Most conversations end up on books. Grant and Tyler make the case for hard fiction, Salih for Murakami, and the idea that keeps returning is that novels are practice at living inside other people's minds.
Where it comes up 12
Within this theme 283
Ideas 36
- Big Questions in Fiction
Logan's diagnosis of contemporary fiction: writers with comfortable Western lives lack the hard experiences (wars, whaling ships) that drove the classics, so big questions of life, death…
- The Shadow (Murakami)
In Hard-Boiled Wonderland and The City and Its Uncertain Walls, the separated shadow is the part of the self that reminds you not to lose your passion, creativity and emotions to work.
- Fiction and Non-Fiction Polarity
Tamir's framework: non-fiction gives tools to improve your life but alone breeds the illusion of control, while fiction holds the joyous and sorrowful stories of the heart but alone risks…
- Channeling
Receiving information from a source beyond the conscious self, from the Oracle of Delphi to Esther Hicks to musicians who say an album 'came through' them. Tamir and Samantha conclude we…
- Fiction as a Tonic for Empathy
The idea that fiction builds empathy by working on the emotions, while non-fiction works on knowledge. Tamir makes the case in two episodes.
- Magic Realism
Fiction that sets magical events in ordinary settings. On the show it comes up mostly in arguments about Murakami.
- Magical realism
Strange events inserted into recognizable everyday reality rather than a new world; for Salih this is what makes Murakami easy to enter and useful for coping.
- The Intrusive Author
Writers whose presence you can't escape, like Martin Amis 'ringing a bell, kicking over the furniture', tapping your shoulder to ask whether you saw what they did.
- The Right Book at the Right Time
Some books must come into your life at the right moment because you can outgrow them, and others only open up years later. The book hasn't changed; you have.
- Trope-Driven Writing
Logan's critique of young writers who learned storytelling from video games and anime more than literature, then assemble books from trope checklists and even market them that way. The…
- Fusion
Tamir's idea, taken from music remixes, of combining things that 'should not go together' to make something fresh, like an Israeli band playing 1960s-70s Middle Eastern-style music with a…
- Hybrid reading model
Nectar of Time's mission: read fiction alongside non-fiction for growth rather than only optimization-driven self-help.
- Kintsugi
The Japanese art of repairing broken ceramics with gold. Tamir's intro uses it as an image of authenticity: imperfections are 'the true hallmarks of beauty' and asymmetry is magical.
- Kitchen Table Novels
Murakami's first two novellas, written by hand for two hours a night at his kitchen table after closing his bar. Tamir's proof that you can make the time.
- Light Touch
The subtle Japanese style Grant now values most: imagery used sparingly and purposefully, faint colors that still paint a picture, meaning 'lurking beneath the sentences'.
- Reading as Meditation
Kurt Vonnegut's idea, which Grant shares, that reading is a form of meditation: sit, breathe, focus intensely on the words, finish calm and happy. Tamir adds that the happiness comes…
- Short Form to Bring Readers Back
Tamir and Logan argue publishers keep releasing huge novels that few people can finish. They should offer more novellas, short stories and collections to win back lapsed readers, the way…
- Creativity vs Laziness
Grant reframes the human struggle: not good against evil but creativity against laziness, 'the ultimate destroyer', with addiction to consumption as its form.
- Perfectionism
Tamir admits waiting until work is perfect; weeks become months become years without output. Grant says get over it: open mics, writing badly every day.
- Western need for explanation
Salih's idea that Western audiences, raised on stories like Christopher Nolan's that resolve logically, demand explanations, while Japanese and Asian storytelling lets strange things happen…
- Active vs Passive Media
A film stampedes across your imagination and does the work for you; a novel forces you to turn letters into words into scenes and make sense of characters. Netflix is passive and easy…
- Devotional offering
Ian's coach's idea: make art and give it to the world without needing recognition, such as stacking inukshuks by the ocean or playing guitar with the windows open.
- Genius (ancient concept)
Samantha notes that in antiquity you weren't a genius, your genius came to you: an external spirit that delivered insight. Only later did it become something a person is.
- Pet Rock
A novelty product: a rock in a box with fake grass and care instructions. Colin tells it as the story of a man who ignored everyone calling it stupid and became a multimillionaire by…
- Chekhov's Gun
Mentioned by Grant on how writers must be gentle and coaxing with readers, setting up what will pay off.
- Hard-boiled structure
Murakami's practice, explained in the archival clip, of borrowing the structure of hard-boiled mysteries, science fiction and love stories without writing in those genres, drawn to the…
- Portal conversations
Murakami's one-on-one scenes, a drink or coffee between two people, which Tamir says feel like slipping into another universe, where incredible anecdotes are about to be dropped.
- Self-Help Fatigue
Tamir finds that self-help books lift you beautifully the first time you're sad or face adversity, but once you've read many they all say the same thing and stop working, and that becomes…
- Fiction vs. non-fiction
A thread through the episode: non-fiction 'hits you with the facts', while fiction transports you and can deliver the same lesson, or a bigger one, because we change by being moved…
- Human-made writing as luxury
Tamir's prediction that AI-generated text will be like fast fashion, making handmade human writing a rare luxury, like a tailored suit.
- Inukshuk
Inuit stone figure; Ian's coach had men build inukshuks by the ocean as anonymous art offerings.
- Literary vs Genre Fiction
Grant: only the author's technique divides literature from genre. 1984, Brave New World and Fahrenheit 451 are science fiction but shelved as literature, and most literary novels are really…
- Murakamian
Someone who deeply resonates with Murakami's worlds and joins the online ecosystem of channels, groups and podcasts devoted to them; the episode's self-description for both speakers.
