Category: What I’m Reading Now

What book(s) I’m reading now and what I think about the subject, the writing, the book design and the author. Most of these are books by the bedside: books I read in the final hour or so before sleep each night. There is usually a stack of 10-20 books on the go at any one time.

-Ocracies and -Isms: How the USA Broke

MAGA cultists / Talibangelists and pseudo-Christians / Trump fascism / What I'm Reading Now7 Comments

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Once upon a time, the USA was a democracy. While vestiges of democracy can still be found in the USA, it is being actively and aggressively eradicated at the federal level, and also in several Repugnican-controlled states like Texas. But what has the USA become post-democracy? Democracy is a portmanteau word meaning, “government by the people, system of government in which the sovereign power is vested in the people as a whole exercising power directly or by elected officials.” It is conflated from from two ancient Greek words: dēmos, meaning “common people,” and kratos, meaning “rule,” or “strength.” It first … click below for more ↓

The Thousand and One Nights Again

Books & Reviews / Classics / Musings / What I'm Reading Now2 Comments

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Humans have always been storytellers. From the time when humans first developed language around 100,000 years ago, we have been telling one another stories. Long before we could write, we left records of our stories in cave paintings, carvings, and rock art (petroglyphs). Almost 70,000 years ago, humans painted with their hands on rocks. The Chauvet Cave in France has similar visual records painted by humans more than 30,000 years ago. The Lascaux cave contains more than 600 paintings of nearly 6,000 figures on the walls and ceilings, made around 20,000 years ago. We cannot know today what those stories … click below for more ↓

The Age of Doubt

Cults / Musings / Politics / Social media issues / What I'm Reading Now3 Comments

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It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. It was the age of scientific advancement; it was the age of flat-earthers and chemtrail fanatics. It was the age of medical discoveries; it was the age of anti-vaxxers and homeopaths. It was the age of information; it was the age of Qanon conspiracies and creationists. It was the age of liberal democracies; it was the age of rising fascism. It was the age of technology; it was the age of 5G paranoia. It was the age of reason; it was the age of fundamentalist religions. It was … click below for more ↓

Thoughts on (Re)Reading Fowler’s

Books & Reviews / Musings / Style & usage / What I'm Reading Now5 Comments

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I had all but forgotten how delightful it can be reading Fowler’s Dictionary of Modern English Usage. It gives me the same sort of pleasure as reading at random through Samuel Johnson’s 1755 dictionary. Although I have had a copy of Fowler’s book on my self since the 1970s, I only returned to it recently, while musing on the dog’s breakfast of the town’s recent communications about its boil-water advisory. I was going to write a post about the event, offering whatever sage advice I still had about how to create effective, far-reaching, and immediate notification during an emergency (and … click below for more ↓

The Troubling Lack of Empathy Among Conservatives

MAGA cultists / Psychology & Sociology / Rightwing claptrap / Talibangelists and pseudo-Christians / What I'm Reading Now9 Comments

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Empathy is a nasty word to conservatives. Elon Musk recently showed his contempt for the very notion of considering another’s feelings, calling it “civilizational suicidal empathy.” And then, to make sure everyone knew his views, the technocrat added in an interview with fellow rightwing MAGA cultist Joe Rogan, “The fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy, the empathy exploit.” Which means he sees empathy as a weakness he can exploit. Information-warfare.com noted, “Musk’s perspective on empathy aligns with certain ideological frameworks, particularly technocracy and the Dark Enlightenment [DE] movement. These ideologies do not prioritize empathy as a guiding principle but … click below for more ↓

No, Elon, We Won’t Be Going to Mars Soon

Behaviour & Psychology / Books & Reviews / Science & Technology / Space and space travel / Technology & Gadgets / What I'm Reading Now13 Comments

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Delusional SpaceNazi and democracy destroyer Elon Musk says his company will launch its first rockets to Mars in 2026, and could have human missions sent to the Red Planet as early as 2029, but for sure by 2031. Well, that’s piffle for a lot of reasons. We won’t see a human flight to Mars for many, many more years and not likely to happen within my remaining lifetime (a couple of decades at least, I hope). But despite the ridiculousness of his posturing, sycophantic media continue to shill for Musk and his wacky ideas by publishing his words without actually … click below for more ↓

Review: The Design of Books

Books & Reviews / Books about books / What I'm Reading NowOne Comment

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Like with so many other technologies in our lives — computers, cars, bread machines, flushing toilets, DVD players, convection ovens — most consumers don’t know or appreciate how books are made, or why they are made in such familiar shapes and structure. In more than four millennia since humans invented writing, the way that writing has been recorded and shared has evolved from clay tablets to the modern paperback and hardcover. Because we are so used to seeing and reading books, few of us stop to consider how that evolution happened and why. Debbie Berne’s The Design of Books (University … click below for more ↓

Musings on Grammar, Usage, and Garner’s

Books & Reviews / Language & Grammar / My Writing / Style & usage / What I'm Reading NowOne Comment

