Antimatter by Frank Close

Antimatter by Frank Close
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a very short book about antimatter, but it took me a really long time to read because it was very difficult to understand in places. The beginning gave the impression of being more of a popular science book with lots of bad jokes and whatnot but things grew in complexity to the point where I was rereading certain sentences again and again. I don't regret reading it because its specificity to antimatter makes it different than the more general physics material I've read (like when I read that book on black holes, The Black Hole War: My Battle with Stephen Hawking to Make the World Safe for Quantum Mechanics), but it was tough going.

It's also almost 10 years out of date now, so if I really want to know about antimatter, I'm going to have to update myself on the more recent discoveries.

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Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson

Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book appears to have the seeds of other better books like Anathem and Ready Player One, but it's fun, imaginative, and delightfully detailed.

I participated in the 24 in 48 Readathon this weekend, and as part of the readathon, I finished this book. I didn't make it up to 24 hours, but I'm satisfied that I got to enjoy so much of this story over the weekend.

Readathoning

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20 Poemas de Amor y Una Canción Desesperada by Pablo Neruda

20 poemas de amor y una canción desesperada by Pablo Neruda
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I read this in Spanish, and I generally enjoy Neruda much more in Spanish. The problem here is that good poetry in Spanish is very difficult for me, and I might be missing something significant here. Ideally, I'd read this in both Spanish in English, so I'm off to find an English copy.


Current favorite line, Poema 14:
"Quiero hacer contigo
lo que la primavera hace con los cerezos."

As an aside, he really loves the word "crepúsculo" which mean twilight in English. Crepúsculo crepúsculo crepúsculo.

Here's an online copy of the poems in Spanish if anyone is curious: https://www.poemas-del-alma.com/20-poemas-de-amor.htm.

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Love Poems by Pablo Neruda

Love Poems by Pablo Neruda
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I read this in English and in Spanish, and I wasn't crazy about this collection. I thought the poems were just a little better in Spanish. I especially liked the laughter poems in Spanish better. I find the English easier to understand because I'm more comfortable with it, and the Spanish a bit more musical, but there's not a huge difference in these particular poems for me. Love is a maybe the most difficult topic for poetry, and this just left something missing for me.

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City of Illusions by Ursula K. Le Guin

City of Illusions by Ursula K. Le Guin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a thousands-of-years-later sequel to Planet of Exile, so I recommend reading that one first, though it's not strictly necessary, as all the Hainish Cycle books stand alone pretty well. The beginning is a pretty straightforward adventure fantasy book with a hero on a quest, but soon becomes more of a puzzle that the reader has to engage with, while simultaneously pondering what constitutes a person's identity.

Le Guin wrote books 3-5 of the Hainish Cycle first: Rocannon's World (1966), Planet of Exile (1966), and City of Illusions (1967). I've read those and the prequel (book 1) The Dispossessed. So far this is my favorite in the Hainish Cycle. I'm going to read The Left Hand of Darkness (book 6) next.

RIP Ursula K. Le Guin. Thank you for all the books.

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Fire and Fury by Michael Wolff

Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House by Michael Wolff


I'm not going to give this a star rating for the time being. I'm just going to share my thoughts for now.

For me, the first question is how do I know anything in this book is true? Well, the most convincing thing is that there isn't a lot of "new" information in this book so much as there is a more complete picture based on behind-the-scenes information from inside sources. A lot of what is in this book has been public information in terms of Trump speeches, interviews, and tweets. The author himself was given White House access and claims to have been there for a lot of the events. About a half of the book is information and impressions that must have been provided by Bannon. Bannon's information appears colored by his dislike of Jared and Ivanka Kushner but does not appear otherwise significantly biased. (By which I mean that Bannon is pretty open about the ways in which he's evil, and isn't too bothered about it.) Jared Kushner himself leaked a great deal of information which seems to be in play in the book as well-- especially trash talk about Bannon. That leaves very little which I have any reason to doubt. Perhaps there isn't any good reason to believe the details of Trump's relationship with Melania, but that appears to be it.