- Reading Fiction Builds Empathy
Tyler cites a study suggesting fiction readers score higher in empathy, because reading is practice in switching places with other people.
- One-Book Writer
Grant thinks a novelist is usually known for one best book and the rest disappoint audiences, whereas painters can reinvent themselves through new styles.
- Plot vs Character
Grant rejects the literary snob's dismissal of plot: the great books have both, and long novels need a plot to carry the reader to the end.
Books 56
- The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
Murakami novel in which the protagonist's cat and wife disappear and he goes down a dry well. Tamir calls it Murakami's greatest work.
- Kafka on the Shore
Murakami novel featuring the elderly Nakata and Colonel Sanders as a pimp. It is Salih's favorite Murakami; Tamir finds it 'an onslaught of weird' and recommends it only to die-hard fans.
- 1Q84
Long Murakami novel built around Aomame and a love that goes unrequited from page one. Tamir counts it as his co-favorite Murakami.
- Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
Murakami's 1985 novel, alternating a programmer's storyline with a surreal walled town where a man reads dreams from unicorn skulls. A pick of Neil Strauss's pandemic book club, it was…
- Pinball, 1973
Murakami's second novella, the follow-up to Hear the Wind Sing, and the source of the title of the first episode with Ian Coll.
- Think and Grow Rich
Napoleon Hill's 1937 self-help classic, a formative book for Tamir in his early 20s that he read six or seven times.
- Divine Comedy
Dante's epic poem, whose Inferno and Paradiso Tamir draws on in three episodes.
- Steppenwolf
Hesse's 1927 novel about a man torn between his civilized self and his wild 'wolf' nature.
- The City and Its Uncertain Walls
Murakami novel expanding a 1980s story, his first in six years and a kind of sequel to Hard-Boiled Wonderland. Its English edition was due out on November 19, 2024.
- Dance Dance Dance
Murakami novel, the fourth book featuring the Rat trilogy's narrator, and one of Tamir's top five.
- Meditations
Marcus Aurelius's Stoic classic, which Tamir reaches for in three episodes.
- On the Road
Kerouac's novel of 1950s American hitchhiking. At 19 it filled Grant with a wild spirit; 30 years later it had lost its resonance. His example of a book that must come at the right time.
- Sleep
Murakami short story about a woman who stops sleeping for weeks. Samantha credits it with shaking her out of self-absorbed non-fiction reading.
- The Odyssey
Homer's epic, which Tamir sums up as ten years at war and ten years at sea. It is one of the classics he read before turning to modern fiction.
- The Three-Body Problem
Liu Cixin's science-fiction trilogy (Remembrance of Earth's Past), which Tamir strongly recommends.
- Hear the Wind Sing
Murakami's first novel, one of the 'kitchen table' novellas he wrote by hand at night after running his bar.
- Killing Commendatore
Salih's entry into Murakami: on his 30th birthday in April 2018 he opened it in a bookstore and recognized his own wish to flee the city and paint, then finished it in three or four days…
- The Forbidden Worlds of Haruki Murakami
Matthew Carl Strecher's study of Murakami's metaphysical realms, the episode's organizing theme: why does Murakami send protagonists into wells, through walls, and across portals, and what…
- The Ghostly Blue Stallion of Dorchester Cabin
Tyler's unpublished short story about a blue roan stallion that appeared on his fenced Alberta property and vanished; he wrote it in one three-hour sitting and says everything in it is…
- The Grief Trip
Mia's memoir in progress about losing her mother and her psychedelic journey with that loss; the centerpiece of her work, unveiling her methodology. She is seeking an agent and hopes for a…
- The Sun Also Rises
Hemingway's first novel. Grant once disliked the slow trout-fishing interlude in the Spanish mountains between Paris and Pamplona; now it is his favorite part.
- Creative Dreaming
A dream-control book Tamir picked up at a random used bookstore in California. He hasn't fully read it, but reads its back cover's big promises: lovemaking with a partner of your choice…
- Dracula
Bram Stoker's vampire novel.
- Galatea
Miller's short story based on the Pygmalion and Galatea myth, published as a small hardcover. Tamir picked it up as the perfect gift: substantial enough to feel real, short enough that…
- Men, Women and Other Adventures
A handmade anthology Tyler gave Tamir for his birthday, assembled by cutting stories out of other collections and rebinding them with Bible onion-skin paper, with images and captions…
- Norwegian Wood
Murakami novel that Tamir notes is his only one without magic realism. It is Grant's favorite Murakami and makes Salih's top five.
- The Dark Forest
Second book of the Three-Body trilogy, and the book Tamir likes best for genre fusion: it opens like a romance, with a writer inventing and falling for his ideal woman, then turns into an…
- A Wild Sheep Chase
Murakami novel, the third in his Rat trilogy.
- Atomic Habits
James Clear's book on habit formation.
- Dune
Mia just finished it and calls it the pinnacle of science fiction, full of 'cheat codes to human psychology' and philosophy, an escape from mortgages and an Orwellian world into one where…
- Galápagos
Vonnegut novel Tamir brought to the recording as one of his favorites. He offers it as an example of Vonnegut's flawed, hubristic characters, the kind of imperfection that makes people…
- Going to Canada
The first story in Grant's collection, about returning from Budapest to Canada, family trauma, and an old friend who finds the narrator's blunt observations off-putting. Tamir reads it as…
- La Vita Nuova
Dante's first book, about his love for Beatrice. Tamir points to it as a way of turning unrequited feeling into art instead of victimhood.
