Fri - December 28, 2007
Kopfreise
An entertaining book that I've had on my bedside
table for the past week or two is The
Head Trip: Adventures on the Wheel of Consciousness by Jeff
Warren.
Using the stages of sleep as chapter headings,
Warren talks about hypnagogic and hypnopompic states, REM sleep, lucid dreaming,
etc. with a upbeat tone, and he throws in a number of interesting bits of trivia
along the way that I often find myself mentioning to my wife or coworkers the
next day.
I'm only about halfway through the book, since I'm practically falling asleep every time I read it, but one thought that stuck in my mind from last night's reading is that for all intents and purposes we are basically dreaming all the time. All the time. At night we dream without any sensory input, while during the day we dream with the benefit of sensory input. Everything we consider reality is basically a dream that our minds construct with what's available to it. Since the waking mind has access to a lot more input, it's closer to reality, and sticks closer to the data, unlike a dream which flies off on tangents without any data to jibe with. There's such a Buddhist feel to that idea. " ...I can see two tiny pictures of myself, and there's one in each of your eyes... and they're doing everything I do...It's driving me crazy, it's driving me nuts." (Excepting my friends Greg and Kevin, I don't know who else is gonna get that reference. Good times.) The book is full of little nuggets like that. Little koans of weirdness to think about during the day.
The author visits a number of researchers and takes part in their studies, and he even goes off on his own up to the backwoods of Canada to get a feel for the natural cycle of human sleep, that is, before artificial light took over the night. Which brings up another interesting idea, a stage that Warren calls "the watch", that period of semi-alertness, half-way through the whole sleep period, when you're awake, but somewhat blissful, lying there in the dark.
If you're at all interested in the subjects of sleep, dreaming, or consciousness, I recommend this book.
I'm only about halfway through the book, since I'm practically falling asleep every time I read it, but one thought that stuck in my mind from last night's reading is that for all intents and purposes we are basically dreaming all the time. All the time. At night we dream without any sensory input, while during the day we dream with the benefit of sensory input. Everything we consider reality is basically a dream that our minds construct with what's available to it. Since the waking mind has access to a lot more input, it's closer to reality, and sticks closer to the data, unlike a dream which flies off on tangents without any data to jibe with. There's such a Buddhist feel to that idea. " ...I can see two tiny pictures of myself, and there's one in each of your eyes... and they're doing everything I do...It's driving me crazy, it's driving me nuts." (Excepting my friends Greg and Kevin, I don't know who else is gonna get that reference. Good times.) The book is full of little nuggets like that. Little koans of weirdness to think about during the day.
The author visits a number of researchers and takes part in their studies, and he even goes off on his own up to the backwoods of Canada to get a feel for the natural cycle of human sleep, that is, before artificial light took over the night. Which brings up another interesting idea, a stage that Warren calls "the watch", that period of semi-alertness, half-way through the whole sleep period, when you're awake, but somewhat blissful, lying there in the dark.
If you're at all interested in the subjects of sleep, dreaming, or consciousness, I recommend this book.
Posted at 04:39 PM Read More
Tue - August 28, 2007
The Future That Never Happened
I'm reading David Talbot's Brothers
: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years, and I'm enjoying it.
RFK is the focus of the book, and it's pretty obvious that Bobby knew his
brother's death was a conspiracy.
With Vincent Bugliosi's new book out supporting LHO
as the lone gunman in JFK's assassination, it got me thinking about the topic
again, and for me, it's hard to believe that Jack Ruby's silencing of Lee Harvey
Oswald isn't textbook proof of conspiracy. I also was fishing around on the web,
seeing if any recent revelations were about, and I came across the E. Howard
Hunt tale, a recording of him telling his son how things went down in Dallas.
Hunt's story jibes with the BBC investigation that has the killing blow coming
from the grassy knoll, fired by a French mafia hitman, Lucien Sarti. I guess
that would make him "Badgeman".
