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Books read
Best books read in 2010.
Best writers of poetry and prose
My chocolate of choice for a NaNoWriMo attempt:
Books read recently by J. Zimmerman
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Links.
Booker Prizes
Chocolate.
Books read
Best books read in 2010.
Best writers of poetry and prose
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My chocolate of choice for a NaNoWriMo attempt:
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Reader's Bill of Rights [after Daniel Pennac in Better than Life
from November 2003 Utne Magazine] includes the rights to:
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"Our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions, any more than our opinions in physics or geometry."
[Jefferson's 1785 statute] |
{ March : san-gatsu (see also books on learning Japanese) 2012 }
Includes two haiku by moi:
transluscent sails
of the three-masted sailing ship
late winter sun
shadows lengthening
the coolness
between us
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Also a positive review of our Wild Violets haiku anthology.
See also comments on previous issues of: Modern Haiku:
Interesting addendum to my current study of History of China.
Arguably her finest book. At core is the Persephone story — and a battle with depression.
See other Yuki Teikei Haiku Society publications:
Explores the landscape of Britain and the poems and poets that have responded to it:
His opening poem "Description" (pp. 3-5) is particularly stunning. It ends:
Jewelry, tides, language: things that shine. What is description, after all, but encoded desire? And if we say the marsh, if we forge terms for it, then isn't it contained in us, a little, the brightness? |
Books read include Doty's:
Books by Jorie Graham include:
More information: See more comments on poetry of Jorie Graham.
Ribbons
(7, 4) Winter 2011 issue.
Includes a couple of
Tanka by J. Zimmerman.
A little too deadly serious. In later books Hiassen's protagonist becomes a melting of the nutso eco-terrorist of this book with a more compassionate and selective revenge artist.
Have read his:
Frogpond (35:1, 2012),
excellent
haiku journal.
Includes a haiku by J. Zimmerman.
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Carving Darkness: The Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku 2011 (2012)
edited by Jim Kacian and the Red Moon Editorial Staff. Terrific collection, the 16th in the Red Moon Anthology series.
146 poems (English-language haiku and senryu) published around the world in calendar year 2011.
Also 16 poems in linked form:
haibun,
renku,
and
rengay,
and sequences.
And 6 critical pieces on the study of haiku poems and sensibilities.
Gratifyingly, includes a haiku by me! |
{ February : ni-gatsu (see also books on learning Japanese) 2012 }
Worthy, especially for their gentle mingling of the personal and the political. A favorite is "For a Hermit" a 3-part poem about and for the hermit Justiniani.
Both are witty and informative — and cheerful in not taking themselves or bird list-making too seriously.
Murakami is good with amazing metaphors but the plot was terrible and there was a odd romanticization of incest that left me flipping past sections to avoid some that.
Not dystopian enough to be called Orwellian in a true 1984 sense. Whereas Gilliam's Brazil is.
Essays on the poetry of William Carlos Williams, early Snyder, Greville, Hardy, and others.
A novel meditating on addiction to sex and to food, and the misassumptions that one is wont to make. The author seems to make a cameo appearance as a Hemingway look-alike writer. Glad I read it but not highly recommending it.
Apt for Dickens' 200th birthday, this may be my favorite of Dickens' novels: it has the usual soap-opera format of interwoven plots of class and money, with much greed and generosity, the death of a child, etc. But it also has some very witty humor.
Listened to a BBC dramatization (2003).
Books by Dickens blogged include:
A low-credibility plot with too many coincidences.
P.D. James' books read include:
Another story of responsibility and irresponsibility — another soap opera of class and money. Interestingly, most of the story has Esther Summerson (the heroine) as its narrator — Bleak House being the only book by Dickens with a female narrator. Listened to a BBC dramatization (1991).
Books by Dickens blogged include:
{ January : ichi-gatsu (see also books on learning Japanese) 2012 }
Another story of responsibility and irresponsibility — another soap opera of class and money. Interestingly, most of the story has Esther Summerson (the heroine) as its narrator — Bleak House being the only book by Dickens with a female narrator. Listened to a BBC dramatization (1991).
Books by Dickens blogged include:
Story of responsibility and irresponsibility — what a soap opera of class and money. Listened to a reading by Robert Whitfield (1998).
Books by Dickens blogged include:
Lightweight but practical.
Read by five different readers, this set of brief humorous essays from the last almost-century are a mixed bag, but the most hilarious is definitely "Teaching Poetry Writing to Singles" by Veronica Geng (read by Faith Price) with a close-second of: "Emily Dickinson, Jerk of Amherst" by Andy Borowitz (read by Patrick Frederic) — the several poems by Dorothy Parker are also a particular joy!
An insightful and accessible collect of works by fifty poets that wrote in English. For each poem Lithgow gives:
A handy and timely reminder to re-balance -- a similar thesis to Bernstein's The Four Pillars of Investing.
A Palestinian terrorist and bomb maker is hunted by Kurtz, an Israeli, using as decoy a young actress. Intriguing study of loyalty, dedication, and betrayal, showing some of the creativity and conflicts of working as a spy, a double agent, and a cause of assassination. One of the more sympathetic protagonists because the reader experiences more of the courtship and manipulation of the protagonist than is usual in Le Carré's books, and learn how she is handled.
Again a satisfyingly complex story, albeit with Le Carré's over-frequent use of simile.
John Le Carré's read:
Terrific (even if eight years old!). Clear presentation of data showing that:
In Henry VIII's 1540, with Thomas Cromwell in trouble with Henry over the unacceptable marriage to Anne of Cleves, lawyer Matthew Shardlake is called to work on commission from Cromwell (as in Dissolution).