- Life of Pi
Booker-winning novel; Grant saw the film and dislikes how it becomes ridiculous towards the end, though he cites Martel's idea of coaxing readers along.
- Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont
A nearly forgotten novel about a recently widowed woman living in a London hotel for the elderly. Grant calls it heartbreaking and gets emotional thinking about it; he believes it was…
- Siddhartha
Hermann Hesse's novel, a philosophical classic Tamir read before turning to contemporary fiction and still recommends as a short read.
- The Sirens of Titan
Vonnegut novel Tamir brought to the recording alongside Galápagos, both among his favorites. It illustrates characters so flawed they seem almost alien.
- 1984
George Orwell's novel, the source of 'Big Brother' and 'Orwellian'.
- Absalom, Absalom!
Read in Grant's university literature class.
- An Artist of the Floating World
Tamir won it in Grant's Patreon lottery; Grant urges him to read it for its light touch, where meaning lurks beneath the sentences.
- Anna Karenina
Tolstoy's novel. Grant was on the edge of his seat during the officers' horse race, proof that a 150-year-old classic with 'the aura of boredom' can still thrill.
- Ecclesiastes
Biblical book, the source of 'there's nothing new under the sun'.
- The Friend from Budapest
Grant's short story collection, which Tamir read as a Patreon member. Grant printed 100 copies and sends one to anyone who joins his Patreon. Its introduction describes his enthusiasm…
- The Makioka Sisters
Tanizaki novel and one of Grant's all-time favorite Japanese novels: 500 pages of trying to find a husband for the third sister, yet unbelievably compelling.
- War and Peace
Logan's shorthand for the wrong first book for someone trying to rebuild a reading habit.
- Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Where Grant says dragons and fantasy belong.
- Brave New World
Science fiction that, as Grant sees it, has been shelved as literature.
- Fahrenheit 451
Grant counts it as science fiction that gets shelved as literature.
- Moby-Dick
Mentioned as a novel built on Melville's real experience aboard a whaling ship.
- On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous
Ocean Vuong's book, which Tamir mentions as poetic prose you have to be in the mood for.
- Ramayana
Indian epic attributed to Valmiki, which Tamir calls 'the Indian version of The Odyssey'. He read it among the spiritual classics that came before his turn to modern fiction.
- Solaris
Tamir asks whether Grant has read or watched Solaris, pointing to a poster behind him.
- The Alchemist
Mia calls it a complete, timeless work of art in defending fiction against nonfiction; also a parallel to her own search for a publisher. Tamir uses Coelho to recommend reading little-known…
- The Alexandria Quartet
Four novels (Justine, Balthazar, Mountolive, Clea) that Grant finds so inspired they intimidate him as a writer.
- U.S.A. Trilogy
A huge three-novel series Grant calls beautiful, fantastic and creative.
- Ulysses
Widely considered the greatest novel of the 20th century; Grant calls it masterfully built but unpleasant to read without notes, asking whether a book that is that much work is good.
People 46
- Tamir Barzilai
Host of the Nectar of Time podcast and founder of a software company; he runs the Vancouver studio where the show is recorded. A Murakami devotee, he came back to fiction through a…
- Haruki Murakami
Japanese novelist and Tamir's favorite author, whose books brought him back to fiction during a pandemic book club. He comes up in most episodes and is the subject of the episode with Salih…
- Grant Shipway
Canadian writer, lifelong student of literature and host of the YouTube channel Grant Loves Books, which offers in-depth analyses of great 19th- and 20th-century novels. At 26 he left…
- Salih Yayar
German Murakami devotee (a self-described 'Murakamian') from Gütersloh who runs the Haruki Murakami Art YouTube and Instagram channels (mini-documentaries visualizing Murakami's books)…
- Tyler Dorchester
Tamir's barber of seven years and close friend; a deep reader of fiction, a published comic artist and a writer of unpublished short stories, raised on a farm in rural Alberta. Tamir calls…
- Kurt Vonnegut
American novelist (1922-2007), author of Slaughterhouse-Five and Galápagos. Tamir calls him the embodiment of authenticity.
- Dante Alighieri
Florentine poet, author of the Divine Comedy and La Vita Nuova.
- Hermann Hesse
German-Swiss novelist, author of Siddhartha and Steppenwolf. Tamir counts him among his favorite writers, and his books stand for the philosophical fiction Tamir read before turning to…
- Logan Macnair
Criminology professor at Douglas College and Simon Fraser University in Vancouver who researches radicalization, terrorism, extremism and extremist media strategy; author of the novel Troll…
- Franz Kafka
Writer known for the absurd, whom Tyler credits with teaching him to see the black humor in darkness.
- Ernest Hemingway
Novelist, author of The Sun Also Rises. He comes up for his spare style and for the hard experience behind his work.
- Martin Amis
British novelist (London Fields, Dead Babies) whose loud, stylized 1980s prose Grant loved in his twenties and now can't stand.
- J. R. R. Tolkien
Novelist and philologist, author of The Lord of the Rings.
- Neil Strauss
Journalist and author of The Game and The Truth, who wrote for Rolling Stone. One of Tamir's favorite writers, he ran the online pandemic book club that led Tamir to Murakami.
- Herman Melville
Logan notes he actually worked on a whaling ship before writing Moby-Dick, an example of lived experience informing great fiction.
- Jack Kerouac
Beat Generation author of On the Road, a book that changed Grant's world at 19 but no longer resonates with him.
- James Joyce
Irish author of Ulysses. Grant is not a fan but admires his aim of exposing his frustration with his own country, which he wants to do for Canada.