Anyhoo, back to Talbot's book. The hope for the future and the optimism most Americans felt with JFK's presidency comes through, and for some reason it got me thinking about a place in Ohio. It's called Materials Park, and it is the world headquarters of the American Society of Metals. It's off Route 87 in Novelty, or South Russell, depending on the source. But here's a picture of it:
And here's some information about it:
http://www.asminternational.org/Content/NavigationMenu/AboutASM/MaterialsPark/MaterialsPark.htm
The complex was dedicated in 1960, at the beginning of the New Frontier, and I can't help but feel optimistic when I'm there. Buckminster Fuller designed the dome. It's a beautiful place. The dome is open-air, so the rain and wind come in, but you still feel protected somehow. It's really something. What's also funny is the feeling that I'm back in time, back when things were looking up! Before JFK's assassination, and forty plus years of American decline. Which brings me back to conspiracy. The guys who killed the Kennedys got what they wanted. Endless war. Good for business. Bad for you and me.
Anyhoo, back to Talbot's book. The hope for the future and the optimism most Americans felt with JFK's presidency comes through, and for some reason it got me thinking about a place in Ohio. It's called Materials Park, and it is the world headquarters of the American Society of Metals. It's off Route 87 in Novelty, or South Russell, depending on the source. But here's a picture of it:
And here's some information about it:
http://www.asminternational.org/Content/NavigationMenu/AboutASM/MaterialsPark/MaterialsPark.htm
The complex was dedicated in 1960, at the beginning of the New Frontier, and I can't help but feel optimistic when I'm there. Buckminster Fuller designed the dome. It's a beautiful place. The dome is open-air, so the rain and wind come in, but you still feel protected somehow. It's really something. What's also funny is the feeling that I'm back in time, back when things were looking up! Before JFK's assassination, and forty plus years of American decline. Which brings me back to conspiracy. The guys who killed the Kennedys got what they wanted. Endless war. Good for business. Bad for you and me.
Posted at 10:29 AM Read More
Fri - April 27, 2007
The Battle for Azeroth
I've been grazing through this collection of essays
for the past week, and although the quality of the essays is uneven, the book is
entertaining, and I'd recommend it to anyone who's a World of Warcraft
gamer.
There's one essay by an English science fiction
author, Justina Robson, that I thought was very good. Like her, I also thought
of Philip K. Dick's Three Stigmata of
Palmer Eldritch once I started playing WoW,
and she beat me to it in print, damn it. Speaking of Philip K., the new movie,
Next,
starring Nicholas Cage, is based on Dick's short story, "The Golden Man". I want
to read it before I see the movie. I don't know if I'm going to see it in the
theater or wait until it hits DVD. I would like to see
Grindhouse
however. Starring Snake Plisskin! "I heard you were dead!"
Posted at 12:07 PM Read More
Wed - April 4, 2007
Rock of Ages Series from Rodale
I just finished up the
Led Zeppelin
IV book written by Barney Hoskyns in the Rock
of Ages series. I also read the other title in the series,
Layla and Other Assorted Love
Songs written by Jan Reid last month. The
third book in the series will be about the Rolling Stones'
Beggars'
Banquet by Billy Altman. I'm surprised the
first Stones' album covered is going to be that one. But then again, I'm not the
most knowledgeable on the Stones. I do like
Sticky
Fingers a lot though. The opening bars of
Can't You Hear Me
Knocking?. What does Plankton say in the
SpongeBob movie? "His chops are too righteous!"
The writing is good and the stories are interesting
in this series of books about great Rock albums. I was surprised that I didn't
find it dull. I would definitely recommend both to anyone who grew up listening
to those albums. Being a guitar player, I might have appreciated it a little
more than a neophyte, but they're not technical at all. What's cool is that I
had my iPod in the car, so I was able to listen while I read, as I waited for my
son to finish baseball practice.
A couple tidbits:
In the Derek & The Dominos book, Duane Allman was quoted that all the Gibson Les Paul bits were his, while the Fender Stratocaster parts were Clapton's. However, not all the slide guitar is Allman's. Clapton was picking it up during the sessions. The second half of Layla, the piano section, which I actually think is the better half, was written by one of the other guys. There's a lot of stuff about Leon Russell, Delaney & Bonnie, and George Harrison (of course) in there too. Most of Harrison's All Things Must Pass uses the rhythm section of Derek & The Dominos, BTW.
