The graphic novel was somewhat informative but mostly disappointing, but I’m glad I read it because it’s shortcomings motivated me to revisit an excellent podcast
Category: Literature
Losing the Message in the Metaphor
While remaining relevant and prophetic for decades after its first publication, “Amusing Ourselves to Death” by Neil Postman falls victim to some of the very indulgences it warns against.
Iterations of Finding Nemo
Finding Nemo, Finding Nemo in Space, and Finding Nemo with Guns
BOOKS: Immunity, by William E Paul
Textbook, Autobiography, and a History of immunological research
BOOKHUNT: Better Book Design
I’m on the 3rd book of Steven Erikson’s Malazan Book of the Fallen Series. The first two books, Gardens of the Moon and Deadhouse Gates were rich reading experiences. But the books are long, and a lot happens in them. They are the kind of books where you can figure out what else happened or…
BOOKS: If on a winter’s night a traveler, by Italo Calvino
Tedious, pretentious, and unejoyable, I still somehow found this novel satisfying
BOOKS: Dandelion Wine, by Ray Bradbury
I’d been holding onto this book for quite some time. I’m fond of Bradbury — I enjoyed the Illustrated Man, the Martian Chronicles, and Fahrenheit 451. But it was a 2012 Fringe show (Bookworm, by Corin Raymond) that got me to give him a more careful look, and which prompted me to read Something Wicked…
BOOKHUNT: Obvious Titles and Awkward Authors
You know when you’re in a proper bookstore – one of those shops where the shelves are full, and overflow piles everywhere? And you notice someone else in that bookstore, and you wonder: “What is that person looking for?” And you kind of keep on eye on them, and possibly even follow them around, to…
BOOKS: Anastasia, by Vladimir Megré
In search of a method of how to extract a valuable nut oil found in the Russian taiga, the author comes upon a young beautiful forest recluse named Anastasia. She has been living there alone since she was a child, because her parents’ brains exploded when they got too close to a tree.
BOOKS: Red Mars, by Kim Stanley Robinson
“To be 21st Century scientists on Mars, in fact, but at the same time living within 19th-century social systems, based on 17th-century ideologies. It’s absurd, it’s crazy, it’s – it’s- … it’s unscientific! And so I say that among al the many things we transform on Mars, ourselves and our social reality should be among them. We must terraform not only Mars, but ourselves.” -Arkady Bogdanov, in ‘Red Mars,’ by Kim Stanley Robinson (pg 89)
Gentle Ways to be Encouraged to Pay your Library Fine
I was back in Vancouver, and making my rounds through the libraries to snatch up books I’d put on hold while I was away. It was going pretty well — #1 on the list was The Vital Question in preparation for a book club meeting I had in a few days — but it was…