Category: Reading
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Skin Stealer
This evening I unzipped my skin And carefully unscrewed my head, Exactly as I always do When I prepare myself for bed. And while I…
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Shel Silverstein
Writing for both young kids and for Playboy, Shel Silverstein has one of the most interesting biographies I’ve come across. He also wrote the Johnny…
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Other Minds
My five-year-old daughter said that spiders are insects and I was almost sure that they weren’t until she showed me a worksheet her kindergarten teacher…
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The Night is Darkening Round Me
The night is darkening round me, The wild winds coldly blow; But a tyrant spell has bound me And I cannot, cannot go. The giant…
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The Jewess of Toledo
Lion Feuchtwanger published this historical novel in 1955. It’s set in Spain during the second half of the 12th century, which is the golden age…
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Tree House
A tree house, a free house, A secret you and me house, A high up in the leafy branches Cozy as can be house. A…
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This is Just to Say
I have eaten the plums that were in the icebox and which you were probably saving for breakfast Forgive me they were delicious so sweet…
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Smut in Arabian Nights: It’s only slightly raunchy
There’s something erotic about Arabian Nights, but like a belly dancer, it’s mostly teasing. Mostly but not entirely: The English translation of 1001 Nights by…
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Early Bird
Oh, if you’re a bird, be an early bird And catch the worm for your breakfast plate. If you’re a bird, be an early early…
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Not Transferable
As a scientist, a common lament I hear from my colleagues is that there aren’t enough scientists in politics. Although there are some who’ve made…
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Never Kissed At All
Strephon kissed me in the spring, Robin in the fall, But Colin only looked at me And never kissed at all. Strephon’s kiss was lost…
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The Overstory
The Overstory by Richard Powers is different from any novel I’ve ever read. It’s experimental in the sense that it is composed of multiple tangled…
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Outdoor Books
I don’t get to spend as much time as I’d like out of doors and try to make up for it by reading. Here are…
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Shallow Mysteries
Books like Gödel, Escher, Bach give you goosebumps because they hint at something grand, but they can also be frustrating. This review articulates this more…
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Arsenic for Longevity
In an essay first published in 1877 in Waldheimat, Austrian writer Peter Rosegger describes his encounter with peasants in Styria using arsenic as an anti-aging…
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Alien Artifacts
As a kid, before I knew better, I liked to read Erich von Däniken. In Chariots of the Gods, he explained that the pyramids were…
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Wild Nights!
Wild nights – Wild nights! Were I with thee Wild nights should be Our luxury! Futile – the winds – To a Heart in port…
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Alien Oceans
2030 is going to be a big year for those curious about life in the solar system. The Europa Clipper spacecraft that just launched is…
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Simpler Than We Thought
Human existence may be simpler than we thought. There is no predestination, no unfathomed mystery of life. Demons and gods do not vie for our…
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Arabian Nights
Here are some beautiful illustrations by Franz Xaver Simm from an old (likely late 1800s) German edition of 1001 Nights:
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If He Worried He Hid It
Somebody said that it couldn’t be done But he with a chuckle replied That “maybe it couldn’t,” but he would be one Who wouldn’t say…
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In Praise of Mystery
In a few days, the Europa Clipper spacecraft is going to launch towards Jupiter. After a journey of six years, it will arrive at Jupiter’s…
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Project Habakkuk
In his memoir I Wish I’d Made You Angry Earlier, Max Perutz describes his work on a secret project during World War II to build…
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The Malady of the Quotidian
The time of year has grown indifferent. Mildew of summer and the deepening snow Are both alike in the routine I know. I am too…
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Lose No More Time In Sighing
Gather ye roses while ye may, Old time is still a-flying; A world where beauty fleets away Is no world for denying. Come lads and…
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Imperially Slim
Whenever Richard Cory went down town, We people on the pavement looked at him: He was a gentleman from sole to crown, Clean favored, and…
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Richard Russo
All of Richard Russo’s book have enough in common that I’m always looking forward to the next one. The downside is that I also already…
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Madaus
A few years ago, my uncle gave me an old book created by the German pharmaceutical company Madaus, which is nowadays part of Rottapharm Biotech, to celebrate their…
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I Thank Whatever Gods May Be
Out of the night that covers me, Black as the pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be For my unconquerable soul.…
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Max Steele
Writer Max Steele doesn’t even have his own Wikipedia page, which is an injustice. I feel that he should be more well known, but not…
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There Is No Magic Any More
There is no magic any more, We meet as other people do, You work no miracle for me Nor I for you. You were the…
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The Precautionary Principle
Or: Should you really never change a working system? Given an innovation whose future positive and negative impact are uncertain, which position should be taken…
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Love Is Not All
Love is not all: it is not meat nor drink Nor slumber nor a roof against the rain; Nor yet a floating spar to men…
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Kim Stanley Robinson and Ken MacLeod: Two sci fi greats in the same room
Kim Stanley Robinson and Ken McLeod are two of the most interesting contemporary science fiction writers. Robinson’s Mars Trilogy and MacLeod’s Intrusion are among my…
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A Lucky Guess
A colleague and I were looking over a graph with same data he had produced. I didn’t understand it, so I asked him about a…
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Ninety-Two in the Shade
This is Thomas McGuane’s most well-known novel and the first I’ve read. It captures 1970s Key West, a place and period that I’ve recently encountered…
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Oh I Am Sick of Brick and Stone
A wind’s in the heart of me, a fire’s in my heels, I am tired of brick and stone and rumbling wagon-wheels; I hunger for…
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Content to See, Glad to Remember
He hears with gladdened heart the thunder Peal, and loves the falling dew; He knows the earth above and under – Sits and is content…
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Terry Pratchett
So much universe, and so little time. Terry Pratchett As a kid, I read all of Terry Pratchett‘s books that I could get my hands…
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Look, and Despair!