- Kingsley Amis
Martin Amis's father, also a successful novelist, who said reading his son was like having him in the room ringing a bell and kicking over the furniture.
- Liu Cixin
Chinese science-fiction writer, author of The Three-Body Problem trilogy.
- Tony Robbins
Motivational speaker and self-help author.
- Ed Harding
A well-known Michigan artist who, after viewing her portfolio, accepted 21-year-old Sheela as an apprentice to teach her lithography and watercolor. She never started: she visited India…
- Fyodor Dostoevsky
Russian novelist; Grant contrasts the absurd but aspirational narrator of Notes from Underground with Dazai's hopeless protagonist.
- J. D. Salinger
Author of The Catcher in the Rye, which Grant fears would now feel too self-indulgent.
- James Clear
Self-help author of Atomic Habits.
- Leo Tolstoy
Russian novelist, author of Anna Karenina and War and Peace.
- Madeline Miller
Author of modern retellings of Greek myth. Tamir mentions her short story Galatea as the kind of short, giftable book publishers should make more of.
- Matthew Carl Strecher
Murakami scholar and author of 'The Forbidden Worlds of Haruki Murakami', who met Murakami at his university and knows his translators. His book gives the episode its framing question: what…
- Yann Martel
Montreal-raised author of Life of Pi; Grant recounts his interview about carrying readers further step by step into the fantastic.
- Yukio Mishima
Japanese novelist and Dazai's rival; Grant recalls a story that Mishima was dismissive of Dazai as a human being.
- Zoe
Tamir's artist friend who painted a mural for his studio while listening to the 1Q84 audiobook, complete with glow-in-the-dark two moons; an upcoming guest for an episode on 1Q84 and art.
- Anton Chekhov
Russian writer behind the principle of Chekhov's gun, which Grant says everyone makes a big deal of.
- Hans Fallada
German author of The Drinker, which Grant read recently: deeply depressing, yet its protagonist still has desire.
- Homer
Ancient Greek epic poet, author of The Odyssey, which Tamir recommends and draws on in several episodes.
- Jay Rubin
Murakami's English translator (The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, the new Hard-Boiled Wonderland translation). Salih notes Rubin abridged Wind-Up Bird, so English readers miss passages later…
- John Dos Passos
American author of the U.S.A. Trilogy, which Grant calls huge, beautiful and creative.
- Jun'ichirō Tanizaki
Japanese novelist, author of The Makioka Sisters, which Grant counts among his all-time favorite Japanese novels.
- Kazuo Ishiguro
Author of An Artist of the Floating World, which Tamir won in Grant's Patreon lottery and has yet to read.
- Lawrence Durrell
British author of The Alexandria Quartet, a work Grant finds so inspired he doubts he could ever write anything like it.
- Leo
Salih's friend from Kentucky and co-host of the Murakami podcast Convo on the Shore.
- Mieko Kawakami
Japanese novelist who conducted a long conversation with Murakami and pressed him on his female characters; Salih recalls Murakami's relaxed, aloof reaction ('Oh, I never thought about…
- Paulo Coelho
Author of The Alchemist; Mia admires his persistence through rejection, believing in the book so much it wasn't an ego trip but a message.
- Sigrid Löffler
Long-time host of the German TV show Das Literarische Quartett who called the sex passages in South of the Border, West of the Sun 'fast food' writing, was accused of prudishness by her…
- Alfred Birnbaum
Murakami's early English translator, who did the original translation of Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, later retranslated by Jay Rubin.
- Marcel Reich-Ranicki
Lead host of Das Literarische Quartett who defended South of the Border, West of the Sun against Sigrid Löffler's criticism in the 2000 on-air row Salih describes.
- Philip Gabriel
Murakami translator (Kafka on the Shore, The City and Its Uncertain Walls, among others). Tamir half-jokingly suggests giving the full Wind-Up Bird to Gabriel to translate.
- Tim Ferriss
Mia cites him as someone with a cerebral, self-improvement fan base who still loves and honors fiction and comic books.
Quotes 12
The book hasn't changed, I've changed. It's still a good book, it's just not a good book for me anymore.
For a while I would be obsessed with self-help books and this and that. And I realized the more self-help books I read, the less of a personality I had.
Who are we if we don't have any creativity or emotions inside our heads?
Maybe that's it: it's not a battle between good and evil, it's a battle between creativity and laziness.
Reading fiction opens you more perspective than someone who talks about daily life only, because we're all living in our own world, in our own bubble.
This is Murakami, you won't get an explanation. Sometimes you get it, sometimes you don't.
A diary is feelings, a journal is thoughts.
I would rather experience something that I've never quite seen the like of before, even if it's like a six out of ten, than see another romantic comedy that's nine out of ten.
Don't get bamboozled, don't join a cult, read a book. Your life will be better.
There's no dragon, man. I'm not afraid. I'm afraid of nuclear war, I'm afraid of international terrorism. The environment scares the hell out of me. Dragons do nothing.
Some new product comes along and you go, I thought of that 10 years ago. Yeah, but what did you do about it?
Those long books are very rewarding, because it's like a friend you've had for so many weeks, and every time you turn a page your friend shows you a new aspect of his personality.
Insights 46
- Greatness includes painting the picture
The poem moves from discovering new land to painting pictures on the walls, showing that greatness spans every archetype, not just conquest; the manosphere's single template reveals a lack…
- Magical realism has no entry barrier
Invented universes like Star Wars or Lord of the Rings keep a barrier between you and the world; magical realism plants the strange inside your ordinary environment, so it is easier to…
- The best authors are invisible
Great prose doesn't tap your shoulder to show off; with a light touch, meaning lurks beneath the sentences rather than on the page.