Even though there's not a lot of new or shocking information, I think the book's full narrative of events is useful. For example, before reading this book, I kept thinking that maybe Donald Trump was "crazy like a fox." But after reading this, my impression is that he's just really ignorant (more than I thought) and even less curious about reality than I thought he was. He seems to believe he can just invent his own reality and buys into it to a certain degree. All of this is puzzling and troubling and definitely gives different coloring to how I view recent political events.

The conclusion is that Trump is unfit to be president according to his own advisors. Additionally, his advisors are unable to educate him or restrain him in any meaningful way. He is inconsistent and has poor impulse control. The "fire and fury" quote which the title uses is from Trump's threats to North Korea, but the book ends before the bulk of his North Korea threats. The whole world is at danger from this presidency and everyone knows it, but the people with the power to do anything about it, Senate Republicans, refuse to do anything.

PS: The Prologue and Chapter 1 aren't written as well as the rest of the book. If you find the beginning annoying you might want to reserve judgment until Chapter 2.

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Collected Fictions by Jorge Luis Borges

Collected Fictions by Jorge Luis Borges
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Borges writes philosophical fantasy and sometimes mystery stories.

1. Borges and Me/ Borges y Yo (4 stars)- I've read this one in both Spanish and English. I don't prefer a version. It's a simple short story about Borges's identity as a person versus as a writer that I enjoyed.

2. The Garden of Forking Paths (4 stars)- One of the things that is particularly interesting to me about this story is that its concept of time has been hypothesized by the multiverse theory of physics. The first person to propose information that would later lead to the multiverse theory was Erwin Schrödinger, in 1952, some years after Borges wrote this story.

3. Man On Pink Corner (5 stars)- Rosendo Juarez, men and dogs respected him. A fun little murder mystery. Pay close attention!

4. The Library of Babel- (5 stars) Amazing thought experiment/ work of philosophy. (Note: The library in The Magicians anyone?)

5. Death and a Compass/La Muerte y La Brujula (3 stars)- Read in Spanish and in English. Erik Lönnrot tries to solve murders which seem to follow a kabbalistic pattern. This one appears to be a favorite as it appears in all three of my Borges anthologies, but it's not one of my favorites. It's tricky and clever but I don't get much more from it.
"... la realidad no tiene la menor obligacion de ser interesante."
"... reality does not have the slightest obligation to be interesting."

6. The Lottery in Babylon/ The Babylon Lottery (3 stars)- More of the ideas of infinite choices and possibilities expressed in The Garden of Forking Paths and The Library of Babel. This is not my favorite execution of Borges's ideas about possible futures and philosophy.

7. The Maker (3 stars)- Very short, and I didn't get much from it.

8. The Zahir (3 stars)- Whatever this metaphor is I missed it.

9. The Encounter (3 stars)-Knife-control? Didn't love this story either.

10. The Circular Ruins (3.5 stars)- This is a very "La Vida es Sueno" type story. It's lovely though not earth-shattering.

11. Shakespeare's Memory (5 stars)- I love a lot about this story. I love Borges's conception of personhood. I love Shakespeare. I love the way Borges blatantly shows off his literary chops. Like many of his other great stories, you start to inhabit the story as if you are dreaming it and you lose sight of the real world around you.

12. August 25, 1983 (4 stars)- Hello me, it's future you. Don't you have anything useful to tell me? Nope.

13. The Immortal (5 stars)- As above, I am lost in the dream.

14. Parable of Cervantes and the Quixote (3.5 stars)- A bit of a spin on Borges y Yo basically.

15. The Story from Rosendo Juarez (3.5 stars)- Sequel to a Man on a Pink Corner!

16. The Aleph (5 stars)- What a super amazing story of romance. It is an insane work of fantasy. It's an interesting work of spirituality and philosophy. I love the ending. My heart might explode.

17. Dreamtigers (2 stars?)- He really was obsessed with tigers though. It's in almost all the stories.

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Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds

Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is incredibly sad, dark, witty, funny, and awesome. It reminds me a little of A Christmas Carol, but it's completely its own. I also love the conceit of the poetic form to the dribble of the ball on the court or in the small space of an elevator.