I met a traveller from an antique land Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. Near them, on the…
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Ishi in Two Worlds
Since moving to California, Lassen National Park in Northern California has become one of my favorite places. It’s less well known than Yosemite and the…
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The Silent Men Who Do Things
Have you gazed on naked grandeur where there’s nothing else to gaze on, Set pieces and drop-curtain scenes galore, Big mountains heaved to heaven, which…
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The Hunter and the Whale
This is one of the lesser known novels by Laurens van der Post, and I can see why. The story is nothing special, yet there…
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Not To Spend It, But To Have It
Paul Auster, who died earlier this year, on his father, but actually on money: It was not so much the money itself he wanted, but…
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The Ant God
Finding I could speak the language of ants, I approached one and inquired, “What is God like? Does he resemble the ant?” He answered, “God!…
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More Than Music
Music I heard with you was more than music, And bread I broke with you was more than bread; Now that I am without you,…
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Nothing Gold Can Stay
Nature’s first green is gold Her hardest hue to hold Her early leaf’s a flower But only holds an hour. Then leaf subsides to leaf…
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Brutal Journey
The Narváez expedition departed Spain in 1527 to explore Florida. Things went wrong and only four out of 600 men made it back to Europe after…
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The Earth Used to be God’s Body
One of the scenes in All That is Sacred, a short film about the artists and writers who got their start in 1970s Key West,…
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Beloved Dust
And you as well must die, beloved dust, And all your beauty stand you in no stead, This flawless, vital hand, this perfect head, This…
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Rage Against the Dying of the Light
Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the…
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Lovely in Her Bones
I knew a woman, lovely in her bones, When small birds sighed, she would sigh back at them; Ah, when she moved, she moved more…
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On Two Planets
On Two Planets by Kurd Lasswitz (or Laßwitz) may be the first science fiction novel to imagine an alien invasion. Published in 1897, it’s about…
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Make Bright the Arrows
Make bright the arrows Gather the shields: Conquest narrows The peaceful fields. Stock well the quiver With arrows bright: The bowman feared Need never fight.…
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All That Is Sacred: A documentary about guys who want to be free
We go through life with a diminishing portfolio of enthusiasms. F. Scott Fitzgerald This quote must’ve been popular in 1970s Key West. Thomas McGuane uses…
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One Who Would Resign Gladly His Lot
Man alive, that mournst thy lot, Desiring what thou hast not got, Money, beauty, love, what not; Deeming it blesseder to be A rotted man,…
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Fire and Ice
Some say the world will end in fire; Some say in ice. From what I’ve tasted of desire I hold with those who favor fire.…
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Gangerl
Off the dirt track crossing a deserted mountain pass in northwestern Namibia, we encountered an ancient Land Rover stuck in the sand. Next to it…
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Peace Comes Dropping Slow
I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree, And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made: Nine bean-rows I will…
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Ten Thousand Years From Now
Brother, that breathe the August air Ten thousand years from now, And smell – if still your orchards bear Tart apples on the bough -…
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To See The Land I Love
Now as the train bears west, Its rhythm rocks the earth, And from my Pullman berth I stare into the night While others take their…
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Paradise Now
Is the way we organize our society – capitalism, the nation state, individualism – the only way to set up a modern society, or could…
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The Woods are Lovely, Dark, and Deep
Whose woods these are I think I know. His house is in the village, though; He will not see me stopping here To watch his…
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There Exists No Loom
Upon this age, that never speaks its mind, This furtive age, this age endowed with power To wake the moon with footsteps, fit an oar…
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Why Should Not Old Men Be Mad
Why should not old men be mad? Some have known a likely lad That had a sound fly fisher’s wrist Turn to a drunken journalist;…
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They Do Not Sweat or Whine or Weep
I think I could turn and live with animals,They are so placid and self-contain’d, I stand and look at them long and long. They do…
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Solzhenitsyn’s Letter
On Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s 1974 letter to the Soviet leadership. Maybe Solzhenitsyn’s and Putin’s view of the world are not so incompatible.
