Friday, January 31, 2020

How Writing Works


    This is why I have no desire to be a writer.

Thursday, January 30, 2020

Carvel Soft Ice Cream


    This brings back ancient childhood memories.  Once every couple of weeks or so, my parents would pack us kids into the family station wagon, and we'd go to the local Carvel Soft Ice Cream Store (similar to this one) located in Shoemakersville, Pennsylvania,  I was in sugar heaven.

Wednesday, January 29, 2020

Book Excerpt for the Day


    The next day, she could hardly settle to anything.  In the morning she fussed with her little garden, pruning this, repotting that, but her mind wasn’t on it.  Then it started to rain, so she went inside and made some coffee and did what she had never done in her life: tried the newspaper crossword.

    “What a stupid exercise,” said her daemon after five minutes.  “Words belong in contexts, not pegged out like biological specimens.”


    (from The Book of Dust, Book 1: La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman)

     5½*/10.  The full review is here.
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Tuesday, January 28, 2020

Freakonomics


    Freakonomics 101Commonality versus Cause-&-Effect.

Monday, January 27, 2020

Exercise


    According to my Fitbit, 20 minutes of mowing the lawn qualifies as exercise.  But three hours of dusting and vacuuming does not.

Saturday, January 25, 2020

Girl Scout Cookies Saturday


    Homemade cookies vs. Girl Scout cookies.  Easy choice.

Friday, January 24, 2020

Remarkable


    Friday Punnery.  I had to read this twice to "get it".

Thursday, January 23, 2020

Book Excerpt for the Day


    As a small boy, Norman had always enjoyed putting his chemistry set to ill use and blowing things up.  But, as an adult he came to the conclusion that the problem with blowing things up was that it always left such chaos behind.  Not that Norman was an altogether tidy man, but explosions do tend to leave behind quite an unwholesome jumble.

    So, when now called upon to show his scientific stuff, as it were, Norman determined that he would create a clean bomb that would tidy up after itself.

    And thus, with this goal in mind, and his thoughts that Alfred Nobel had invented dynamite and that Norman still was very keen to win a Nobel Prize, Normanite was born.

    Normanite was unique in that it was an implosive, it sucked rather than blew.
 
    (from The Chronicles of Banarnia, by Robert Rankin)


    8*/10.  The full review is here.
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Tuesday, January 21, 2020

Monday, January 20, 2020

Sunday, January 19, 2020

Reading Stats - 2019


Reading stats for 2019:
Books read: 72
Words read: 25,262 (per Goodreads)
Shortest book: 75 pages (Carl Sandburg)
Longest book: 1,252 pages (Brandon Sanderson)
Non-Fiction: 9
Female Authors: 15
Poetry: 1
(Auto)Biographies: 2
New Authors: 34
Highbrow Lit: 3 (Proust, Hawthorne, Barzun)

Saturday, January 18, 2020

Book Excerpt for the Day


    Imagine that you are a government official charged with procuring the funds to fight one of two proven killers: terrorist attacks and heart disease.  Which cause do you think the members of Congress will open up the coffers for?  The likelihood of any given person being killed in a terrorist attack is far smaller than the likelihood that the same person will clog up his arteries with fatty food and die of heart disease.  But a terrorist attack happens now; death by heart disease is some distant, quiet catastrophe.  Terrorist attacks lie beyond our control; French fries do not.

    (from Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner)

    8½*/10.  The complete review is here.
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Friday, January 17, 2020

Thursday, January 16, 2020

Wednesday, January 15, 2020

Tuesday, January 14, 2020

Book Excerpt for the Day


    Elizabeth was ready to argue, but a sharp pain in her side stopped her.

    “Are you hurt?” Simon said.

    She shook her head, but Simon wasn’t convinced.  “Come on,” he said as he guided her to the bank of elevators, stopping only briefly at the front desk to get his key and bark some orders.  “Uncanny,” he muttered.

    “What?”

    “You and trouble.”

    “It’s a gift.”

    (from When The Walls Fell by Monique Martin)

     5*/10.  The full review is here.
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Sunday, January 12, 2020

Sunday Sermon


    Buddha speaks only Truth.

Saturday, January 11, 2020

Attention


    This would be our Lulu.

Friday, January 10, 2020

Book Excerpt for the Day


    “In any case,” Quick Ben said with a smile, “I don’t rival gods.”

    “A wise decision.”

    “But, sometimes, I beat them at their own game.”

    Beauchelain studied the wizard, then slowly leaned back.  “I find myself appreciating your company, Quick Ben.  I am not easily entertained, but you have indeed proved a worthy diversion this night, and for that I thank you.”

    “You’re quite welcome.”

    “My companion, Korbal Broach, alas, would like to kill you.”

    “Can’t please everyone.”


    (from Memories of Ice by Steven Erikson)

    8½*/10.  The complete review is here.
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Thursday, January 09, 2020

Mathematics Thursday


    Today's Math Lesson:  Relative Numbers.

Wednesday, January 08, 2020

Books I've Really Read


    I've read the three in the lower row, on the left side.  And the other two in the lower row are both on my TBR shelf.

Tuesday, January 07, 2020

Monday, January 06, 2020

Dreams


    Every stinking time.

Sunday, January 05, 2020

Book Excerpt for the Day


    This is not a cheerful book, but history has a way of intruding upon the present, and perhaps those who read it will have a clearer understanding of what the American Indian is, by knowing what he was.  They may be surprised to hear words of gentle reasonableness coming from the mouths of Indians stereotyped in the American myth as ruthless savages. (…) The Indians knew that life was equated with the earth and its resources, that America was a paradise, and they could not comprehend why the intruders from the East were determined to destroy all that was Indian as well as America itself.

    And if the readers of this book should ever chance to see the poverty, the hopelessness, and the squalor of a modern Indian reservation, they may find it possible to truly understand the reasons why.
(Dee Brown, in the introduction to this book)


    (from Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown)

  9½*/10.  The complete review is here.
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Saturday, January 04, 2020

Friday, January 03, 2020

42


   42!!  The answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything else!!

Thursday, January 02, 2020

Wednesday, January 01, 2020

My 2020 Resolution


    My New Year's Resolution for 2020 is to quit posting silly pun memes.  That was an epic fail.