In the Zeppelin book, it states that in "Black Dog", the lag between the drums and guitar, that part where the guitar seems to be unable to keep in time, was intentional. Also, that Jimmy Page's solo in "Stairway" was done on a Fender Telecaster, not his usual Les Paul. There's a story from Jack White of the White Stripes talking about how as a five-year-old boy, he used to listen to "Whole Lotta Love" on a 45 RPM record. Which I think is the only 45 Zeppelin ever released. What else? That "Rock and Roll" was written in about 15 minutes.That about 80 percent of the lyrics to Stairway just came to Robert Plant. That Robert Plant thinks Zeppelin's finest work is probably "Going to California" and "Kashmir"; he doesn't think "Stairway to Heaven" is that spectacular (nor do I). (My personal faves on IV would be "Going to California" and "When the Levee Breaks", if anyone wants to know.) That he's responsible for all the Tolkien references. That John Paul Jones played most of the mandolin parts, although it's Page playing on "The Battle of Evermore". He said he learned mandolin from the Teach Yourself Bluegrass Mandolin book from Mel Bay. And the first song I ever played on mandolin was that song. It just came out naturally, because it's a simple chord progression. I then realized that it was a Zeppelin song. Oh, my brothers, real horrorshow, it was. Bang your collective heads.
A couple tidbits:
In the Derek & The Dominos book, Duane Allman was quoted that all the Gibson Les Paul bits were his, while the Fender Stratocaster parts were Clapton's. However, not all the slide guitar is Allman's. Clapton was picking it up during the sessions. The second half of Layla, the piano section, which I actually think is the better half, was written by one of the other guys. There's a lot of stuff about Leon Russell, Delaney & Bonnie, and George Harrison (of course) in there too. Most of Harrison's All Things Must Pass uses the rhythm section of Derek & The Dominos, BTW.
In the Zeppelin book, it states that in "Black Dog", the lag between the drums and guitar, that part where the guitar seems to be unable to keep in time, was intentional. Also, that Jimmy Page's solo in "Stairway" was done on a Fender Telecaster, not his usual Les Paul. There's a story from Jack White of the White Stripes talking about how as a five-year-old boy, he used to listen to "Whole Lotta Love" on a 45 RPM record. Which I think is the only 45 Zeppelin ever released. What else? That "Rock and Roll" was written in about 15 minutes.That about 80 percent of the lyrics to Stairway just came to Robert Plant. That Robert Plant thinks Zeppelin's finest work is probably "Going to California" and "Kashmir"; he doesn't think "Stairway to Heaven" is that spectacular (nor do I). (My personal faves on IV would be "Going to California" and "When the Levee Breaks", if anyone wants to know.) That he's responsible for all the Tolkien references. That John Paul Jones played most of the mandolin parts, although it's Page playing on "The Battle of Evermore". He said he learned mandolin from the Teach Yourself Bluegrass Mandolin book from Mel Bay. And the first song I ever played on mandolin was that song. It just came out naturally, because it's a simple chord progression. I then realized that it was a Zeppelin song. Oh, my brothers, real horrorshow, it was. Bang your collective heads.
Posted at 01:50 PM Read More
Tue - January 17, 2006
Crossing The Rubicon, I Love You More Than You Know, Teach Yourself Bluegrass Banjo
I've been trying to get out of a reading funk, and I
think I'm gonna make it. I started off with some conspiracy books about 9/11,
JFK assassination, etc. then I started reading some humorous essays by the likes
of Jonathan Ames, David Foster Wallace, and David Rakoff. In the meantime, I've
been teaching myself the banjo. Hee haw!