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Spark Joy by Marie Kondō

Spark Joy: An Illustrated Master Class on the Art of Organizing and Tidying Up by Marie Kondō
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Basically the same as the first book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing. The additional illustrations in this one weren't sufficient to make it substantially more useful. (It had a few little drawings of how to fold or store things.)

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Adultolescence by Gabbie Hanna

Adultolescence by Gabbie Hanna
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

What is going on here? Is this supposed to be Shel Silverstein for confused and sad college students? Maybe I've been caught off guard because I didn't know the author is a YouTube personality in advance? (I mostly only ever look at BookTube, live news feeds, or late night comedy on YouTube.)

Some of the poems have value as a humorous or silly way to describe the confusion of your 20s or the millennial experience. Even these seem pretty unpolished. Who is the audience for self-deprecating silly poems? Then all of the sudden there are "serious" unhumourous poems. In many of these, Hanna overshoots a lot. Here's just one example, the poem about divorce-- missed the mark by a lot. Probably would have been better to work on a smaller number of good poems rather than 170-something quickly written poems.


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NeuroTribes by Steve Silberman

NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity by Steve Silberman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is fundamentally a history book about autism and Aspergers and how it's been handled through time. There is also a lot about how adults on the spectrum have done well in their adult lives and lobbied on their own behalfs and on the behalf of children going through what they did. There were some particularly moving and terrifying parts- particularly the section on the holocaust. I feel like the book was helpful to understanding certain issues about disabilities in general and not just the autism spectrum specifically.

There is very little science, unfortunately. The title suggested to me that there would be at least some substantial section on neurobiology.

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Euthyphro by Plato

Euthyphro by Plato
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is sort of interesting in terms of questioning the relationship between ethics and religion, but since it refers mostly to the pagan gods with various different opinions, some of the arguments are not that interesting.

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Lunch Poems by Frank O'Hara

Lunch Poems by Frank O'Hara
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

There were lots of parts I loved, but more that I struggled with. I suspect that part of my problem is that I don't read enough poetry yet, so I'll keep trying and hopefully revisit this one later.

Here are my favorite bits:

From "Adieu to Norman, Bon Jour to Joan and Jean-Paul," p. 35:
“the only thing to do is simply continue
is that simple
yes, it is simple because it is the only thing to do
can you do it
yes, you can because it is the only thing to do”

From "Steps," p.58:
“oh god it’s wonderful
to get out of bed
and drink too much coffee
and smoke too many cigarettes
and love you so much”

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Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery

Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What a beautiful, heart-breaking, and mostly joyful book. I will definitely reread this book for years to come. It starts off a bit silly because Anne is just 11 at the beginning of the book, but by the time it ends she's 16, and the pages can barely contain her amazing soul.

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Meno by Plato

Meno by Plato
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This dialogue is Socrates's attempt to make the handsome Meno tell him what every instance of virtue has and only virtue has. Meno is a little slow and talks about "getting good things" rather than any soulful or golden-rule type answers.

Shortly thereafter, Meno tries to give up. So Socrates teaches a slave boy some geometry to prove that people are better off realizing all that they don't know rather than thinking they do know and being incorrect.

Then Socrates launches into some strange religious ideas he doesn't substantiate or explain in any convincing way. He ties reason and use of logic to "anamnesis" or recollection of a past life's knowledge.

Anytus comes by and makes death threats to Socrates.

Then is my favorite quote because it is the only part that makes sense to me:
"... none of us remarked that right and good action is possible to man under other guidance than that of knowledge (episteme);-and indeed if this be denied, there is no seeing how there can be any good men at all. "

But then Socrates goes on to say "right opinion" is just as good as knowledge. Seems dubious to me, since "right opinion" would likely still have a basis in knowledge of the things opined about or similar. Although, further research tells me that this might just be a bad translation, and Socrates is actually saying that a logical working out of a solution (via the Socratic method) is as good as knowledge.

Then finally Socrates concludes that since goodness isn't something we are born with, nor something we can learn, it must come from the gods. My online research tells me scholars disagree about whether he is being serious or sarcastically dismissing Meno because he can't be taught anything.