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A Harder Thing Than Triumph
Now all the truth is out, Be secret and take defeat From any brazen throat, For how can you compete, Being honor bred, with one…
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Our Fathers Also
Thrones, Powers, Dominions, Peoples, Kings, Are changing ‘neath our hand. Our fathers also see these things But they do not understand. All Profit, all Device,…
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Ultralight
The amount of time I spend researching backpacking gear, reading blogs and reviews and watching YouTube videos about tarps, camping stoves, backpacks, sleeping quilts and…
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Love and Friendship
Love is like the wild rose-briar, Friendship like the holly-tree – The holly is dark when the rose-briar blooms But which will bloom most constantly?…
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A Really Big Lunch
A collection of Jim Harrison’s food writing. The introduction is by Harrison’s friend, celebrity chef, gifted writer and harasser of women Mario Batali. Some of…
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Hope and History
History says, Don’t hope On this side of the grave. But then once in a lifetime The longed-for tidal wave Of justice can rise up,…
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The Brotherhood of Mt Shasta
As you hike the Pacific Crest Trail from Mexico to Canada, for many days you catch glimpses of Mt Shasta between the trees. As you…
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All the Magic
Sandra’s seen a leprechaun, Eddie touched a troll Laurie danced with witches once, Charlie found some goblins’ gold. Donald heard a mermaid sing, Susy spied…
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Project Hail Mary
The only novel by Andy Weir I’ve read besides Project Hail Mary is The Martian, which deservedly has become one of the best-known science fiction…
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The Purpose of Poetry
Poetry is not conceptual thought … poetry, even if it’s about big issues, is always about a particular case. And so, a poet uses words…
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Two Very Good Movies
A Man Called Otto: This is an example of a genre I enjoy. The genre is Grumpy old man with new neighbors. Other examples of…
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A Tall Ship
I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky, And all I ask is a tall ship and a…
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Devouring Time
Devouring Time, blunt thou the lion’s paws, And make the earth devour her own sweet brood; Pluck the keen teeth from the fierce tiger’s jaws,…
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Not Man the Less, but Nature More
There is a pleasure in the pathless woods, There is a rapture on the lonely shore, There is society, where none intrudes, By the deep…
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Animals in Translation
Our senses continuously collect data including sounds, smells and visual input, but at any given time we’re consciously aware of only a tiny and heavily…
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A Microscopic Topic
I am a paramecium That cannot do a simple sum And it’s a rather well known fact I’m quite unable to subtract If I’d an…
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Central Limit Theorem
Plato, despair! We prove by norms How numbers bear Empiric forms, How random wrong Will average right If time be long And error slight; But…
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Exploration
We shall not cease from exploration And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for…
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Early Bird
Oh, if you’re a bird, be an early bird And catch the worm for your breakfast plate. If you’re a bird, be an early early…
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Alice Munro Has Died
Alice Munro is dead. There are fragments from her short stories that I sometimes remember without any trigger I’m aware of, like the deception in…
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The Gospel of Nature
John Burroughs published Time and Change in 1912. Hewas a well known naturalist, corresponding with Teddy Roosevelt, John Muir and others. He has been largely…
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Nature’s Infinite Book of Secrecy
In nature’s infinite book of secrecy A little I can read. William Shakespeare
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The Battle of the Bulge
To hell with you, ignoble paunch, abhorrent in my sight! I gaze at your rotundity, and savage is my frown. I’ll rub you and I’ll…
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The Righteous Mind
I know I’m late to the party, but Jonathan Haidt’s The Righteous Mind, published in 2012, contains some important ideas. Haidt’s assertion that “anyone who values…
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Paul Auster Has Died
Paul Auster is dead. I keep returning to two of his novels, Mr. Vertigo and Moon Palace. Their protagonists, even though they are fictional, are…
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Daniel Dennett Has Died
Philosopher and scientist Daniel Dennett is dead. His book on Intuition Pumps, or thought experiments, is one I hope to return to here.
Nehaveigur 