Conspiracy
tomes:
Crossing The Rubicon by Michael C. Ruppert
Ruppert details how the power brokers used 9/11 to forward their military, economic, and geo-political ambitions. A serious, paranoid spin, but it's definitely entertaining. I mean, Christ, it's common knowledge that Dick Cheney is in league with the devil. Tell me something I don't know. The author gives America about 30 years before it really hits the fan, once oil is really scarce. This Administration makes Nixon's look like the good old days. All this neo-fascist drivel about the unitary, unilateral, whatever, executive... Like Gore said yesterday, Bush has been breaking the law repeatedly, and what's with all these signing statements? Congress doesn't have the courage to confront this guy. Behold the end of the Republic, all done in the name of security. Where are the true Republicans? Did everyone in Congress and the media flunk Civics class? Checks and balances...doesn't that ring a bell with anybody? Somebody better step up to the plate. I wrote my congressmen about five times each on all the wrong things done by the White House, oh, BTW, did I mention this insane, pointless war? Anyway, Bush is packing the Supreme Court with his lackeys, and then it'll be too late to legally fight them. I can only hope enough Americans wake up and help wrest at least one of the houses of Congress out of the hands of the criminals running it now. Enough ranting. Ruppert does a decent job of documenting just how much we did know about what was going to go down, with the airplanes, Al Qaeda, the stock market. Sweet monkey Jesus. I didn't know that Cheney was put in charge of domestic counter-terrorism by Bush a few months before 9/11. The book presses the case that Cheney is culpable, to the point of charging him with crimes. It's a creepy read. If it's even half true, we're screwed.
Ultimate Sacrifice by Lamar Waldron
Waldron makes the case for conspiracy in the JFK assassination, with the revelation that the Feds were scared of another covert plan to liberate Cuba being discovered. It's slow-going and not fun to read. I skimmed a lot. Long story short, it's the reverse vampires, i.e., Mafia and CIA and Anti-Castro Cubans, etc.
Lunatic Cringe:
I Love You More Than You Know by Jonathan Ames
Ames is the literary equivalent of Ricky Gervais or Larry David. There seems to be a whole genre of humor/comedy that is based on making the audience cringe: The Office, Extras, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Jackass. The book is a collection of essays Ames wrote and mostly published elsewhere. I liked his My Less Than Secret Life very much, but that disturbed me too. This collection is not as kinky maybe. "You want I should be more opinionated?"
I've just started the David Foster Wallace book, Consider The Lobster , and the Rakoff book, Don't Get Too Comfortable. The first essay in Wallace's book is about the AVN awards in Vegas. Rakoff's first story is about becoming an American citizen. I haven't given up yet on either one, which is positive.
Banjopalooza! :
I got myself a banjo for Christmas, and I love it. I've played guitar since my teens, never really improving all that much, but for sheer enjoyment, it can't be beat. Well, actually sex beats it by a mile, but I have been spending hours and hours with my 5-string banjo. I bought it from an online store, The BanjoHut, which, as my brother said, is down in the Banjo district (alluding to AFF). They included a hard case, picks, and a book/DVD: You Can Teach Yourself Banjo by Janet Davis from Mel Bay. The DVD makes all the difference. I love "Cripple Creek" and "Cumberland Gap". It's a shame that the DVD doesn't contain all the songs in the book though. On Amazon, I see that Janet Davis has a book for dobro too. I would like to learn that some day. Another banjo book I've been using is Teach Yourself Bluegrass Banjo by Tony Trischka. Trischka is a little more demanding, and his licks are a little tougher to master, but I like the different tunings, the D tuning for the song Reuben, also known as Ruben's Train, and then using the capo for his versions of Cripple Creek and Devil's Dream. Devil's Dream is a lot of fun. I still don't have it down pat, but I'm getting there. Trischka is really fast, and it takes a lot of practice just to play along. "I've got blisters on my fingers!" - JL
Crossing The Rubicon by Michael C. Ruppert
Ruppert details how the power brokers used 9/11 to forward their military, economic, and geo-political ambitions. A serious, paranoid spin, but it's definitely entertaining. I mean, Christ, it's common knowledge that Dick Cheney is in league with the devil. Tell me something I don't know. The author gives America about 30 years before it really hits the fan, once oil is really scarce. This Administration makes Nixon's look like the good old days. All this neo-fascist drivel about the unitary, unilateral, whatever, executive... Like Gore said yesterday, Bush has been breaking the law repeatedly, and what's with all these signing statements? Congress doesn't have the courage to confront this guy. Behold the end of the Republic, all done in the name of security. Where are the true Republicans? Did everyone in Congress and the media flunk Civics class? Checks and balances...doesn't that ring a bell with anybody? Somebody better step up to the plate. I wrote my congressmen about five times each on all the wrong things done by the White House, oh, BTW, did I mention this insane, pointless war? Anyway, Bush is packing the Supreme Court with his lackeys, and then it'll be too late to legally fight them. I can only hope enough Americans wake up and help wrest at least one of the houses of Congress out of the hands of the criminals running it now. Enough ranting. Ruppert does a decent job of documenting just how much we did know about what was going to go down, with the airplanes, Al Qaeda, the stock market. Sweet monkey Jesus. I didn't know that Cheney was put in charge of domestic counter-terrorism by Bush a few months before 9/11. The book presses the case that Cheney is culpable, to the point of charging him with crimes. It's a creepy read. If it's even half true, we're screwed.