- A book can be good but not for you now
Judge a book's quality apart from its appeal to you at this moment: the same book can be bad for you today and good in 20 years.
- Authors hide their lives in fiction
Writers say little in interviews but leave their histories in their books: Murakami's cats and Tengo's father likely trace back to his own father.
- Check whose eyes the story uses
Before calling a writer sexist, ask whose perspective the story is told from: a young man's thoughts (Norwegian Wood) differ from a grown man's or a woman's own voice.
- Dark stories hold the profound lessons
Most songs are about love, heartbreak or sex, but great books are drawn to darkness, and inside the darkness, if you look, is black humor that teaches you how to survive.
- Don't trade your emotions for work
Murakami's own life (writing, running, an unscheduled rest of the day) embodies the shadow's message: never lose your creativity or emotions to work; do what you love.
- Fiction teaches you to value people without status
A narrator who shows you a character's trials makes you respect someone with no Bugatti, six-pack, or partner; extend that to people you rank below you and you realize you're not as low as…
- Non-fiction instructs, fiction calms
Non-fiction hands you guides to follow; fiction calms you, lifts you out of your bubble, and opens perspectives and sparks that daily life never would.
- Novelists distill the non-fiction
Great novelists absorbed the knowledge of their era (Hesse drew on Jung), so fiction is a tool for joy and for understanding the world and yourself, not a mere pastime.
- Optimization alone flattens you
Reading only to optimize and grow makes you efficient but personality-less; you miss a whole other side of the world.
- Pain turned into art
Kafka never resolved his pain, but turning it into art was his 'special species of happiness'; even unresolved suffering can leave something beautiful.
- Plotless books become internal plots
When a novel like Dance Dance Dance barely has an external plot, the plot moves inward into the labyrinth of the protagonist's psyche, which takes a more sophisticated lens to enjoy.
- Real fears make real drama
Drama needs stakes the reader actually fears, such as nuclear war, trafficking or environmental collapse; dragons produce no tension. Science fiction should scare you with a plausible…
- Slowness makes excitement exciting
Reflective, slow passages pause the action so the exciting parts feel more exciting, something the young reader who wants speed often misses.
- There's nothing new under the sun
Your love and grief are unique, but they are functions of a human nature written about endlessly, so books, even obscure ones by unknown authors, can hand you tools others already used to…
- We are all conduits
Inspiration and insight seem to 'come through' us, as musicians and the ancient idea of the genius suggest. Either we all are conduits or none of us are, whether the source is the depths of…
- Wisdom sticks when delivered with love
What stayed with Sheela was not the Gibran text but her father reading it with affection, and teaching his children the stars. As Tamir puts it, the teaching mattered because it came from a…
- AI makes human writing a luxury
As AI floods the world with text, human-made writing becomes like a tailored suit in an age of fast fashion: rarer, pricier, and a delicacy.
- Comfort narrows what writers can say
Without hard experiences like war or whaling, comfortable modern writers fall back on writing about themselves as young city dwellers. The work loses touch with the big questions of life…
- Consuming wisdom isn't doing the work
Podcasts, books and conversations about growth are as good as unread until you internalize them and act. People massively overcomplicate inner work. Free, simple, consistent sitting beat…
- Even the most masculine men made art
Ancestral hunters danced, drummed, and recited poetry around the fire; the artistic, devotional side of masculinity has withered, and modern men have lost touch with their ability to create.
- Fiction soothes us through others' enigmas
When you hit the limit of what you can know, one of the few ways to soothe yourself is fiction: watching other people live through their own enigmas.
- It's never too late to start writing
Murakami didn't begin until 30; you often don't know what to write until later in life, and some would argue 30 is even early.
- Less fiction, less empathy
The breakdown of decorum and empathy may be partly, though not one-to-one, caused by people reading less fiction. Men read less fiction than women in every age group, and that may help…
- Lessons live in the conflict's resolution
Fiction must resolve its conflict somehow, even in a downer ending, and the way an author resolves a character's trap is where the reader finds a usable lesson about getting through.
- Match the challenge to your level
A crossword made for a five-year-old gives no satisfaction. Literature, like exercise, has to be pitched at your current comprehension and the effort you're willing to give.
- Only non-fiction breeds false control
Reading only self-improvement breeds the illusion that you can control everything just by saying so; reading only fiction can leave you living in a fairy tale. You need both.
- Reading about action is not action
Reading a book can feel like the equivalent of acting on chapter one's advice; things are often as simple as doing the thing, which is why we overcomplicate them.
- Reading makes you do the film's work
Reading forces the imagination to do the work a film does for you: turning letters into words into sentences, remembering it all, and working out why characters behave as they do.
- Reading satisfies because it is work
Like exercise, reading releases its pleasure because it is effortful. It is an active activity, not a passive one, which is also why it meets more resistance.
- Technique divides literature from genre
1984, Brave New World and Fahrenheit 451 are science fiction shelved as literature only because of their authors' skill; most literary novels are really romances.
- The work behind the idea makes it
Everyone has great ideas, and Gates didn't even invent DOS. What separates success from 'I thought of that ten years ago' is the work you put behind the idea.
- Translation can change the book
Which translation you read matters: an abridged translation can drop whole chapters that add little plot but much atmosphere, so a fuller retranslation can feel like a new book.
- Unlimited magic is cheating
Once a story allows anything to happen, any contrivance can rescue the ending, and dramatic tension disappears.
- Vibe over content
With Murakami scenes it's often not the content but the vibe: two people with whisky or coffee feel like they've slipped into another universe.