He certainly seems serious in the dialogue but he can't be because he's endeavoring to do the very thing he claims is impossible to do? Though, irony on top of irony, I don't know how effective Socrates has been in this dialogue. At least, I don't feel any smarter after reading this.


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The Republic by Plato

The Republic by Plato
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I am reading Great Books: My Adventures with Homer, Rousseau, Woolf, and Other Indestructible Writers of the Western World and pausing to read any of the books mentioned that I have not already read. In this case, I had read most of The Republic before but couldn't remember it so I went back and read the whole thing.

Great Books didn't give me a lot of help in analyzing or dealing with The Republic so I listened to a library audiobook course about The Republic. This definitely helped in understanding all the confusing arguments Socrates makes.

Plato describes Socrates engaging in a dialogue with Glaucon and numerous other Athenians and non-citizens about a number of topics. The first part is about justice and it mostly matches up to a modern (even Christian) conception of justice. Justice is not about the force of the powerful. It's about the soul, goodness towards even enemies, and the rights of weak.

The next part is about the perfect society, but not really, because Plato didn't believe in a modern-day Western conception of legal equality based on human rights. To his credit, his perfect society is feminist- women can do whatever men can do except things requiring a lot of physical strength. Unfortunately, his society is also based on eugenics, hierarchy with little opportunity for social movement, communist, and without families. To modern ears his perfect society sounds like the perfect Young Adult Dystopian Novel; a cross between The Giver and Allegiant. According to my audiobook course, this Socrates's conception of the perfect society is the direct result of Athen's recent defeat to Sparta. Many of the aspects are either taken from Spartan society or a "correction" of something in Athenian society that Socrates perceives to be at fault for Athen's loss.

Socrates also wanted philosopher kings. As such, the book is also about Socrates's conception of making philosophy a fixed study in the way that math and geometry have fixed answers. Which is certainly an interesting concept. Philosophy (at least popular philosophy) has moved so far away from that idea that the idea of real answers in ethics and philosophy is very appealing.

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And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer by Fredrik Backman

And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer by Fredrik Backman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It's a nice little story, but considering the topic of dementia and decline, it seems a bit sanitized and sanguine for my taste.

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Book Riot's 2017 Read Harder Challenge

Last year, I vaguely attempted Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge, but then I forgot about it. I just checked to see how I did (mostly by accident) and I got 19/24. I might try to get back to the ones I missed (highlighted below) after I finish tackling the 2018 challenge.

1. Read a book about sports. Forward by Abby Wamback
2. Read a debut novel. Lots- Chemistry by Weike Wang and Rabbit Cake by Annie Hartnet were favorites
3. Read a book about books. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
4. Read a book set in Central or South America, written by a Central or South American author. Fail.
5. Read a book by an immigrant or with a central immigration narrative. Exit West
6. Read an all-ages comic. March I, II, III by John Lewis and Saga Vol. 1 & 2
7. Read a book published between 1900 and 1950. A bunch, but let's say The Voyage Out by Virginia Woolf
8. Read a travel memoir. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
9. Read a book you’ve read before. Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau (because Trump)
10. Read a book that is set within 100 miles of your location. A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
11. Read a book that is set more than 5000 miles from your location. Everything Belongs to Us by Yoojin Grace Wuertz
12. Read a fantasy novel.  A lot but my favorites were Dune by Frank Herbert and The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula LeGuin
13. Read a nonfiction book about technology. Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari
14. Read a book about war. Dispatches by Michael Herr
15. Read a YA or middle grade novel by an author who identifies as LGBTQ+. Not sure. Fail?
16. Read a book that has been banned or frequently challenged in your country. Lady Chatterley's Lover by DH Lawrence
17. Read a classic by an author of color. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (best memoir ever)
18. Read a superhero comic with a female lead. Fail.
19. Read a book in which a character of color goes on a spiritual journey. Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami
20. Read an LGBTQ+ romance novel (From Sarah MacLean, author of ten bestselling historical romance novels) Fail.
21. Read a book published by a micropress. Bad Feminist and Hunger by Roxane Gay
22. Read a collection of stories by a woman. What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky by Lesley Nneka Arimah
23. Read a collection of poetry in translation on a theme other than love. (From Ausma Zehanat Khan, author of the Esa Khattak/Rachel Getty mystery series, including The Unquiet Dead, The Language of Secrets, and the forthcoming Among the Ruins) Fail
24. Read a book wherein all point-of-view characters are people of color. (From Jacqueline Koyanagi, author of sci-fi novel Ascension) The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

