3 X 5's: Index Card Wisdom from Best of Books

TIMELESS BUILDING Christopher Alexander (1979). The Timeless Way of Building. Alexander earned the first PhD in architecture from Harvard University, has written several books...his magnus opus being the four-volume set called, Nature of Order...this Timeless building book is the first in a series of three books that were written before the Nature of Order series. The detailed table of contents provides essential principles and a summary of the book...the writing is personal with stories and examples among the 552 pages. the quality without a name brings order from within us, and from that place that is ALIVE in us, we intentionally create the building/space/place, and then sit in the place/space and ask ouselves if it "feels good" (up to 95% agreement is found when people sit in a space and describe if it FEELS good or not)...there are forces within us that seek to be in harmony with the external world around us, and when there is this alignment, we feel alive and at peace w...

NICE Kurt Vonnegut (2015). If This Isn't Nice, What Is? Vonegut never graduated college, yet he took graduate coursework in anthropology...the book is a series of graduation speeches edited by Dan Wakefield. overall, i was disappointed...there is so  much negativity about the world among the few bits of wisdom that shine through...among the bits of wisdom: the code of Hammurabi (king of Babylon 4k years ago) became the rule of societies justifying war, prision, and the death penalty as in an "eye for an eye"...the Hammurabi rules were broken by the love and forgiveness of Jesus of Nazareth, showing that there is another way...unfortunately, most of the world has yet to embrace this "new way" and are still living by the old Hammurabi code.  "Practicing an art...is a way to make your soul grow." p.181   for practice, notice when your life is "going good" and say, "if this isn't nice, what is" (this is a phrase one of Vonnegut'...

  ROMANCE Mary Balogh (2020). Someone to Romance. This is the 8th book in Balogh's Westcott series set in the Regency era of England. The relationship between Lady Jesscia Archer and Gabriel Thorne, who returns from a successful business venture of 10 years in America to claim his rightful place as Earl of Lyndale, is central focus. Gabriel learns to see Jessica as a person in addition to her role as an aristocrat. some of my favorite parts: "...not music that has been frozen onto a sheet of parchement but music that is living and breathing inside you....It all came from some unknown somewhere inside him, yet it seemed too vast to fit within his frame." 313, 119 when music comes from the heart and not the page, some unique place inside oneself, perhaps one has tapped into the univeral consciousness of which we are all a part. "It is not the rose that makes me happy....It is the fact that you give them to me. That you care..." 322 ideally, in gift giving, our car...

BRAIN FOOD Uma Naidoo (2020). This is Your Brain on Food. Naidoo is a medical doctor and psychiatrist specializing in nutrition and mental health. The book chapters are organized as separate mental health diagnoses and corresponding foods to avoid and foods to consume to support better gut health as the connection between the gut and the brain is foundational to well being. Cheat sheet summaries at the end of each chapter are helpful as well as the appendixes and a thorough bibliography of mostly empirical research on the brain--food connection. Disappointed in the emphasis on eating meat and consumption of oils...moreover, there is much repetition across chapters, e.g., almost all mental health issues suggest avoiding foods associated with the "western diet" of highly processed foods, white flour and white sugar products, as well as large quantities of meat, especially beef. On the flip side, most of the nutritional advice includes:  berries and beans of all types,  tumeric ...