Here are 5 things I learned reading: Literary Life, Larry McMurtry (Amazon).

1. Death and rebirth is an everlasting theme – if you need something to hang your hat on.

2. The title to Lonesome Dove came from Lonesome Dove Baptist Church.

3. Many other writers dislike their own words too. (Here also.)

4. Most great novels are written by 50-year-olds.

5. The power of still writing applies to novels too.

Here are 5 things I learned reading: Slouching Towards Bethlehem, By: Joan Didion (Amazon).

1. A “foehn wind” is a breeze that blows off the leeward side of a mountain.

2. Wagon train morality is just that, morality. Not ethics.

3. Few people ever have that impulse. That urge to write everything down.

4. Forgetting our history is universal. And we are worse off for it.

5. Pandemics make me want to travel even more.