The historical-fiction context is well-handled, including the religious conflicts and the political intrigues of the time, as well as the sanitation, medicine, food, drink, transportation (especially by horse, foot, and boat), and weather. The parallel and interleaved plots move quickly and hold the attention. Very readable.
Books by Sansom blogged include:
Rather juvenile and cozy; characters of mostly naive and hapless people making the best of their errors. Listened to a BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatization (1997 and 2007): "Mr. Samuel Pickwick, retired business man and confirmed bachelor, is determined that after a quiet life of enterprise the time has come to go out into the world. ... the portly innocent embarks on a series of hilariously comic adventures." [according to BBC blurb].
Books by Dickens blogged include:
Finished listening to a recording very well narrated of Roger Planer of Small Gods (1992) by Terry Pratchett.
It's better read by Planer than it was to read as a book.
Favorites from the many reviewed books by Terry Pratchett are:
Some sample quotes:
| p. 118 | To some people, calling it a reality distortion field was just a clever way to say that Jobs tended to lie. But it was in fact a more complex form of dissembling. He could assert something — be it a fact about world history or a recounting of who suggested an idea at a meeting — without even considering the truth. It came from willfully denying reality, not only to others but to himself. |
| p. 119 | At the root of the reality distortion was Jobs's belief that the rules didn't apply to him. ... If reality did not comport with his will, he would ignore it. |
| p. 260 | Jobs ordered large trays of unagi sushi, a dish he loved so much that he allowed the warm cooked eel to pass muster as vegetarian. |
| p. 262 | In the end Jobs's pride in the objects he made overcame his sensibility that people should eschew being attached to such possessions. |
| p. 266 | Quotes Tina Redse reading "about Narcissistic Personality Disorder and [she] decided that Jobs perfectly matched the criteria". |
| p. 415 | The only time Jobs can ever recall being tongue-tied was in the presence of Bob Dylan. |
| p. 482-3 | Jobs ... was put on the wait list for a liver transplant in California ... the number of donors with his blood type was small ... Recipients are chosen based on their MELD score (Model for End-Stage Liver Disease) ... [data at optn.transplant.hrsa.gov] ... it was permissible to be [listed] on two different states at the same time, which is something that 3% of potential recipients do. Such multiple listings is not discouraged by policy, even through critics say it favors the rich. |
| p. 492 | [For the iPad] Apple licensed the ARM architecture, but it also bought a 150-person microprocessor design firm in Palo Alto, called P.A. Semi, and had it create a custom system-on-a-chip, called the A4 [with processor, graphics, mobile operating system, and memory control on the chip], which was based on the ARM architecture and manufactured in South Korea by Samsung. |
| p. 498 | In less than a month [from its April 5th, 2010 release] Apple sold one million iPads. |
| p. 514 | [Jobs] assailed Adobe's multimedia platform for websites, Flash, as a 'buggy' battery hog made by 'lazy' people. The iPad and the iPhone, he said, would never run Flash. 'Flash is a spaghetti-ball piece of technology that has lousy performance and really bad security problems'. |
Some sample quotes:
| p. 36-37. | To avoid "feature creep" ... Jobs insisted on a tight focus ... To avoid confusing the customers with an endless array of complex choices, one of Jobs's [sic] favorite mantras at Apple is: "Focus means saying no." |
| p. 61. | Jobs is extremely customer-centric. ... Jobs has said the starting point for the iPod wasn't a small hard drive or a new chip, but the user experience. ... One of the most important parts of Apple's design process is simplification. The simplicity of Apple's products stems from choices being taken away from the customers. ... Jobs concentrated as much on what was left out as on the stuff that was included. |
| p. 77-78. | For Apple, [industrial designer Hartmut] Esslinger crafted a distinct look that came to be known as the "Snow White" design language, which would dominate computer case design for a decade. Esslinger's Snow White language was characterized by the clever use of chamfers, bevels, and rounded corners. |
| p. 96. | Ive's Design Process. Ive has often said that the simplicity of Apple's designs is deceiving. The task, Ive said, is "to solve incredibly complex problems and make their resolution appear inevitable and incredibly simple, so you have no sense how difficult this thing was." |
| p. 99. | Apple's designers spend 10 percent of their time coming up with ideas ... brainstorming ... spend 90 percent of their time working with manufacturing, figuring out how to implement their ideas. The method is akin to a technique known to psychologists studying problem solving as "generate and test." To solve a problem, all the possible solutions are generated and then tested to see if they offer a solution. |
| p. 120. | Jobs is the "product picker" ... a term used by Silicon Valley venture capitalists to identify the key product person at startup companies. By definition, a startup must succeed on its first product. If it doesn't, it goes under ... Some startups are a group of engineers who have a lot of talent and ideas, but haven't yet figured out what product they want to develop ... to ensure the success of a startup like this, there has to be an individual who's got a nose for what that product should be ... their skill is picking out the key product from a torrent of ideas. ... Jobs is the consummate product picker. |
| p. 163. | Jobs is one of the "great intimidators," ... who inspire people through fear as well as a desire to please. |
| p. 171. | Critics have compared Jobs to a sociopath without empathy or compassion. ... As far as great sociopathic managers go, Jobs is relatively mild, at least now [in his final years]. ... Jobs is more like a demanding hard-to-please father. |
Part 1 of the tedious exploration of French snobbery Search of Lost Time (or Remembrance of Things Past) from the French: À la recherche du temps perdu.
Keeping up with one page per day: I might complete it in July 2012!
Advantages:
Attractive Apps "that make novel use of the tap, the swipe, the pinch, and the flick" include:
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Related pages:
Books on Buddhism.
Books on Learning Spanish.
Poetry - Learn How to Write Your Own.
Forests of California and Trees of the World.
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