Books
A writer I know who has been afflicted with Long COVID has gathered a group of fellow sufferers to compile The Long Covid Reader, which promises to be an informative and insightful look into this new serious illness that societies worldwide have yet to adjust to, leaving millions of convalescents
Books
§1 Rock and metal genres Becoming a Rate Your Music member is a great way to learn about the multitude of genres that people have imagined for sub-dividing rock and metal music, and this video (unrelated to RYM) can serve as a quick introduction. §2 Book David Orr had enough
Books
"[Herodotus] understood that to know ourselves we have to know Others, who act as the mirror in which we see ourselves reflected; he knew that to understand ourselves better we have to understand Others, to compare ourselves with them, to measure ourselves against them. As a citizen of the
Books
Among all forms of prehistoric religion, the strangest and most difficult to understand in our own day seems the cult of the dead, the constant presence of the dead in every aspect of life. To a prehistoric man, in contrast, our strangest and most mysterious form of worship would be
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Some book and media titles from the Multnomah County Library: 50 Aircraft That Changed the World 50 Battles That Changed the World 50 Companies That Changed the World 80 Days That Changed the World Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World Bridges That Changed the World Five
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When I was a child, I got The Complete Sherlock Holmes Treasury as a Christmas present (probably from Aunt Judy). Of course I read it right away—what nine-year-old can resist Sherlock Holmes?—and would re-read it every two or three years as I forgot how the cases ended (though
Books
A cover blurb from the paperback edition of Jonathan I. Israel's Radical Enlightenment: One of the truly great historical works of the decade. The book and the blurb were published in 2001.
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In the post immediately below, I note how good British commentaries on the United States can be. One example: Henry Fairlie was a British journalist who worked in the United States from the mid-1960s until his death in 1990. If you like American political history and ever have the opportunity
I regret the lack of histories of the United States available in English by writers from non-Anglophone countries. Someone from another culture who approaches the subject using a different set of assumptions can provide insights that a native would never reach on his own. British commentaries can be bracing and
Books
The two best books I have read so far this year are Cultural Amnesia by Clive James and Austerity Britain by David Kynaston. Both books deal at great length with the effects of World War II on their main subjects (for James, the culture of Mitteleuropa; for Kynaston, British daily
Books
My friend and co-worker Laural Winter interviews Jason Shiga, the author of Bookhunter, my favorite graphic novel. Bookhunter is the story of how the Oakland Public Library's detective squad and SWAT team cracked a 1973 book theft case. If you find the idea of a public library having
Books
The New York Review of Books edition of The Anatomy of Melancholy is 1382 pages long. Here's the problem with that. If I'm feeling melancholy, then I'm in no condition to read a serious 1382-page book with a lot of Latin in it. If