I agree.
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)
.
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)
.
Monday, January 13, 2020
Sunday, January 12, 2020
Saturday, January 11, 2020
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)
.
Thursday, January 09, 2020
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
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)
.
Saturday, January 04, 2020
Friday, January 03, 2020
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.
Tuesday, December 31, 2019
Book Excerpt for the Day
“Sigrid, back in the days before you decided
on a career behind the stick...“
“Hold it right there, huh? Being
a bartender’s not a career, and I didn’t decide on it.”
“You didn’t?”
“Of course not. Nobody does, not
in New York. You decide on a career in
the arts, and you wait tables to make ends meet, and it begins to dawn on you
that bartenders make more money and don’t have to work as hard, plus they never
get yelled at for dropping a whole tray of pasta dishes full of people from
Ridgeway, New Jersey-“
“Did that happen to you?”
“No, but it could have.”
(from The Burglar On
The Prowl, by Lawrence Block)
.
Monday, December 30, 2019
Sunday, December 29, 2019
Wednesday, December 18, 2019
Tuesday, December 17, 2019
Book Excerpt for the Day
“Would
you care for a spot of port, my good fellow?”
“No,” growled Toreg. “You try our
shmiriz. Not to insult us.”
“Oh, very well,” agreed the Hoka.
He emptied the pot into his flagon.
“Shmiriz got power,” Toreg bragged.
“Turns your ears purple.”
A
gasp of awe rose from the crowd when Bertram drained his huge cup in a single
swallow.
“Nonsense,” he said. “Do my ears
look purple?”
Toreg squinted blearily. “Too
much fur on them to tell,” he complained.
(from Hokas Pokas!
by Poul Anderson and Gordon R. Dickson)
.
Monday, December 16, 2019
Sunday, December 15, 2019
Saturday, December 14, 2019
Friday, December 13, 2019
Thursday, December 12, 2019
Wednesday, December 11, 2019
Tuesday, December 10, 2019
Book Excerpt for the Day
As murder weapons go, the lowly tire iron
has the virtue of being genderless and easily obtainable. Lots of people have tire irons. They’re probably not as common as a set of kitchen
knives, but they’re cheap, readily available, have no moving parts, and no one
would think to question your possessing one.
You don’t need a license to buy one and you don’t have to worry about a
three-day waiting period while your local hardware salesman runs a background
check.
(from Q Is For
Quarry, by Sue Grafton)
.
Monday, December 09, 2019
Christmas Lists
It's that time of year again. When Santa wants you to have your Christmas list finished.
Sunday, December 08, 2019
Saturday, December 07, 2019
Word for the Day
Widow’s Walk (n.;
phrase) : a railed or balustraded platform built on a roof, originally in
early New England houses, typically for providing an unimpeded view of the sea.
Friday, December 06, 2019
Book Excerpt for the Day
Three
strands for the French hens, under the sky,
Seven for the swimming swans, my true love gave to me.
Nine for the gracious ladies dancing by,
A
partridge for the Red Lord, in a pear tree.
Tinsel ensnares them all, tinsel entwines them,
Tinsel confounds them all and in the ice-floes binds them,
In
the land of Kringol, where the reindeer fly.
(from The
Management Style of the Supreme Beings by Tom
Holt)
.
Wednesday, December 04, 2019
Tuesday, December 03, 2019
Christmas Lights
Done. Used little plastic clips this year instead of staples. We'll see if they hold up until the 1st of the year.
Monday, December 02, 2019
Sunday, December 01, 2019
Book Excerpt for the Day
David
Rosenhan, a professor emeritus at Stanford, (…) in 1973 got himself and seven
other completely healthy friends admitted to the mental wards of hospitals
across the United States. The point of
his experiment was to question the validity of psychiatric diagnosis – but they
hadn’t expected it to be so easy.
Rosenhan and his colleagues each phoned a hospital complaining of
hearing voices. The rest of their medical
history and any other life stories were all true. All eight were admitted – seven were
diagnosed with schizophrenia, one with manic-depressive psychosis. As soon as they entered the hospital they
said their hallucinations had disappeared.
It was then up to each individual to convince the staff to discharge – a
task that took between seven and fifty-two days.
(from Unthinkable by Helen Thomson)
.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)