Writers need their sleep.  And so do we all, especially if we’re learning new things. 

I feel vindicated.  I’ve always been a 9-hour-minimum sleeper, at least, if I want to be alert and functional.  In college, I told people sleep was my Number One priority.  Then studying.  Then social life.  I was a real charmer then, as now!  Still, I stay healthy and mostly on top of things, even if I always felt guilty about being lazy.

But I just go my hands on a new book, Brain Rules:  12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School by John Medina.  And it has a handy and fun website you can check out to get a taste for the book.

Anyhow, he explains that we need sleep time for our brains to process what we learned during the day.  “Sleep well, think well,” he says.  He says naps are a good thing!  Love him!  Can’t wait to read the book.

A young friend told me I had to check out this book for a new take on recording life.  I can’t stop re-reading it.

Maira Kalman’s The Principles of Uncertainty.

You may not recognize her name, but I’m willing to bet you’d recognize some of Maira Kalman’s art if you checked out her website or her visual column “And The Pursuit of Happiness” on the New York Times blogsite (where I believe this book originally appeared in monthly segments).  Her Presidents’ Day piece on Abraham Lincoln takes a subject that many of us think of as a dull assignment for a listless middle school essay and makes it sing with beauty and meaning.  Which is what her book does as well with the things many of us take for granted.

Kalman opens this memoir of a year with, “How can I tell you everything that’s in my heart” next to a painting of a dodo and further musings on extinction.  It’s hilarious, touching, and true.  She shows how the stuff of everyday life contains magic.  Even if you feel that you have no drawing ability (like me, though I love to do it anyhow), this book will inspire you to look more carefully at life.  Plus you get the bonus of studying her art.

Great inspiration for journalers, memoirists, and folks who just want to look at their worlds with more curiosity and appreciation.