Cherry pie this morning at Joe Jr. 

 

The promising race to get kids reading again

The next generation of middle-grade books doesn't look like Harry Potter. Good.

https://apple.news/AUJGtEKdrTpqxZv97xDPEqg

 Whoa.

The EZRA KLEIN SHOW

The A.I.s Are Already Out of Control

https://www.nytimes.com/video/opinion/100000011091562/the-ais-are-already-out-of-control.html?smid=url-share

 

Jill Lepore: US: We’re in Free Fall

https://youtu.be/LBpPNvVLVmc?is=MB506Sj2vjr_1a1T

 

Just bought these two books at my favorite bookstore, Three Lives. 

Bernie Sanders Takes on Data Centers/ The New Yorker Radio Hour

https://youtu.be/c7jLvtmqW1I?is=90hYhmK619NOHr_3

 

Malcolm Gladwell ran by me and my sign this morning. He looked out of the corner of his eye as he went by. Most runners don’t look at all. 

 

Two riders reading books this morning on the train back from me holding the sign. 

What comes after the end of Reading?

https://youtu.be/uUIw704kvG8?is=OznA5mUC6VIs6LPC

 

I watched ‘A Complete Unknown’ again last night. Do, if you haven’t. Here is a documentary on the film.

https://youtu.be/4EZgOS34UoU?is=lraompONmaq5HmpU

Train across the platform. I take it sometimes after I hold the sign. It’s usually not that crowded. My sign gets in the way though. I take a slower local train home. No hurry. 

From where I was sitting in my neighborhood library, yesterday, two blocks away.

 

https://youtu.be/diXSvr69yfk?is=dOYGvMxK2GqT-92g

The late John Stewart on the Smothers Brothers a long time ago. Sings a song, with others, that very much matters now.

I eat quite a lot of plain yogurt. This is my new favorite. It has a fresh tastiness.

 

CARLY SIMON REVEALS PARKINSON’S DISEASE DIAGNOSIS: ‘I AM STILL VERY MUCH HERE’

https://www.billboard.com/music/pop/carly-simon-parkinsons-disease-diagnosis-skin-cancer-1236303188/

On my exercise walk I pass the Quaker Meeting House. 

I’ve only read 50 pages. I just got started. There are 400-some pages. So far it’s very good. Better than you’d think. Get it. 

 

IS THE AGE OF READING OVER?

Rose Horowitch on her cover story and what happens when a society becomes “postliterate”

https://apple.news/A2pH7di6iRgGspR2nOoPpNA

 Aging. My 79-year-old hand the other day.

Nikole Hannah-Jones Talks About Her Mission to Put Challenged Books Directly Into the Hands of Children in Iowa

https://apple.news/AZOMJQR0gQz6aTktt2f5CNQ

 

 He’s good. NYT.

 Too Many Books.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/09/style/too-many-books-new-york-city-apartment-scholar-landlord.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

I decided this week that this was probably the best book I ever read. 

K

 Chinatown the other night. 

 Last night in fantastic Chinatown.

 I just voted for Jack Schlossberg.

Maybe 30 more minutes with Josh Shapiro’s book. Here’s a talk with him.

https://youtu.be/GDtO6MGlyNk?is=sFBdAddh7t14ekoQ

 Bob Seger. ‘Against the Wind’.

https://youtu.be/PmrkY-EZy74?is=LW85O3SuLNHUtMAo

 I just bought this. 

Three days ago. A thin guitar store right next to the Chelsea Hotel on 23rd where friends were staying.

 Two Asian-American girls today late afternoon.

Bob Dylan, 85

About aging. Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter and Nobel Prize recipient. (In The New York Times.)

The best thing

The best thing about being 80 is that you outlive the clocks that have been chasing you. It's freedom from that lie that anything was ever under control. You don't chase the parade anymore. You're an old king from some vanished country. You're harder to program.

You're not rushing to become anything and you're not haunted by things that you did. You're haunted by how little of it really mattered in the way you thought it would.

The worst thing

The worst thing about being 80 is that you still want to say yes to everything, but the world moves without asking. The old fire in your heart still tells you to do this and that, but your body says we already did it. Also, nothing surprises you. It sounds like a luxury but it's not, and also you've run out of illusions. People treat you like either you've solved something or you've lost something, and you haven't. You see life repeating itself everywhere.

The really worst part about being 80 is that you find, at last, you've got an understanding of something that might have altered everything in the past, had it come at a time when something could still be altered. When you're young you think that time moves forward. At 80 you know that it doesn't, it stands still. We're the ones that move.

 

My five grandchildren. One in college. Another going this year. Three are high schoolers.

 

 My kitchen. 

 

 

PAUL MCCARTNEY

LOOKS BACK IN SPLENDOR WITH A NEW SOLO MASTERPIECE

The Boys of Dungeon Lane is a richly nostalgic trip that proves this legend is still as creative as ever

https://apple.news/ABp8WlAPMTMmWY2o2JRljpA

 First real page of the book. 

 Got this yesterday.

 

“Ezra Klein, So Hot Right Now

Thanks to his best-selling book and blockbuster podcast, the wunderkind liberal wonk of the Obama years has become one of The New York Times’ brightest stars — and an unlikely thirst trap. (The beard! The biceps!) But is his instinct for thoughtful dialogue suited to our clickbait world?”

Excerpt From

“Ezra Klein, So Hot Right Now”

BY AARON GELL

The Hollywood Reporter (May 6, 2026)

https://apple.news/AgUhZb8-cReyHHrytEeQ3pA

This material may be protected by copyright

https://apple.news/AgUhZb8-cReyHHrytEeQ3pA

 

JACK ANTONOFF BLASTS AI MUSIC CREATORS AS 'GODLESS WHORES'

Bleachers frontman subscribes to “ancient ritual of writing, recording, and performing as it comes to us from god”

https://apple.news/AxwAk6pqgSYieTCa0drO3PA

Oldest daughter yesterday with Bill Clinton who was walking in her neighborhood.