{"id":5704,"date":"2015-05-08T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-05-08T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/booksyalove.com\/?p=5704"},"modified":"2015-05-05T12:46:46","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T17:46:46","slug":"jottery-by-andy-selsberg-book-review-peruse-think-write-repeat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/?p=5704","title":{"rendered":"Jottery, by Andy Selsberg (book review) – peruse, think, write, repeat"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"book<\/a>Questions to ponder,
\nunusual lists to make,
\nbrain bits to shift around…<\/p>\n

“This guy writes for The Onion<\/em><\/a>?”\u00a0 Hmm…maybe the review copy being sent to me was a parody<\/a> or a one-off book of weird lists. Nope.<\/p>\n

This book actually contains writing prompts ranging from the profound – “‘Greatness isn’t as great as you think,’ someone great tells you. What are three ways you could prove them wrong?” (p.169) –<\/p>\n

to the offbeat – “A colleague has written ‘1,001 Uses for Human Saliva.’ Somehow, it is your duty to come up with uses 1,002 through 1,012.” (p. 117) –<\/p>\n

to the sublime – “You’re at peace. Now what?” (p. 29)<\/p>\n

More than once while reading it, I found myself looking out the window and mentally writing a list, holding my place in the book with whatever I had at hand, including my hand.<\/p>\n

Head to The Jottery<\/em> and spice up your meditation life, journal entries, blog posts, and boring parties. Just published this week<\/p>\n

So, what is reason 1,002?
\n**kmm<\/p>\n

Book info<\/strong>:\u00a0The Jottery: Thought Experiments for Everyday Philosophers and Part-Time Geniuses \/ Andy Selsberg. Perigee Books, 2015. [author Twitter<\/a>]\u00a0 [publisher site<\/a>]\u00a0 Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.<\/p>\n

My book talk<\/strong>: Metaphysical questions with a wry twist and writing prompts way beyond what most writing teachers throw at you are The Jottery<\/em>‘s stock-in-trade, as The Onion<\/em>\u00a0 writer Selsberg gets somewhat serious with this book that will make you think and laugh and think some more.<\/p>\n

Its subtitle explains the book’s purpose well: “Thought Experiments for Everyday Philosophers and Part-Time Geniuses” with myriad list-ideas and ‘what’s all that about?’ questions to liven up a dull evening, jumpstart the college entrance essay of the century, or get you pondering beyond the path you usually tread.<\/p>\n

“Suggest fifteen endings for the sentence, ‘This is the year I _____ !'” (p. 69) and “Name three appropriate ways to honor the inventor of the armrest, and three inappropriate ways.” (p. 20) are among the hundreds of thought-starters in The Jottery.<\/p>\n

So get your copy, then start at the end “List nine things the journey of a thousand miles begins with, besides a single step” (p. 218) as you stretch your philosophical muscles and refresh your mental gears. (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Questions to ponder, unusual lists to make, brain bits to shift around… “This guy writes for The Onion?”\u00a0 Hmm…maybe the review copy being sent to me was a parody or a one-off book of weird lists. Nope. This book actually contains writing prompts ranging from the profound – “‘Greatness isn’t as great as you think,’ […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[7,11,5,46,49,56,15,21,35,58,8,61],"class_list":["post-5704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nonfiction","tag-beliefs","tag-communication","tag-coping","tag-funny","tag-memories","tag-reading","tag-relationships","tag-self-image","tag-surprises","tag-technology","tag-us-author","tag-writing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5704"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5704\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5886,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5704\/revisions\/5886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}