Eric Tian

This is the fourth iteration of the monthly ‘Favourites‘ series, where I reflect on and share five things that made the month splendid. I’m currently questioning whether to continue with these as I wonder if sharing more original thoughts would be a better use of this platform. If readers have any suggestions, I’d love some input. Anyway, let’s get started.

Favourite book: The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War by Ben Macintyre. This was recommended by a friend from Perth and it had me hooked from the prologue. To give a summary, this biography/true crime book explores the life of Oleg Gordievsky, a KGB colonel who is secretly a double agent for the British MI6. The amount of pressure that Gordievsky faced to disrupt Soviet Russian intelligence was insane – I got adrenaline rushes reading some of the feats this man pulled off. Highly recommended for anyone looking for some extra drama in their life.

Favourite movie: Midnight in Paris (Netflix). For anyone remotely interested in Paris’ flourishing art scene in the 1920s, this movie is a must-watch. Characters such as Ernest Hemingway, Salvador Dalí and F. Scott Fitzgerald come to life and work together to showcase Paris at its finest. This movie contains subtle messages on art, love and living in the moment, making it one of the best movies I’ve ever watched.

Favourite bedtime routine: Audiobooks. Consider this problem:

1. You want to read before bed;
2. You need white light to read your kindle/paperback;
3. White light prevents you from sleeping.

Solution: Plug your earphones in and listen to an audiobook in the dark. I’m currently listening to To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee on Audible and when sleep gently takes me, I consistently have the most vivid dreams.

Favourite online course: Writing With Flair: How To Become An Exceptional Writer. This is the first online course I’ve ever paid for and it was well worth it. The instructor is a former Wall Street Journal editor and breaks brilliant writing down into four manageable components: simplicity, clarity, elegance and evocativeness. Through short lectures and exercises, any confidence that I had built up as a writer got slowly destroyed until I realised I had nothing left. This is oddly liberating – it’s great to be humiliated once in a while – and I’m excited to practice some techniques in future posts.

Favourite quote: “I believe that love that is true and real creates a respite from death. All cowardice comes from not loving or not loving well, which is the same thing.” – Ernest Hemingway (Corey Stoll) in Midnight in Paris, credited to Woody Allen

This is the third iteration of the monthly ‘Favourites’ series, with five bits and pieces I particularly enjoyed over the month. Here’s my favourite book, noise generator, video, item of clothing and quote over June, 2020.

Favourite book: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami. This novel tells a surreal story of Toru Okada, an unemployed lawyer’s assistant, who’s tasked by his wife, Kumiko, to find their missing cat. The story then quickly gets very strange – fascinating characters, background stories and plot twists come on one after another, making it an incredible roller coaster experience. Murakami writes in a way which takes you from your reality and throws you into his own so potently that I found it difficult to put the book down. When the end finally came, I sat on the sofa and stared into space for a good 10 minutes, very much intoxicated by what I’d just experienced. Highly recommend if you’re looking for a crazy time.

Favourite noise generator: The Ultimate Café Restaurant Background Noise Generator. This website generates coffee-shop-like sounds that I find helpful for getting me into the flow state when working. There are customisable sound settings for different layers of noise but I find the default settings work really well.

Favourite video: BOOKSTORES: How To Read More Books in the Golden Age of Content. This video is perhaps the best one I’ve watched this year and dives into the beauty of bookshops, how to read more books, speed-reading and why reading is important. Also, the editing quality of this is so good, I feel bad that it’s free.

Favourite item of clothing: A beanie. If a beanie cult exists out there, I’d like to become a member – the ability for a beanie to warm your head and the rest of your body up is simply awesome. My grey beanie has been an absolute necessity for cold Melbourne nights and if you ever wondered why beanies feel so warm, here’s why. Massive thanks to my sister, Lana for this amazing present.  

Favourite quote: It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default. – JK Rowling

Last month, I tried out a series of 5 things that I particularly enjoyed over that month. I found it a fun and reflective practice and so I guess I’ll continue with it, with this post marking its second iteration. Here’s my favourite book, cringe-worthy video, song, article and quote over May, 2020.

