More shelf space may not be an option. More shelf space requires more shelving, which in turn requires more bookcases, which in turn require more room. Sigh. I gave a few hundred away just over a year ago, but that… Read More ›
Books
Russian Script Hacking for Beginners
Is it Korsunsky or Korsunskiy or Korsunski or perhaps even Korsunskyi? Would it help to see it written out in Cyrillic rather than in our Roman alphabet? Related question: what’s the capital of Ukraine — Kiev or Kyiv? Actually, it’s… Read More ›
Coffee shops with books: A personal connection
As you know, many coffee shops and small restaurants want their customers to feel at home, so they have comfortable chairs and shelves with random books on them. The intent, I suppose, is to create an ambiance like a living… Read More ›
Semicolon
“What!? An entire book about semicolons??? You’ve got to be kidding!” “And an audiobook of all things???? How can you listen to a semicolon?” Yes, I have to admit: I really did listen to an audiobook about a punctuation mark…. Read More ›
Language Unlimited: “Syntax is where the magic happens.”
“Syntax is where the magic happens. It takes the words we use to slice up our reality, and puts them together in infinitely varied ways.” — from Language Unlimited, by David Adger. If I had to pick one paragraph as the thesis statement… Read More ›
Murder on the Toy Town Express
Toy Town is East Aurora, NY. Although you probably already knew that, I didn’t know it until I read Barbara Early’s Murder on the Toy Town Express. Don’t confuse this novel with the famous murder on that other express. You can tell… Read More ›
To Say Nothing of the Dog and Three Men in a Boat (to say nothing of the dog)
Two books — each called (in part) To Say Nothing of the Dog. Is this a coincidence? Actually, no. Let’s look at each title in turn: The first of these, which has the full title of To Say Nothing of the Dog: Or… Read More ›
State University of Murder
State University of Michigan? Hmm… SUM? Is this perhaps a heavily disguised Michigan State University (MSU)? Or would that be too subtle? Anyway, you should read State University of Murder, Lev Raphael’s latest novel. This academic satire is the latest… Read More ›
Shady Characters
You don’t have to be a typography nerd to enjoy this book, as long as you read it slowly and carefully. Keith Houston (who is not a professional typographer) has written a surprisingly lively book with the title Shady Characters: The… Read More ›
The Newish Jewish Encyclopedia
How does one review an encyclopedia? Look specific things up in it? Dip into it randomly? Read it in order cover-to-cover? I suppose one solution is for us to look up a term that we are familiar with, and then… Read More ›
The Quantum Spy
Espionage, quantum computing, cryptography: a fascinating trifecta of themes. Mostly techno-thriller, with a bit of science fiction, The Quantum Spy by WaPo columnist David Ignatius seamlessly combines all three themes. There are two orthogonal ways to look at a novel like this…. Read More ›
The Doomsday Book
Connie Willis is my second favorite science fiction author, so I decided to read The Doomsday Book for the third time. Yes, I do read books more than once. I know that I’m in the minority in that respect. And yes, I… Read More ›
Rendezvous with Rama
The late Arthur C. Clarke and the late Isaac Asimov used to have a running dispute, which they resolved by agreeing that Clarke would always say that Asimov was the second best science fiction writer in the world, and Asimov would… Read More ›
Intertwingled/“Hypertext in the Age of Trump”
Hypertext pioneer Mark Bernstein has just published Intertwingled, a collection of nine essays and one short story. No one could ever say that Bernstein is shy about expressing his opinions, so don’t expect some dry attempt at scientific “neutrality.” If you… Read More ›
Neal Stephenson’s Fall
Another thousand-page tome from the wonderful Neal Stephenson! Well, no, it’s actually only 880 pages — but that’s close enough. It’s still worth every minute (or should I say “every day”?) that it takes to read it. Basically, Fall: Dodge… Read More ›
(Before the alt-right) An Informal History of the Hugos: A Personal Look Back at the Hugo Awards, 1953–2000
White privilege and male privilege are alive and well in the Hugo awards, despite claims about “criminally overlooked” white males. All you have to do is look through the inestimable Jo Walton’s deeply annotated objective account of all the Hugo awards… Read More ›
Greek Script Hacking
Four weeks ago I reviewed two of the Script Hacking books: Korean and Arabic. Now I turn to a script that I actually know — one that I know thoroughly, in fact: I studied Greek for six years, starting in… Read More ›
Jiffy? Centijiffy? Decijiffy?
“I’ll be with you in a jiffy.” How long is a jiffy? What about a centijiffy? Before we get to the urgent question of how long a jiffy is, I want to comment on a surprising error (or is it… Read More ›
What Has Become of You
Academic settings… disturbed and/or disturbing people… why do I keep reading such novels? Well, we know why the academic settings appeal to me. As for the characters, that’s harder to analyze. I suppose I’d like to understand some of the… Read More ›
Loner
Take a look: he’s a nerdy Jewish kid from New Jersey, known as a “nice guy,” intellectually passionate but awkward in social situations. He’s starting his first day as a Harvard freshmen. How could I resist this 2016 novel by… Read More ›
Learning Strategies 