Category: Reading
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Personal Density and Journaling in Day One
On how journaling impacts self and temporal rootedness and its disorienting yet grounding effect on understanding personal growth and the passage of time.
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ChatGPT and “Humanities Types”
In his latest issue of galaxy brain, Charlie Warzel dismisses the value of ChatGPT in part because he’s unable to see the value or potential. of ChatGPT, because the ability to control or drive value from the tool is outside the grasp of most humanities types. A good ChatGPT whisperer understands how to sequence commands…
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Matthew Effect
Trying to track down the origin of a quote this morning, I learned about something called the Matthew Effect, inspired by this verse from the Bible: For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away.…
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Girlfriend in a Coma, Douglas Coupland
Probably written Late 90s? Just finished Girlfriend in a Coma. In some ways, this book seems to me like Coupland’s response to Microserfs. If Microserfs was saying,something is really friggin’ wrong here, but I can’t quite put my finger on it, Girlfriend represents Coupland’s having had time to think and cultivate a seriously good answer to…
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The Archivist, Martha Cooley
date unknown but probably pre 2001 I’ve just finished reading The Archivist by Martha Cooley and I think I liked it. Whether or not I really understood everything that was going on is an entirely different question. The novel deals with some pretty heavy duty issues and does so in a creative, artful way by…
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Haiku, by R.H. Blyth
Haiku, by R.H. Blyth is a four-volume collection published in 1949. I don’t know all that much about Haiku and I know nothing at all about the author of this book other than that he (presumably he, though not necessarily) does a fantastic job explaining the nebulous network of traditions that gave rise to what can…
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Baudelaire, Charles: Intimate Journals
I just rushed through this book. All the time I was reading it I thought to myself that I would be doing both myself and Chucky B a tremendous disservice if I didn’t go back and re-read it a second time and take some notes. I heard this line the other day,I hear and I…
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The Walking Tour, Kathryn Davis
The Walking Tour Kathryn Davis Monday, January 15, 2001 The cover blurb for The Walking Tour leads you to believe that it is a story about two couples that go to Wales on a walking tour of the countryside. During that tour, so says the blurb, a fatal accident occurs. ItÕs not like the blurb lies about…
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Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Annie Dillard
early 2000s? Not sure when i read/wrote this but definitely before 2002 I could be cynical as hell and say Hey, Annie! Ain’t this book already been written once by Hank Thoreau? But there’s little point in cynicism since it’s only really appropriate when the speaker has absolutely no idea what he’s talking about but is just…
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Mrs. Dalloway, V Woolf
Notes on Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf Wednesday, June 14, 2000 The story of Mrs. Dalloway unfolds against the metronome of Big Ben striking out time. Individual moments are made static against a fluid background of ever advancing time. And how does one reconcile the dissonance between memories of static moments against a reality that is…