Favourite book: The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu (translated by Ken Liu). This book is the first science-fiction book I’ve ever read and I loved it. The book begins with the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s, where a girl witnesses her father being beaten to death in China. Four decades later, a string of inexplicable suicides lead a nanotechnology engineer called Wang Miao and the Beijing police to the mysterious online game called the Three-Body Problem which seems to be the key to these deaths and much, much more.

The synopsis might sound strange, but seriously, this book blew my mind. The storytelling was excellent, the character development of Wang Miao throughout the story is very relatable and the situation that’s depicted in this novel gave me some intense anxiety. There’s something stunning about science fiction that often goes unappreciated. As the author Cixin Liu writes in his postscript,

I’ve always felt that the greatest and most beautiful stories in the history of humanity were not sung by wandering bards or written by playwrights and novelists, but told by science. The stories of science are far more magnificent, grand, involved, profound, thrilling, strange, terrifying, mysterious and even emotional, compared to the stories told by literature. Only, these wonderful stories are locked in cold equations that most do not know how to read.

Favourite cringe-worthy video: Scott’s Tots. Anyone familiar with The Office (US) will know this scene as being one of the most cringe-worthy moments in the existence of television. If I ever feel too comfortable with whatever I’m doing and want to get a little shaken up, watching this 8-minute clip at 1x speed never fails to make me recoil with second hand embarrassment.

Favourite song: Que Sera Sera (Doris Day). This is a simple song based on the Spanish phrase “que sera, sera”, meaning “what will be, will be.” Originally sung in 1956, the simplicity of the lyrics and melody add no distractions to the comforting message I find particularly relevant during these turbulent times.

Favourite article: Young Delacroix on the Importance of Solitude in Creative Work and How to Resist Social Distractions. A few weeks ago, I noticed my mind was restless, constantly darting between one thought and another – never really stopping to be still. This seems ironic given the current peace of physical distancing, but I suspect physical stillness doesn’t correlate with mental stillness. This article gave insights from people much wiser than myself who have shared their thoughts on this idea of solitude and avoiding distractions, reminding me of the importance of taking some time to be still.

Favourite quote: If you want to be a grocer, or a general, or a politician, or a judge, you will invariably become it; that is your punishment. If you never know what you want to be, if you live what some might call the dynamic life — but what I will call the artistic life — if each day you are unsure of who you are and what you know, you will never become anything, and that is your reward.

– Oscar Wilde

These are some of my favourite bits and pieces I dug up in April, 2020.

Favourite book: The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Ken Liu. This book is a collection of Ken Liu’s most popular short stories as well as some of his personal favourites. I tried a sample of this book on Kindle upon my friend Amy’s recommendation and after reading two short stories, I immediately purchased the rest of the book. While all these stories are unique in their own way, a common thread between them are that they are beautifully written and they make your world just a little brighter. I would read one or two before I went to bed and then have the most fantastic dreams. In particular, The Paper Menagerie is one of my favourite short stories in here and it’s won three of short fiction’s major awards: The Hugo, Nebula and the World Fantasy Awards. It can be found online for free here.

Favourite podcast: Emotions by Invisibilia. This was the first podcast episode I’d heard from Invisibilia and was immediately hooked. This podcast takes you on a journey to re-examine some of the narratives we tell ourselves and does so with some fantastic storytelling. After listening to this, the way I previously thought about emotion was completely shattered (in a good way).

Favourite article: 50 Painful Truths By Truth Potato That You Need To Hear. Cute but devastating.

Favourite video: Why Did I Say “Yes” To Speak Here? This video was a talk given by author Malcolm Gladwell at Google Zeitgeist, a collection of talks by people changing the world. This talk addressed the bizarre phenomenon of Relative Deprivation Theory, a concept which makes total sense but at the same time, makes no sense whatsoever. Listening to this made me seriously question if some of the stories we accept are simply untrue, such as going to more prestigious Universities being naturally better. And more importantly, if they are untrue – why do we accept them at all?

Favourite quote: To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation. – Pi,  Life of Pi (shoutout to @jenn_the_shrimp for the book recommendation!).