I did a zero sugar root beer blind test (why not) and I agree. Barq’s is the most sweet and carbonated, which I liked a lot too, but A&W has the best subtle creamy taste I love root beer for. (I love A&W’s zero sugar cream soda also.) Mug didn’t beat either for me but ain’t shabby

I’m surprised how opposite of methods me and my writer friends will have. Another one is major iterative second/third drafts, and not like, constant rereading and editing in place. Unthinkable to me to just leave a messy sentence and *typos* in place for later…

I’m impressed by that. I write down years of daydreaming and then make an outline of chapter summaries, and then writing is a checklist of filling em out (even out of order). I do wonder if I lose something detectable from not capturing that spontaneity/development “live”, though

how much do you outline before starting? I mentally work out outlines for years before opening up the proper blank Word doc, so I think this filters out the things that don’t hold my attention

live news would get in the way of week-long timeline meditations on something Nate Silver said

Charles Portis is the winner for giving me the most passerby-alarming laughs on audiobook walks. Listened to The Dog of the South and Norwood so far, very much looking forward to the rest

I’m halfway through the Penguin collection of Lord Dunsany. Gorgeous, gorgeous writing, even if it takes me like 2min per page

Audible is such an interesting hub for random “normal guy” impressions on books. Many times I’ve just wanted to see if a narrator was well-liked and seen “made me sad DNF 1/5 stars” reviews

maybe too far from the setting you're after re: Perlstein, but I was blown away by the audiobook of Platt's Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom. Both the events itself, but also the narrative and personality of all the major players. So much more contemporary US/European politics involved than I expected

this one is weird because it’s actually an unrelated old short story of Gaiman’s (a coming-of-age story about a kid in school’s who’s into Elric) that the editors thought would make a good intro. The audiobook did not announce this and I was very confused.