Commonplace #22
Some things that recently caught my interest
Reader. Writer. Thinker.
Former sailor seeking bold coffee, sublime jazz, and deep connection.
Dear friends,
It has been brutally hot here in western Tennessee this summer. The excessive heat felt in Europe earlier in the year made its way to the U.S and much of the country has been impacted. On a recent afternoon I looked at my phone to see if it was safe to go outside and was confronted with this:
I am not sure why they put the actual temperature on there. The only number anyone cares about is what it feels like and at those temps shoes are melting on the pavement. I spent a summer in Iraq about a decade ago and it was an intense heat but this humidity sucks the life out of me.
Substack recently announced they have partnered with Pangram, an AI-Detection company, in an effort to make subscribers aware of what they are reading. I have been vocal about my own stance, believing that human-written words and human-created art, are far preferable to anything a machine can create. AI has its place in certain systems. I have been known to engage in debate with Claude from time to time. But I draw the line at using it for my creative works. I also find it strange to use an AI system to detect AI writing, especially if it results in witch hunts that are difficult to defend against. In any case, like much in our modern era, this is a topic filled with strong opinions on all sides of the debate. I posted that I will continue to trust my own eyes and heart when it comes to detecting AI. Human writers have a soul and their writing will be imbued with it. That is something machines simply can’t duplicate.
Voices I trust:
If I link to someone’s work, that is typically an indication they are someone I trust. Often I have built a friendship or relationship with them and know they write from the heart. This list is not in any way exhaustive but I believe it is important to share those voices we know and value. I will try to share a few each time I send this out.
Zina Gomez-Liss - The Beauty of Things
Alexander M Crow - The Crow’s Nest
Susie Mawhinney - A hill and I
John Halbrooks - Personal Canon Formation
Petya K. Grady - A reading life
Ruth Gaskovski - School of the Unconformed
Peco - Pilgrims in the Machine
If you missed the latest installment of Taking Root in Tended Ground, my series on faith and spirituality, you can read it here:
And the latest in the Roots and Wings series explored Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist.
“There are years that ask questions and years that answer.” — Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God
Links of interest:
Dr. Dana Leigh Lyons, DTCM started a new series called Hungry For. I was honored to be the first guest. You can read what I am hungry for at Hungry For: Matthew Long.
A. Jay Adler is someone I have long admired as a writer, thinker, and, for my part at least, as a friend. Every word he writes is carefully crafted to share his unique story and drive the reader to think. After a bit of a hiatus, he returns with Journey to Only One End.
Peter C. Meilaender asks the age-old bookish question, “How Many is too Many?” You can read his thoughts On Reading Too Many Books at One Time.
Kolina Cicero shares The 40 books that made me in honor of her 40th birthday.
Robert M. Hamburger writes An Open Letter to Chris Best, CEO of Substack.
I have always been intrigued by those who write longhand with an actual fountain pen. My good friend Justin is an aficionado and my favorite Scot, Cams Campbell, is known for his love of the craft. Author Neal Stephenson recently wrote an article on why Writing by Hand is Good for your Brain.
Music:
Jazz on the Beach - my go to jazz radio show each week.
My friend Matt recently introduced me to the work of guitarist, Jessie Cook. I fell in love with the sound almost immediately.
Watch:
Book Tracking:
I have tried so many different methods for tracking books over the years. The core of my system is a simple notebook with date completed, title, and author listed. However, as a self-proclaimed book nerd, I love having more info at my fingertips. I recently discovered a Notion book-tracking template. I am very impressed. Notion has a bit of learning curve but this template had exceptional instructions provided, was easily customizable for my personal needs, and the developer provided excellent customer service when I reached out with questions. It is a work in progress as I slowly important my reading history but I am loving all the features. Here are a few screenshots of what it looks like:
You can get the template yourself if you wish:
Notion Book Tracker Template | Reading Tracker, Library, Reading Log, Series & Stats Dashboard
Personal Reading:
I’ve highlighted one fiction and one nonfiction title as my top recommendations from this list. *I haven’t completed much this month as I have been reading some longer nonfiction works which will likely show up in the next reading report.
Recommendations:
Fiction - The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Nonfiction - none
The rest of the fiction:
Buckskin Run by Louis L’amour
The rest of the nonfiction:
None.
In 2025 I spent a year with Homer and wrote about the experience each week. I have taken down those original posts but have consolidated everything into PDFs, one for each book. You can find them at Reading Guides.
Matthew Long is a retired sailor, reading, writing, and living in rural western Tennessee.
Thanks for the shout, my friend. I'm actually going on a live call with Petya next month to talk about fountain pens! It's such a pleasurable hobby.
I'm pleased to see you've settled on a Notion-based tracker. I'm enjoying mine a lot, though it can lead to rabbit holes of tweaking. FYI: Claude is very good at fixing and coming up with new formulas for Notion if you ever feel the need to start tweaking.
I’m honored and grateful to have you as my first guest, Matthew. I’m also grateful for writers like you, whose soul shines through on the page.