Choices Archives - Bob on Books

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Black History

I began reading David Greenberg’s John Lewis: A Life this week. It’s my main Black History month read. You might ask why a White guy is reading Black history. To answer that, I will talk about why I wrote on my local home town for ten years. First of all, it helped me understand so much about my background of which I was not aware growing up. I also became aware of how rich the culture of my home town was. And I discovered a number of people I greatly admired who helped build the city. Finally, I learned lessons from that history, such as the folly of a town building its economy around one industry.

It’s like that with Black history. Although I’m not Black, Black history is a fundamental part of my national history. My understanding of where we’ve come from is immeasurably poorer without that history. Likewise, it is such a rich history of spirituality, music art, food, accomplishments, resilience, and the effort to call us to our collective best. There are people (including Lewis) whose lives have inspired me. And, just as Germans aware of the Holocaust remember that history with a resolve to say “never again,” there are sad lessons to learn from Black history to which I want to say “never again.”

None of this is about White guilt or fostering racial divisions. Rather it is learning all I can to foster the “beloved community” Martin Luther King, Jr. envisioned. I’m not sure why some want to suppress this history. It seems to me that when you try to suppress or erase the history of someone, it is the first step toward suppressing or erasing them. That is how it would come across to me if someone wanted to erase my family history or the history of my home town.

So, I will keep reading about John Lewis and review the book. And I’ll recommend other books about Blacks, other people of color, women and other marginalized groups. It’s not about politics for me. It’s about being human. And it’s about believing the children’s song I learned in Sunday school: “Jesus loves the little children/All the children of the world/Red and yellow; black and white/Jesus loves the little children/All the children of the world.”

Five Articles Worth Reading

Speaking of Black History Month, JSTOR posted a cornucopia of articles on Black history under the heading, “Celebrating Black History Month.” It was like a crash course in Black history, much of it new to me.

Feel like you have too many choices? You are not alone. The New York Times posted a review this week of Sophia Rosenfeld’s The Age of Choice, asking “Does Having Options Really Make Us Free?“

Cartoonist Jules Feiffer died on January 17. Paul Morton remembers him in “‘This Will Be Fun.’ On the Life and Times of a Comics Master, Jules Feiffer.“

It’s hard to imagine how those of us who love books might come to fear them. “In Search of the Book That Would Save Her Life” reviews Bibliophobia by Sarah Chihaya, a memoir of how a mental health crisis precipitated a fear of books in a woman whose life was reading.

“Local bookstores, dealt another blow by L.A. fires, become ‘community touchstones’” Bookstores have often been used as examples of “third places.” It appears that this is especially true after the L.A. fires.

Quote of the Week

“There is nothing so strong or safe in an emergency of life as the simple truth.“

Charles Dickens, born on February 7, 1812, made this observation. It seems so important in this time of fake news and the normalization of lying that we refuse to accept deception and keep telling the truth ourselves.

Miscellaneous Musings

When I finished Haruki Murakami’s The City and Its Uncertain Wall I discovered that Murakami has been trying to finish this story for a long time in his postscript to the novel. I have to admit that the story feels like one in search of a resolution. Still pondering whether Murakami landed it.

I’ve found Jill Lepore’s The Story of America a delight. The book is a collection of essays on historiography, following the chronology of American history. Her essay on Noah Webster was absolutely fascinating, and a tribute in a way to this pioneer in creating a dictionary of American English.

Went to my optometrist this week. All in all, the eyes are doing OK. I do have cataract surgery in my future, explaining why I need more light than ever. There is a tendency toward macular degeneration in my family and I’ve pondered what I would do if I could not, or read easily. I guess I’ve read enough that I can savor them in memory…and as long as the hearing holds up, there are audiobooks!

Next Week’s Reviews

Monday: N.T. Wright, The Challenge of Acts

Tuesday: Agatha Christie, Towards Zero

Wednesday: M.D. Hayden, Opening the Parables

Thursday: Haruki Murakami, The city and Its Uncertain Walls

Friday: Rhyne R. Putnam, Conceived by the Holy Spirit

So, that’s The Weekly Wrap for February 2-8, 2025!

Find past editions of The Weekly Wrap under The Weekly Wrap heading on this page

Efficiency and simplicity are often at odds. So are choices and simplicity. One the one hand, the incredible cornucopia we encounter at any supermarket in the US likely staggers the imagination of people from many parts of the world. On the other, it can make for a fatiguing series of choices to make between brands, flavors, and varieties. We don’t just have apples–we have 25 varieties, some good for eating, some for pies, some for applesauce and more. Even more bewildering is the array of beers, wines and other beverages. And on it goes…

At one time, it seemed everyone knew the trusted brands, and when you had to replace a vacuum cleaner, or an appliance, or a car, you tended to go back to your old standby. Now it seems, you have to engage in a research process before you buy your toothpaste! Picking up Consumer Reports reviews, researching products online, and more seem to be the pre-requisite, unless you want to appear “uninformed”–a cardinal sin these days. Yet I wonder. The most all this can do is tell me what the new buyer experience is–not irrelevant necessarily. But what I really want to know is, will it last and what will it cost to repair. Not so easy to find out until it actually breaks on you. Then you know!

Paradoxically, I think most of us simplify life by reducing the choices we make. Most of the time we buy the same items every time we need that item in the grocery, despite the attempts of coupon dispensers to get us to switch. Whenever I need a new pair of jeans, I just order the same ones I always do from LL Bean. I wonder if there are some further steps we can take toward simplicity that may mean less choices but greater freedom. A few I can think of:

1. One is simply deciding that some of our wants really aren’t our needs. That alone cuts down on the choices we need to make.

2. Work with retailers and other vendors who get to know us and actually care about customer service.

3. Similarly, when I find someone who provides good quality, I stick with them unless quality slips, even if it costs more.

4. Find another form of recreation than “recreational shopping.” I realize that sometimes it is fun to find a bargain and some really enjoy this and are shrewd in shopping at the best times to get a good price on things they need. That’s not me, though, and shopping does not re-create me!

5. Most of us don’t mind choices when it comes to the hobbies we love. Then we love learning about the varieties of equipment, or vintages, or whatever. Perhaps the most important choice here is simply knowing and staying within your budget.

What have you found helpful in navigating the array of choices we face? How have you negotiated the paradox that the freedom of choice does not always translate into the freedom of simplicity?