December Reading Report: Deep Work, Embracing Rejection, and Finding Sparkle

In December, my reading list bounced between the serious and the romantic—from “Deep Work” to “The Right Bank of the Argun River,” from “The Brothers Karamazov” to “Anna Karenina.” Among them, there are three books whose insights I’d like to share here.

”Deep Work”: Rediscovering the Meaning of Focus in an Age of Distraction

I took extensive notes on this book. Its core message is about how to “batch-process difficult yet important intellectual tasks over extended periods without interruption.”

1. Beware the Trap of “Visible Busyness”

The book mentions a perspective I deeply relate to: “When there are no clear metrics for productivity and value, many knowledge workers resort to industrial-age indicators, completing many tasks in visible ways.”

This reminds me of all the advice I received in college, which gave me headaches. Later I realized that much of that advice only holds true under specific circumstances. When I find myself in a new environment, facing various different voices, if I just make myself “look busy,” I can easily lose my way.

2. What You Focus On Determines Your World

I once fell into a strange loop: only valuing what to do (building habits), not what to think about. As a result, I turned myself into a robot and almost had to book a counseling appointment at the school’s mental health center.

It wasn’t until I read this passage in the book that I had an epiphany:

“If you focus on a cancer diagnosis, your life will become unhappy and dark; but if you focus on an evening martini, your life will become more beautiful—even though the external circumstances are the same in both scenarios.”

I started paying attention to my experiences and focus again, and finally felt less conflicted.

3. Polish Your Work Like a Craftsman

The book’s exploration of “meaning” reminds me of the Japanese gardener Jensen Huang mentioned in one of his speeches. The gardener spent 25 years in an enormous garden, picking up dead moss with bamboo tweezers. When asked, “Your garden is so big, how do you manage?” he said, “I have plenty of time.”

Wow, this story is so beautiful. Perhaps the reason I’m always rushing around, feeling like I have no time, is because I haven’t found something that I’d be willing to polish for a lifetime—something that truly fulfills me—like that gardener has.

”There Is No Permanent Rejection, You’re Just Temporarily Not Accepted”: When I Started Actively Seeking “No”

The core message of this book is: You should deliberately and continuously seek rejection until you become numb to the word “no.”

This describes me perfectly. A while back, I went to visit my old high school to interview some younger students. I wandered around half the field, finally mustered up the courage, and got rejected on my first attempt. Then I immediately retreated and ran away.

I realized that we fear rejection because our brains equate it with “life-threatening danger.” We often reject ourselves before others even have a chance to.

This book also taught me to “question.” For example, a professor once used the story of a senior student who didn’t get a graduate school recommendation to warn us that grades are important. But no one in the class thought to ask, “And then what?” After class, I organized my notes and boldly raised my doubts with the professor. It turned out the story’s ending was: “That senior wasn’t affected much—she had already been accepted to study for a master’s at UCL in the UK. What you lose in one place, you gain in another.”

If I hadn’t asked that question, I might have been forever trapped in the anxiety of “GPA determinism.” Actively seeking possibilities instead of passively accepting a “rejection” signal can really change many fixed mindsets.

”Anne of Green Gables”: Naming the World, Rediscovering Beauty

“I thought it would be children’s literature, but it’s actually a classic like ‘The Little Prince.’”

What touched me most about this book is the protagonist Anne’s ability to discover beauty. She names trees, rivers, and fields things like “The Lake of Shining Waters” and “The Idle Wild.”

I never thought about greeting the sun, let alone naming the quirky things in life. But after I tried it, I really felt “loved by a part of the world”—it’s quite magical.

It made me realize that life isn’t just about endless assignments waiting to be done. There are so many beautiful things hidden in corners, waiting for us to discover and name them.