Evicted by Matthew Desmond

Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I wish the author had put the "About This Project" at the beginning of the book, and I recommend that if you read this book you start with that section. When I began the book I had the expectation that the book would have a lot of history, politics, policy, with some personal examples, as many nonfiction books focusing on a particular legal or policy issue typically do. This book is not like that, it's an ethnography. It is more of a biography of several people going through evictions - and the one landlord that was willing to participate. The distance between my expectations of the book and the actual substance of it made it made it difficult to finish. Another thing that made it very difficult to finish the book was how deeply depressing the subject is (granted it's important that it feel depressing but it makes it very difficult). That said, I am very glad I finished it, despite- or because of- all the tears.

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Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene

Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Tongue-in-cheek spy novel that gets a bit dark and more exciting as it goes on. Graham Greene is a confusing author for me because he wrote one of my favorite literary works, The End of the Affair, but his writing isn't limited to literary fiction, and The Third Man, for example, is just some noir nonsense. This was sort of in between but I did enjoy it.

I was especially interested in the pre-Castro Cuban setting. My family is from Cuba, and around this time my grandparents would have been in their 20s. My paternal side moved to Santa Clara at about the time of the story (the main character James Wormold goes there on vacation). My maternal side moved to Havana shortly after the time period of the novel. All Cuban-Americans are devoutly anti-Castro but the sacrilegious question is always whether the dictator that preceded him, Batista, was also a bad guy. This makes the character Segura particularly interesting to me, especially since Greene doesn't make him as one-dimensional as it initially appears.

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Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin

Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Really interesting, but too long. I saw lots of places it could have been edited down. (Though it's not really 900 pages. It's about 750 pages, plus about 150 pages of index.)

The abolitionists are the heroes of this book, and of American history. I didn't know much about Secretary of State William Seward or Secretary of Treasury Salmon Chase previous to reading about them about here. My favorite parts were the meetings with Douglass Frederick. I have read Frederick's Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and My Escape from Slavery but I didn't know about these amazing meetings with Lincoln. I'm glad I read his autobiography first, because then when I read about the meetings, I could more fully grasp their significance. These meetings are probably the happiest parts of the book.

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Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire

Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Fun YA-fantasy-horror book. More consistently good than the first one of the Wayward Children series. The main thing I find problematic with both in the series is the inexplicable way otherwise fairly normal people turn to murder without much compunction. That doesn't seem realistic to me. I get that the whole thing isn't realistic because it's a fantasy novel but I do still expect the characters to behave like actual people.

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Poetics by Aristotle

Poetics by Aristotle
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Aristotle discusses the forms and best practices of tragedy, comedy, and epic poetry. There’s a strong emphasis on The Iliad, The Odyssey, and parts of The Orestia (which I am familiar with) and some other works with which I am not familiar. His literary critique and description is surprisingly timeless. Also, it’s so short and readable that there’s no reason to put it off if it’s on your reading list.

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Abide with Me by Elizabeth Strout

Abide with Me by Elizabeth Strout
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Amazing work of art. Elizabeth Strout understands so much about this world. I'm just overawed by this book. Everything- the characters, the plot, the little details, just perfect. (This coming from me, a person who almost always wants to change something about a book.)

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Shakepeare Project Continued 2018

I made a lot of progress in trying to read all of these over 2016 and 2017. Here's my update. 15/38 done.