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Be honest with me: how serious are you about the serial comma? Do you wade into discussions on language forums and social media brandishing citations from your favourite authorities? Do you dismiss dissenting authorities as heretics? Are there style and usage guides on your bookshelf with sticky notes and bookmarks in them so you can immediately find your references should anyone post a contrary opinion? Do you haughtily refer to it as the Oxford comma instead of the serial — or, the gods of language forbid, the Harvard — comma?* Do you rail and wail over comma splices? Does a … click below for more ↓

Tyrant: Shakespeare on Politics

Books & Reviews / Politics / Shakespeare / What I'm Reading NowLeave a comment

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You might think, while reading Henry VI Part 2, that Shakespeare was writing about recent events, the writer merely masking them in archaic historical dress. Okay, even if you have read some of the Bard’s plays, the three Henry VI plays probably aren’t among the ones you read in university or high school. They can be a slog to read in part because they were among his earliest, and the story meanders a lot. But bear with me. They were the lead into Richard III, a moving and powerful play about politics and personality, one of several in the canon. … click below for more ↓

Reading the Iliad

Books & Reviews / Classics / Translations & translating / What I'm Reading Now4 Comments

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There was a moment when I was reading The Iliad that I thought to myself, “This is it. This is what the epic is really all about.” Somehow it all seemed to come down to one particular scene and all the rest was just leading up to it. Why I had that epiphany, I’ll explain in due course. But what struck me is that the real message of this epic poem was almost hidden by all the thousands of lines that came before it. I don’t get that many such bright moments when I read, although I read a lot. … click below for more ↓

Seven Faces of Marcus Aurelius

Books & Reviews / Classics / Musings / Philosophy / Stoicism & classical philosophy / What I'm Reading NowOne Comment

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I am going to assume that you, dear reader, already know who Marcus Aurelius Antonius was. I have respect for both the intelligence and education of my readers, enough to feel I can avoid making pedantic explanations and reiterating his biography that is more fluently available on dozens or hundreds of better, more encyclopedic websites. No, this is not a treatise on him, or even on his Stoic philosophy. It’s a look at how six different translators rendered some parts of his book, Meditations. But please humour me in allowing a little pedantry. Something must first be said about the … click below for more ↓

Reading Animal Fairm

Books & Reviews / Language & Grammar / Musings / Translations & translating / What I'm Reading Now / Words & etymology5 Comments

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Animal Fairm is a 2022 translation into Scots of George Orwell’s classic satire on Stalinist (and in far too many ways, modern conservative) politics and ideology. As the cover of this edition says, it was “translatit intae Scots by Thomas Clark.” I recently purchased the book for my reading entertainment. And quickly discovered it’s so delightful that it makes me want to read more of and learn more about the language. The book is published by Luath Press, in Edinburgh. Scots (no, not Scottish) is a variant of English, but it’s a bit more complicated than that, because it owes … click below for more ↓

A Brief Review of Two ERB Books

Books & Reviews / Classics / What I'm Reading NowLeave a comment

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I am deeply disappointed in the quality of these two ERB books received from Amazon yesterday in my efforts to complete my collection of Burroughs’ novels. Both are noted as “Manufactured by Amazon.ca” in Bolton, ON. Production quality is poor, particularly in the designs and layout: they are more like amateur efforts than professional publications. The Jungle Adventures book from “Premium Classics Books” (no address is indicated anywhere) is not only too big for comfortable reading (8.5 x 11″), the lines of type inside are 7″ wide (about 18cm), too wide for effective reading, let along carrying it (it would … click below for more ↓

Musings on Collecting and Reading ERB

Books & Reviews / Musings / Personal Reminiscences / Scifi and fantasy / What I'm Reading Now5 Comments

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As some readers here know, I’ve been a lifelong aficionado of Edgar Rice Burroughs (ERB, born 1875), particularly of his Barsoom (Mars) series, but also his Pellucidar and Caspak series. Well, I’ve enjoyed pretty much all of them, including, of course, the iconic Tarzan novels for which he is best known. Okay, maybe not so much his westerns (but then, I was never a fan of that genre). Burroughs wrote about 100 titles (and more information on them is here) between 1912 and his death in 1950. And I have most of them in my collection (and continue to look … click below for more ↓

Books for the Kaiju Aficionado

Film & Reviews / Godzilla / Musings / Pop Culture / What I'm Reading Now2 Comments

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With possibly two new Godzilla films coming to theatres in 2023*, it may be time to refresh your memory and appreciation of the previous films in the franchise. And what better way to do it than with a brand-new book about them? And perhaps re-reading some of the content in your older book and movie collection (especially that Criterion Collection of the first 15 Godzilla films on Blu-Ray — see below — which you can start watching now to build your anticipation for the new films!). Godzilla: The Official Guide to the King of the Monsters was released this week, … click below for more ↓

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