Bird's Bookshelf

What I've read, and what I'm reading next.

Recently Finished

• The Dawn Of Everything

• Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology

• Out Of My Skull

I’m currently taking a short online course in Social Anthropology which has provided the impetus for me to finally finish The Dawn of Everything as well as read another David Graeber book, Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology. I really like David Graeber’s writing not just for how his books explode the assumptions that capitalism, inequality, the nation-state etc are inevitable consequences of human progress, but also for the really hopeful and uplifting view he presents of humanity - that on the whole, people who are left to their own devices are perfectly capable of creating egalitarian, co-operative and non-violent ways of being and interacting, just as much as they are capable of creating exploitative, violent systems. These theses are all well-evidenced by extensive anthropological research presented in a very engaging and accessible way. Great reads!

Out Of My Skull, a book about the psychology of boredom, never quite escapes the trap of neoliberal moralising but is nevertheless a wonderful look into a mental state (boredom) which is usually construed as negative, undesirable or even a fundamental character flaw (only boring people get bored!). I think it presents a really interesting case of where negative emotionality fits into the rich tapestry of mental life - boredom isn’t simply good or bad, but ruthlessly squashing it also isn’t the answer.

Currently Reading

• Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art

• Not Working

After the intense experience of reading Bullshit Jobs last year, I’ve been eagerly consuming various ‘anti-work’ books (e.g. The Refusal of Work, The Work Cure), so I was excited to come across Not Working, a book by Josh Cohen, a psychoanalyst (wow!) and professor of literary theory at Goldsmiths (double wow!). I found this book through reading an essay on burnout that Josh Cohen wrote back in 2016 for the Economist.

I’m also reading Kindred, which I think Audible recommended to me? It’s quite a poetic, gentle retelling of research into Neanderthals and what their lives might have been like. I’ve been interested in comparative cross-species behaviour stuff (neuroethology, primate behaviour etc) for a while but don’t really know much about early hominids - hoping that this books is going to teach me lots of new and interesting things!