- A book for people who stopped reading
Troll was written with two-to-three-page chapters that mimic a feed, so that people who think they've lost their attention span can ease back into reading. Friends who 'don't read anymore'…
- Books keep closed doors open
Every life choice steers you down one track and closes other doors; any book, from the Odyssey to Confessions of a Shopaholic, reintroduces you to worlds you no longer move in.
- Creating is joy; the rest drains it
For Grant the joy is in writing; editing, formatting and submitting tap out the initial fire, so the temptation is always to start something new.
- Creation is close to spiritual
Like a child proudly bringing home a finger painting, making something through time, effort, concentration and persistence brings a pride that is almost spiritual.
- Fiction teaches unconsciously
Fiction's lessons rarely arrive as a one-to-one character arc. They work unconsciously: ruminating on the problems characters face helps you deal with your own.
- Fiction teaches what no one will tell you
Some lessons, like 'things will come around', can't be told to you, especially when shame keeps adults from admitting loneliness. Fiction lets you learn them by proxy.
- Self-study can turn neurotic
Constant introspection into what you think and feel is valuable but can quickly become neurotic and self-absorbed. Sometimes a story is needed to remind you of a world beyond your own head.
- The best self-help reads like literature
Tyler notices that Tamir describes his formative self-help books by how beautifully they were written, not by what they taught. The poetic, metaphysical non-fiction is what sticks and…
- We change by being moved, not informed
Self-improvement through accumulating information has limits. We actually change by being impacted emotionally, which is why fiction and storytelling, not facts, have carried wisdom since…
Practices 27
- Ask your dreams a question
Before sleep, describe a problem to your dreamer self in detail ('my problem with my business is this; help me see it another way') and set an intention to receive an answer. Asking…
- Go to an open mic
To get over perfectionism, go to amateur poetry readings or sign up for an open mic, read whatever you can, and listen to others who try and are proud of their efforts.
- Make devotional offerings of art
Assignment from Ian's coach: find ways to make art and give it to the world without needing recognition, e.g. build inukshuks by the ocean or play guitar with the windows open to fill the…
- Make the time, even late at night
Like Murakami writing two hours a night at the kitchen table after work, carve out time despite money, circumstances and space.
- Read fiction alongside non-fiction
Keep a hybrid reading diet: pair self-improvement non-fiction with fiction for perspective, reflection and imagination.
- Revisit the books of your youth
Go back to books you loved or disliked when young, to see how you've changed and catch what you missed.
- Train reading like a muscle
If you want to get back into reading, don't start with War and Peace. Start with a short story or novella you can finish in an afternoon or two. Reading is a muscle: students whose eyes…
- Build handmade anthologies
How Tyler made Men, Women and Other Adventures for Tamir.
- Convert friends with short stories
To introduce someone to Murakami, gift a short story collection and point to one specific story instead of a 600-page novel; Tamir finds nine out of ten people actually read it.
- Finish the first draft ruthlessly
Be ruthless with yourself and allow no excuses to give up until the first draft is done. You won't win the marathon, but you can finish it.
- Murakami's daily routine
Murakami wakes around 4 a.m., writes for several hours, then runs; the rest of the day is unscheduled, and he goes to bed by 8 or 9 p.m.
- Share short stories instead of books
When recommending fiction, Tamir rarely gives whole books now, because people seldom finish them. He sends a PDF or link to one short story from an author's collection that the person will…
- Supplement school with self-directed non-fiction
Tamir argues that schools, especially high school, don't teach you to formulate your own ideas.
- Write a thousand words a day
If you have a concrete idea for a novel, write every day. A thousand words is manageable; the first days are rusty, but after a week or ten days it grows to 1,500 and you'll reach the end.
- Aim a short story in one direction
Workshop advice Grant accepted: in a short story every passage must move forward in one direction; cut what doesn't.
- Don't force the writing
Jot down thoughts whenever they pop up and wait for the real urge or idea rather than forcing a novel; trust the process.
- Give the author the benefit of the doubt
When a section displeases you, first ask whether you're failing to understand it before blaming the author.
- Join a book club outside your taste
Join a book club that picks books you'd never choose yourself, to expose yourself to new ideas; this is how Tamir found Murakami.
- Join a book club to stretch
Tamir joined a book club in 2020 specifically to read fiction he would never pick up on his own.
- Join a book club you don't control
Tamir did this in 2020 to break out of heavy philosophical classics; it led him to Murakami.
- Let a draft rest a month
After writing something, leave it for a month before editing so you see it with fresh eyes.
- Read a lot, write a lot, find your signature
Logan's main advice to young writers: read far more than you do now, especially literature rather than only games and anime, and write a lot. There are only so many stories, so don't chase…
- Read with the benefit of the doubt
Approach every author with the benefit of the doubt and awe at the effort behind a book; Tamir rarely rates a book below three stars and assumes he may simply not 'get it' yet.
- Write immediately after a strange experience
Tyler wrote his ghost-horse story for three hours straight after losing the tracks, and barely changed it.
- Copy fiction's lessons into a journal
Tyler's habit, which also gives him a way to answer the question of what fiction has taught him.
- Read the overlooked books
Don't dismiss a book because it has few reviews, no major publisher or writing that isn't to your taste; a human perspective can still offer a gem.
- Read three books at once
Mia always has an audiobook, a paperback or e-reader book, and a library book going, and one is usually fiction. She borrows from libraries to support them.