Ultimate Sacrifice by Lamar Waldron
Waldron makes the case for conspiracy in the JFK assassination, with the revelation that the Feds were scared of another covert plan to liberate Cuba being discovered. It's slow-going and not fun to read. I skimmed a lot. Long story short, it's the reverse vampires, i.e., Mafia and CIA and Anti-Castro Cubans, etc.
Lunatic Cringe:
I Love You More Than You Know by Jonathan Ames
Ames is the literary equivalent of Ricky Gervais or Larry David. There seems to be a whole genre of humor/comedy that is based on making the audience cringe: The Office, Extras, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Jackass. The book is a collection of essays Ames wrote and mostly published elsewhere. I liked his My Less Than Secret Life very much, but that disturbed me too. This collection is not as kinky maybe. "You want I should be more opinionated?"
I've just started the David Foster Wallace book, Consider The Lobster , and the Rakoff book, Don't Get Too Comfortable. The first essay in Wallace's book is about the AVN awards in Vegas. Rakoff's first story is about becoming an American citizen. I haven't given up yet on either one, which is positive.
Banjopalooza! :
I got myself a banjo for Christmas, and I love it. I've played guitar since my teens, never really improving all that much, but for sheer enjoyment, it can't be beat. Well, actually sex beats it by a mile, but I have been spending hours and hours with my 5-string banjo. I bought it from an online store, The BanjoHut, which, as my brother said, is down in the Banjo district (alluding to AFF). They included a hard case, picks, and a book/DVD: You Can Teach Yourself Banjo by Janet Davis from Mel Bay. The DVD makes all the difference. I love "Cripple Creek" and "Cumberland Gap". It's a shame that the DVD doesn't contain all the songs in the book though. On Amazon, I see that Janet Davis has a book for dobro too. I would like to learn that some day. Another banjo book I've been using is Teach Yourself Bluegrass Banjo by Tony Trischka. Trischka is a little more demanding, and his licks are a little tougher to master, but I like the different tunings, the D tuning for the song Reuben, also known as Ruben's Train, and then using the capo for his versions of Cripple Creek and Devil's Dream. Devil's Dream is a lot of fun. I still don't have it down pat, but I'm getting there. Trischka is really fast, and it takes a lot of practice just to play along. "I've got blisters on my fingers!" - JL
Posted at 12:17 PM Read More
Wed - June 15, 2005
Ames Room in the News
I just learned what an Ames Room is from
the Universal Book of Mathematics the night before last. I didn't know it had a
name. So, I was mighty surprised to see mention of it on MacSurfer.
Apple to Film New TV
Ads in Ames Room
I remember there being a scene in the original Willy Wonka movie that has an optical illusion room, before Gene Wilder opens the door to the Chocolate Room. I wonder if the Tim Burton/Johnny Depp version will have one. I don't remember if that's in the book of not. I do remember being freaked out by the ending of original movie, melancholy actually, and then I couldn't get into the sequel about the glass elevator. I think my Aunt Tillie bought the book for my birthday way back when.
