I was in high school. When I went to California for college I met him for the first time. We are good friends and have plenty of conventional, IRL mutual friends, even though I could count the number of times we hung out together on one hand (maybe two).

The Garlic Ballads
Mo Yan
Totally smitten with his acceptance speech, I decided to buy and read the book for which he won his Nobel Prize. Several storylines following the lives of garlic planters in a garlic-busted Chinese economy in the 1980’s. I did not really enjoy the book. It was translated poorly and seemed to lack an arc. Too bad.

I Will Teach You to Be Rich
Ramit Sethi
Basically a step-by-step path of getting your personal finances in order. I ended up opening a high-yield savings account and a Roth-IRA after reading this. I feel a lot more confident about my financial options after reading this. Hat tips to Bekka and Kevin for recommending this book to me.