Background: I have thousands of books in my book queue that I would like to read, but never seem to find the time for. In 2018, instead of reading whatever seems good at the moment, I'm going to try sticking to an idiosyncrastic list of 101 books and/or collections I'd like to read in the … Continue reading 2018 Experiment: A Reading List
Category: books
Who Cares About The Great American Novel?
"A question from the New York Times’ Bookends, “Where is the great American novel by a woman?,” got an interesting answer from the Pakistani novelist Mohsin Hamid... [Ursula's answer, in short:] But there’s something coy and coercive about the question itself that made me want to charge into the bullring, head down and horns forward. … Continue reading Who Cares About The Great American Novel?
Clingy Political Ideologies
"Interestingly, one of the initial impediments to open-mindedness is not ignorance but ideology. This is especially true in America, where (particularly in "progressive" circles) we have politicized open-mindedness to the point that it isn't so open-minded anymore. Indeed, regardless of whether your sympathies lean to the left or the right, you aren't going to learn … Continue reading Clingy Political Ideologies
Modern Dying
"I have heard it said that modern dying means dying more, dying over longer periods, enduring more uncertainty, subjecting ourselves and our families to more disappointments and despair. As we are enabled to live longer, we are also condemned to die longer. In that case, it should come as no surprise that some of us … Continue reading Modern Dying
From the Edge of the Universe to the Inside of a Proton
"But we should count ourselves lucky; there have not always been 62 orders of magnitude of universe to explore, and there won’t always be. As Scharf explained, 'If you turn the clock back far enough to the Big Bang, obviously there was a time when the number of scales that were causally connected were fewer, … Continue reading From the Edge of the Universe to the Inside of a Proton
Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst by Robert M. Sapolsky
"This is the best scientific book written for non-specialists that I have ever read. You will learn more about human nature than in any other book I can think of, and you will be inspired, even if you find some of it hard to accept." —Henry Marsh,"Robert Sapolsky’s Behave is a tour de force of … Continue reading Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst by Robert M. Sapolsky
The Shobies’ Story
"'Staking everything on it,' the next voice took up the story, 'because nothing works except what we give our souls to, nothing's safe except what we put at risk.'" —Ursula K. Le Guin, "The Shobies' Story" in The Unreal and The Real. New York: Saga Press, 2012.
Becoming Dangerous
Becoming Dangerous: A book about ritual and resistance "is a nonfiction book of deeply personal essays by marginalised people using the intersection of feminism, witchcraft, and resistance to summon power and become fearsome in a world that would prefer them afraid. With contributions from twenty witchy femmes, queer conjurers, and magical rebels, BECOMING DANGEROUS is a … Continue reading Becoming Dangerous
Driving a Moving Truck – a.k.a. Bedbuggers
"Then we’ll pack everything in the house into cartons. I don’t love packing; it’s inside work and mostly tedious. I do enjoy packing stemware, china, sculpture, and fine art, but that stuff is getting rarer in American households. Books are completely disappearing. (Remember in Fahrenheit 451 where the fireman’s wife was addicted to interactive television … Continue reading Driving a Moving Truck – a.k.a. Bedbuggers
The Secret History of Dune
"...part of Herbert’s genius lay in his willingness to reach for more idiosyncratic sources of inspiration. The Sabres of Paradise (1960) served as one of those sources, a half-forgotten masterpiece of narrative history recounting a mid-19th century Islamic holy war against Russian imperialism in the Caucasus... ...Why is Blanch’s influence on Dune worth recognizing? Celebrating … Continue reading The Secret History of Dune
The Ryan Holiday Reading Recommendation Email
The Ryan Holiday Reading Recommendation Email is a monthly email "with 5 to 10 amazing books that I read, reviewed and think you’ll like. The goal of the newsletter is to recommend books that stick with you long after you’ve put them down—or better yet, change your life...Each book has a one sentence review along with … Continue reading The Ryan Holiday Reading Recommendation Email
Diaspora Boy by Eli Valley
Diaspora Boy is "the first full-scale anthology of [Eli] Valley’s art[...His] "comic strips are intricate fever dreams employing noir, horror, slapstick and science fiction to expose the outlandish hypocrisies at play in the American/Israeli relationship. Sometimes banned, often controversial and always hilarious, Valley’s work has helped to energize a generation exasperated by American complicity in an … Continue reading Diaspora Boy by Eli Valley
Community: A Third Place
"Home and work, I had read that morning, are our first and second places, respectively, and the third place is a sociable one we choose for ourselves as somewhere that helps root us in our communities, and promotes social equality. Or at least that’s the ideal, according to sociologist Ray Oldenburg, who coined the phrase … Continue reading Community: A Third Place
Book Review: Every Twelve Seconds by Timothy Pachirat
Highly recommended. Describes in detail the operation of an industrialized slaughterhouse, from the front office to the delivery of cattle and back again. While it is clear the process is inhumane and unsanitary, the working conditions of the employees are the focus. Even if the ethics of killing animals for food is not an issue … Continue reading Book Review: Every Twelve Seconds by Timothy Pachirat
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