I remember there being a scene in the original Willy Wonka movie that has an optical illusion room, before Gene Wilder opens the door to the Chocolate Room. I wonder if the Tim Burton/Johnny Depp version will have one. I don't remember if that's in the book of not. I do remember being freaked out by the ending of original movie, melancholy actually, and then I couldn't get into the sequel about the glass elevator. I think my Aunt Tillie bought the book for my birthday way back when.
Posted at 11:32 AM Read More
Mon - June 13, 2005
Four Good Books
Two erotic novels (zwei erotische Romane):
Young
Turk and
The
Almond; two Bildungsromane (had to look up
the plural for that!): Happy
Baby and
Drive Like
Hell. I think I forgot most of my German
except this: Es freut mich dich kennenzulernen, Entschuldigen Sie, bitte, Ich
hab' nicht viel übrig für das, and Sie schmeckt gut.
The two erotic
novels:
Young Turk by Moris Fahri - A collection of stories, actually, with a different narrator for each story, but all the narrators are friends growing up in Turkey during WWII. There are three stories that I liked very much: the circumcision tale, "Lentils in Paradise", and the rose petal jam one. Good earthy sex and a compassionate view of life. I'll never look at chickpeas the same way again.
The Almond by Nedjma - speaking of chickpeas... This is a story of a Muslim woman in Morocco. Tangiers, who grows up in a small village, then leaves her husband and takes a doctor as a lover in the big city. The opening pages had me hooked, but it's also an insider's view of the role of women in that culture. Harsh. Like R. Crumb, I love them strong women!
The Bildungsromane:
Happy Baby by Stephen Elliott - A good, disturbing, book. Theo, the protagonist, is a guy who grew up in a group home after his father is killed and his mother dies of MS. In the home, he was habitually sexually abused by one of the counselors, and it continues to color his world, so much so that he likes to be beaten and abused and seeks out dominatrices. L'chaim. The flow of the chapters runs backwards in time, from Theo going back to see his old group home girlfriend, Maria in Chicago to the last time he spoke with his father at age eleven. It amazes me to see authors like this rebound from such messed up childhoods.
Drive Like Hell by Dallas Hudgens - I always knew I was a real man. This book proves it. ;-) Nuff said. The story is told by Luke, a sixteen-year-old growing up in Georgia. Hudgens' book is like memory lane with the TV shows and music he talks about. Hee Haw, The Andy Griffith Show, Foghat, Charlie Rich, Zeppelin, etc. The cars: GTO's, Chevelles, Plymouth Dusters, GLC's, Mavericks. The cigarettes, the drinking, the pot. Good times. I grew up with people like this, guns, cars on blocks, MILF's, hard-drinkin' fathers, so it's a treat. Still reading it, but so far, so good.
Young Turk by Moris Fahri - A collection of stories, actually, with a different narrator for each story, but all the narrators are friends growing up in Turkey during WWII. There are three stories that I liked very much: the circumcision tale, "Lentils in Paradise", and the rose petal jam one. Good earthy sex and a compassionate view of life. I'll never look at chickpeas the same way again.
The Almond by Nedjma - speaking of chickpeas... This is a story of a Muslim woman in Morocco. Tangiers, who grows up in a small village, then leaves her husband and takes a doctor as a lover in the big city. The opening pages had me hooked, but it's also an insider's view of the role of women in that culture. Harsh. Like R. Crumb, I love them strong women!
The Bildungsromane:
Happy Baby by Stephen Elliott - A good, disturbing, book. Theo, the protagonist, is a guy who grew up in a group home after his father is killed and his mother dies of MS. In the home, he was habitually sexually abused by one of the counselors, and it continues to color his world, so much so that he likes to be beaten and abused and seeks out dominatrices. L'chaim. The flow of the chapters runs backwards in time, from Theo going back to see his old group home girlfriend, Maria in Chicago to the last time he spoke with his father at age eleven. It amazes me to see authors like this rebound from such messed up childhoods.