Stories 47
- Giving up an art apprenticeship for love
At 21, Sheela was accepted by the well-known Michigan artist Ed Harding to apprentice in lithography and watercolor. Before the semester began she flew to India to see her mother after an…
- From Lisbon to Budapest at 26
At 26 Grant left Canada and traveled by car and train from Lisbon, which he expected to be his home, all the way to Budapest, where he stayed. He returned at 42 and plans two memoir-novels…
- Murakami wrote at the kitchen table
Tamir recounts that Murakami, at 30, ran a bar and after getting home late at night would sit at his kitchen table for two hours writing by hand, producing Hear the Wind Sing and Pinball…
- On the Road sent him to Toronto
At 19, at university in Ottawa, On the Road filled Grant with such a wild spirit that he jumped on a bus to Toronto to look up an old high-school acquaintance, which he now finds…
- Ryan Holiday on the Oracle
Tamir happened to be studying the Oracle of Delphi when Ryan Holiday spoke in Vancouver and told how a philosopher asked the Oracle for the best source of wisdom and was told 'the dead'…
- A closeted kid in 1980s rural Alberta
Tyler had a great childhood, with a huge extended family and great parents, but was in the closet with no role models, living a dark double life and feeling locked into a bad fate. Frankl…
- Ferris wheel and pan flute in Greece
Sputnik Sweetheart's images stick with both men. Salih sees Miu whenever he sees a Ferris wheel and recently reread the passage in Greece; Tamir thinks of the novel's mysterious pan flute…
- Million-dollar number one single
Colin overheard two men at Soho House in Los Angeles: 'Give me a million bucks, I'll give you a number one single.' He thinks they're right and that the music industry is about money, which…
- Murakami story as homework
Within hours of meeting Samantha at his studio, Tamir gave her Murakami's 'Sleep' from Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman as homework due the next week. She took it as a sign from the universe…
- Discovering Murakami in a pandemic book club
In early 2020, still reading heavy classics like the Odyssey, the Ramayana and Siddhartha, Tamir joined a book club so he wouldn't control the picks. When Murakami came up, he chose…
- Gibran on papa's lap, stars in the garden
At five, Sheela sat on her father's lap while he read her Kahlil Gibran, which she didn't understand but felt as affection. In summer the family slept outside in the garden, and every night…
- Kingsley Amis couldn't read his son
Kingsley Amis refused to read Martin Amis's books. Many said he was jealous of his son's sales, but Kingsley said reading Martin felt like having him in the room ringing a bell and kicking…
- Learning Jewish culture through Singer
Growing up in rural Alberta, not raised in any church, Tyler learned about traditional Jewish life from Isaac Bashevis Singer's translated Yiddish stories. When he met Tamir and his Jewish…
- Petrol's origin in Logan's own fear
Peter Riley's starting point, the terror of an ordinary nine-to-five life and the sense of being destined for more, came from Logan at 19. He now calls that view naive, though it felt very…
- Salih finds Killing Commendatore at 30
In April 2018, stressed and just past 30 after years of rushed business travel, Salih used a birthday bookstore voucher from his family. On a bright spring day he opened the prominently…
- Seeing Vonnegut speak in Toronto
In the 1990s Grant saw Kurt Vonnegut speak in Toronto: animated and full of warmth. Vonnegut said when his wife and daughter took up meditation he replied that he reads, which is his…
- Tamir's first Murakami on a long walk
During COVID in 2020, Tamir, then reading only business and self-help, joined a book club. After Neil Strauss's online club chose Hard-Boiled Wonderland, Tamir proposed it to his group. He…
- The Literarisches Quartett blowup
On the German TV show Das Literarische Quartett, one host called the intimate passages in South of the Border, West of the Sun 'fast food' writing. The others shouted that she was prudish…
- The fishing interlude grew on him
When young, Grant was bothered by the slow trout-fishing section between the Paris carousing and the Pamplona bull-running in The Sun Also Rises. Years later it is his favorite part…
- The handmade anthology
When Tyler loves a short story, he cuts it from the spine of its book with a carpenter's knife and rebinds his favorites with Bible onion-skin paper, which acts like book glue. He built a…
- Zoe's two-moon mural
Tamir's artist friend Zoe painted a mural in his studio while listening to all 40 hours of 1Q84, adding glow-in-the-dark twin moons. She almost wanted to hate the book but found it too…
- A British book for a British reader
Grant's Patreon lottery winner was an Englishwoman, so he sent her Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont, a forgotten British novel she'd never heard of. Her whole book club decided to read it…
- A book club pulled him back to fiction
Tamir, a software entrepreneur with a shelf of non-fiction, joined a book club in 2020 to read fiction. Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World made him feel transported, with…
- A hundred copies of his collection
Grant planned his story collection as a paid Patreon reward but printed 100 copies, far too many, so he mails one to anyone who joins his Patreon.
- Book club turned Tamir to fiction
About four and a half years earlier, during COVID, Tamir joined a book club and set his non-fiction aside. Most of the novels were 'pretty cool' but changed nothing; Murakami was the one…
- Custom-bound Hear the Wind Sing
Tamir shows a one-of-a-kind copy of Murakami's Hear the Wind Sing, custom bound from an old book by a bookbinder he found through his Murakami book club.
- Internet cafe twice a week in Budapest
In 16 years in Budapest Grant never had home internet; he checked email at a cafe for an hour twice a week. Back in Canada he binged YouTube book reviews, thought 'I can do that', and only…
- Jazz cassettes in 1993
Spending a summer in the city at 21, Tyler walked into a secondhand CD and cassette shop and bought Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday tapes, thrilled to realize they had dozens of albums…
- Murakami shrugs at Kawakami's questions
In a long conversation, Mieko Kawakami asked Murakami pointed questions about his female characters. Salih recalls his breezy reply ('Oh, I never thought about this... I just write it…
- Narrator switch in 1Q84 Book 3
Listening to 1Q84 on audiobook without realizing it was three volumes, Tamir was stunned when Book 3 opened with Ushikawa chapters read by a new narrator, a perspective shift that 'blew my…
- Rejected agent pitch for psychedelic memoir
Many literary agents resist a book about psychedelics. Mia tells every agent she will never stop, so it's up to them whether to represent her, echoing Paulo Coelho's persistence.