Play- Date First Performed (date read)

1. Henry VI, Part II- 1590-91  (10/19/16)
2. Henry VI, Part III- 1590-91 (4/29/17)
3. Henry VI, Part I- 1591-92 (9/23/16)
4. Richard III- 1592-93 
5. Comedy of Errors- 1592-93 (10/17/16)
6. Titus Andronicus-1593-94 (10/25/16)
7. Taming of the Shrew- 1593-94 (9/16/16)
8. Two Gentlemen of Verona- 1594-95 (11/26/16)
9. Love's Labour's Lost- 1594-95 (11/30/16)
10. Romeo and Juliet- 1594-95 (high school)
11. Richard II- 1595-96  (12/13/17)
12. A Midsummer Night's Dream- 1595-96 (3/2005)
13. King John- 1596-97 
14. The Merchant of Venice- 1596-97 
15. Henry IV, Part I- 1597-98 
16. Henry IV, Part II- 1597-98 
17. Much Ado About Nothing- 1598-99 (2004, 1/2/18)
18. Henry V- 1598-99 
19. Julius Caesar- 1599-1600 
20. As You Like It- 1599-1600 
21. Twelfth Night- 1599-1600 
22. Hamlet- 1600-01 (high school)
23. The Merry Wives of Windsor- 1600-01 
24. Troilus and Cressida- 1601-02 
25. All's Well That Ends Well- 1602-03 
26. Measure for Measure- 1604-05  (saw play)
27. Othello- 1604-05 
28. King Lear- 1605-06 
29. Macbeth- 1605-06 (high school)
30. Antony and Cleopatra- 1606-07 
31. Coriolanus- 1607-08 
32. Timon of Athens- 1607-08 
33. Pericles- 1608-09 
34. Cymbeline- 1609-10 
35. The Winter's Tale- 1610-11 
36. The Tempest- 1611-12 (4/8/14)
37. Henry VIII- 1612-13 
38. The Two Noble Kinsmen- 1612-13 (maybe not written by Shakespeare) 

Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare

Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is an easy fun Shakespeare play about love. There are two love stories, but I enjoyed the more comical one of Beatrice and Benedick the most. It's not terribly feminist, and I'm left feeling a bit cold for Claudio, who, in addition to jealousy and trust issues, doesn't seem to mind a replacement bride quite as much as he should.

"In brief, since I do
purpose to marry, I will think nothing to any
purpose that the world can say against it; and
therefore never flout at me for what I have said
against it; for man is a giddy thing, and this is my
conclusion." - Benedick

With Jaime at Much Ado at Shakespeare in the Park, Boston 2004

Much Ado at Shakespeare in the Park, Boston 2004

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A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf

A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a brilliant essay about writing and feminism, and it made me feel like cheering on Woolf. That said, I struggled with the fictional elements inside of the nonfictional essay.

Favorite quotes:

“Possibly when the professor insisted a little too emphatically upon the inferiority of women, he was concerned not with their inferiority, but with his own superiority. That was what he was protecting rather hot-headedly and with too much emphasis, because it was a jewel to him of the rarest price.”

“They start the day confident, braced, believing themselves desired at Miss Smith's tea party; they say to themselves as they go into the room, I am the superior of half the people here, and it is thus that they speak with that self-confidence, that self-assurance, which have had such profound consequences in public life and lead to such curious notes in the margin of the private mind.”

“The history of men's opposition to women's emancipation is more interesting perhaps than the story of that emancipation itself.”

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General Reading Goals 2018

Instead of resolutions this year, I want to have some general reading goals this year. First and foremost, I want to read the books that are already in my house. I'd like to read more Pulitzer Prize books. I'd like to focus on these authors (in no particular order): Virginia Woolf, Marcel Proust, Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, Graham Greene, Alice Munroe, Lydia Davis, Margaret Atwood, John Updike, and Haruki Murakami.


Kevin recs:
Anna Karenina - Pevear translation
Madame Bovary - Lydia Davis translation
Tender is the Night- Fitzgerald

Alice Munroe Selected Stories
Flannery O'Connor Complete Stories

Lunch Poems by Frank O'Hara
Elizabeth Bishop Complete Poems

Stop Time- Frank Conroy

Old recs:
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage by Alice Munroe


Dad related goals:
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
The Decay of the Angel by Yukio Mishima
Spring Snow by Yukio Mishima
The Temple of Dawn by Yukio Mishima
Gödel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter
The Shining Mountain by Peter Boardman