Drive Like Hell by Dallas Hudgens - I always knew I was a real man. This book proves it. ;-) Nuff said. The story is told by Luke, a sixteen-year-old growing up in Georgia. Hudgens' book is like memory lane with the TV shows and music he talks about. Hee Haw, The Andy Griffith Show, Foghat, Charlie Rich, Zeppelin, etc. The cars: GTO's, Chevelles, Plymouth Dusters, GLC's, Mavericks. The cigarettes, the drinking, the pot. Good times. I grew up with people like this, guns, cars on blocks, MILF's, hard-drinkin' fathers, so it's a treat. Still reading it, but so far, so good.
Posted at 10:42 AM Read More
Wed - June 8, 2005
Hangover Square was a drag
Patrick Hamilton's
Hangover
Square didn't thrill me at all. I read the
Penguin Classic 2001 reprint. However, it did, along with Nick Hornby's book,
make me want to read David Copperfield. So it ain't all bad now, is
it?
Other books I just finished or have at home
still:
The R. Crumb Handbook - a wonderful sick f. A quick read, with lots of nasty cartoons that made me laugh out loud.
Arts & Crafts and 20th Century Glass - both these books are part of the DK collector's guides series by Judith Miller. Beautiful books. Coffee table fare, but strangely calming and entertaining.
What The Dormouse Said - a history of the personal computer and the Bay area scene in the 1950's to 1970's. A little more technical than I expected, and it stops at the point where Bill Gates enters the picture.
The Unfolding of Language - I'm skimming through this, stopping for the interesting bits, but it's not bad. A linguistics intro kind of book.
The Anchor Book of Chinese Poetry - Not what I was looking for. There are a few poems that I liked, but the majority of this anthology had things like "On Wai Lu's demotion from the position of tax collector" or "On leaving the home of my friend". Too much of the same thing. The best poems were the ones written by courtesans.
Haunted - Chuck Palahniuk's book is like a demented Canterbury Tales. The first story is sickening. All the chopped off digits and cannibalism make for a rough ride. There are a few stories that stuck with me. The prematurely aged teenager, the one about the gravestones, "shi-rook", etc. So overall, if you can get past the grotesque nature of the book, it's worth reading. Palahniuk has a weirdness to him that's intriguing.
The Universal Book of Mathematics - an encyclopedia of mathematics, but not as dry as that sounds. I've been nibbling on it when I have ten or fifteen minutes. I just learned about perfect, abundant, and deficient numbers! I think I already forgot how to define them!
The R. Crumb Handbook - a wonderful sick f. A quick read, with lots of nasty cartoons that made me laugh out loud.
Arts & Crafts and 20th Century Glass - both these books are part of the DK collector's guides series by Judith Miller. Beautiful books. Coffee table fare, but strangely calming and entertaining.
What The Dormouse Said - a history of the personal computer and the Bay area scene in the 1950's to 1970's. A little more technical than I expected, and it stops at the point where Bill Gates enters the picture.
The Unfolding of Language - I'm skimming through this, stopping for the interesting bits, but it's not bad. A linguistics intro kind of book.
The Anchor Book of Chinese Poetry - Not what I was looking for. There are a few poems that I liked, but the majority of this anthology had things like "On Wai Lu's demotion from the position of tax collector" or "On leaving the home of my friend". Too much of the same thing. The best poems were the ones written by courtesans.
Haunted - Chuck Palahniuk's book is like a demented Canterbury Tales. The first story is sickening. All the chopped off digits and cannibalism make for a rough ride. There are a few stories that stuck with me. The prematurely aged teenager, the one about the gravestones, "shi-rook", etc. So overall, if you can get past the grotesque nature of the book, it's worth reading. Palahniuk has a weirdness to him that's intriguing.
The Universal Book of Mathematics - an encyclopedia of mathematics, but not as dry as that sounds. I've been nibbling on it when I have ten or fifteen minutes. I just learned about perfect, abundant, and deficient numbers! I think I already forgot how to define them!
Posted at 11:57 AM Read More
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