- Tamir's story read by Samantha
Samantha read a story Tamir wrote and says it left her deeply confused and comfortable at once. It wasn't unsettling but gave her the feeling that there is more than what she knows herself…
- The 1,000-page German Wind-Up Bird
Salih shows Tamir the blue German edition of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, retranslated from Japanese in 2020 at over 1,000 pages vs. the 607-page Jay Rubin English text, with whole chapters…
- The unplanned podcast studio
Ian points out that Tamir never planned the studio they're sitting in. He followed an impulse to set up an office and studio, and it became the most booked-out studio in the city. Tamir…
- Too honest in creative writing class
In university workshops where everyone must start with what they liked, Grant has clashed with teachers and students by calling work weak, cliché-ridden, 'awful' or 'immature', words…
- Vancouver bookstore owners love Dance Dance Dance
Hunting first editions in Vancouver's used bookstores, where Murakami books 'fly off the shelf', Tamir asked four owners (older, seemingly unmarried men who resemble Murakami characters)…
- Yann Martel on carrying the reader
Grant recalls Yann Martel explaining that in Life of Pi he wanted to coax readers along: are you willing to come this far? Good, now how about further?
- Building a channel from old hard drives
Drawings online weren't enough for Salih, a visual person frustrated that so few Murakami novels have been filmed. He went through years of his own footage on his hard drives, combined it…
- Escaping into books during hard times
In tough periods Tyler escaped into books instead of 16 hours of TV. A great story woke up his slowed-down thoughts and energy, and he came back with ideas he hadn't had the day before.
- Meeting entrepreneurs in Indigo's non-fiction aisle
In the first half of his 20s, Tamir was addicted to non-fiction and kept running into his entrepreneur friends in the non-fiction section at Indigo, and never in any other section.
- Murakami's epiphany at the ballpark
Tamir retells how Murakami, who ran a jazz bar with his wife, had a flash of inspiration at 30 while watching his favorite (and long-losing) baseball team, which went on to win the league…
- Tamir's first-edition collection
Tamir owns every US first edition of Murakami's books, in paperback and hardcover, and buys first printings when he can.
- The drama teacher lifted from life
A minor character in Troll, Peter's drama teacher, is a one-to-one copy of Logan's own drama teacher, Wesley, whose style Logan lifted wholesale. Logan gives him a shout-out on air.
- Writing the stallion story in one sitting
Tyler walked straight from the forest where he lost the horse's trail back to the cabin and wrote for three hours, something he had never done before. He barely revised it, and everything…
- Book club hated his generous scores
In a pandemic book club scoring out of nine, Tamir gave high scores to books he disliked because the author had done a good job. Members hated it as a 'good effort ribbon'; he argued a book…
- Film scripts in a Word document
Grant's film scripts were his most purely imaginative work. He entered them in a screenwriting competition, accepted all the feedback when they didn't win, and they now sit in a Word…
- Museums drained her enthusiasm for art
As a fine art student Sheela painted, made pottery and sculpted, but it grew heavy on her. Museums felt so sterile that she lost her enthusiasm, and after a while she stopped, and then had…
Films, music and art 10
- The Lord of the Rings
J. R. R. Tolkien's novel.
- Das Literarische Quartett
Long-running German TV literary panel show. A 2000 on-air row over South of the Border, West of the Sun (one host called its sex scenes 'fast food' and was branded prudish) led to her…
- Grant Loves Books
Grant's channel of in-depth reviews of great 19th- and 20th-century novels, started after he returned to Canada; Tamir likens it to a whiskey to savor. It has a companion Patreon with a…
- Haruki Murakami Art
Salih's YouTube and Instagram channel of long-form mini-documentaries that visualize Murakami's books using his own travel footage, stock footage, graphics and music.
- Murakami early-1990s interview
Rare early-90s interview clip played in the cold open, in which Murakami explains he borrows hard-boiled, sci-fi and love-story structures without writing those genres, and calls himself a…
- Two-moons mural
Mural painted for Tamir's studio by his friend Zoe while she listened to 1Q84, with a large moon and a smaller green moon that glow in the dark.
- Convo on the Shore
Murakami podcast co-hosted by Salih and Leo, discussing one book per episode (a recent one was on Norwegian Wood); Tamir is invited on.
- Col Gerrard music
Colin has gone back to making music and releases it on Spotify as Col Gerrard. He describes winning over the industry slowly, 'bit by bit'.
- Israeli band with a Japanese singer
Tamir mentions a new Israeli band playing 1960s-70s Middle Eastern-style music that made a whole album with a Japanese singer. He gives it as a musical example of fusion: two things you'd…
- Vonnegut's lecture on the shape of stories
A talk Tamir recalls in which Vonnegut explains that stories get interesting by putting the protagonist through obstacles.
Places 1
- Florence
Italian city, Dante's home.
Organizations and movements 2
- Haruki Murakami book club
Book club Tamir belongs to, through which he found the bookbinder who made his custom Hear the Wind Sing.
- TV Tropes
Website (tvtropes.org) that catalogs the tropes of nearly every popular book, show and game. Logan has lost afternoons on it, but warns it leads young writers to build and even market…