Posted on by the coffee philosopher

Happy Birthday, Edwin Abbot


My senior year of high school, back in Dunedin, Florida, I took a series of dual enrollment courses for college credit. The same professor taught all of them.

I wish I could remember his name, because he was the man who introduced me to Edwin Abbot’s mathematical/philosophical classic, Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions. And Edwin Abbot was born on this day in 1838.

If you haven’t read Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions, well, there’s no good reason why not. It’s short. It’s an easy read. And it’s a wonderfully inventive and enjoyable way to explore epistemic and spatial concepts (the book is about two dimensional beings, their inability to truly understand  three dimensionality, and about resistance to new concepts).

 

Posted on by the coffee philosopher

Finished ‘A Crown Of Swords’


I finally finished book seven of the late Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series, A Crown of Swords, on the bus this morning.

This one wasn’t that bad. It might even be one of the better, but it’s still mostly sheer bloody mindedness that’s driving me to slog through this. I think I’m half way through the series.

Jordan still (can I say ‘still?’ he’s dead, after all) writes about capital R ‘Romance’ with a most irritating and unrealistic seriousness. Sort of like a teenage virgin, D&D enthusiast taking refuge in old tropes to compensate for his inability to find a real girl who will let him touch her boob (over the shirt, of course). Thankfully, he at least lacks the chauvinism of Piers Anthony (who also liked his romances to be ‘Romances’ with a capital R).

And I get to trade in the book for some store credit at Capitol Hill Books. Since I have exactly zero intention of ever wading my way through this again, I don’t need to keep them in my library. Better to trade ’em until I have enough credit to get some classic pulp from the basement.

Of course, I’m also taking the bus home again this evening and I don’t have anything to read…

Posted on by the coffee philosopher

Why Books Make The Best Gifts



…The fact is a paper book is a nearly perfect present. It is deeply personal and can reflect the recipient’s interests. My late mother-in-law loved historical biographies; her brother — my wife’s uncle — is riveted by military history. And about the only thing my digitally savvy 18-year-old daughter does not do on her phone or computer is read literary fiction. She still prefers paper books when it comes to the novel.

Moreover, you do not need to worry about size when you buy a person a book. One size really does fit all…

 

P.S. – I bought no less than five books to give as presents this year. Each one intended as personally relevant gift to the receiver. How many books are you giving away this year?

Posted on by the coffee philosopher

The Microeconomics of Poetry


The Microeconomics of Poetry : Harriet Staff : Harriet the Blog : The Poetry Foundation.

Or, a sad testament to how little poetry pays and how it’s even worse than you think.

Posted on by the coffee philosopher

Reading About Hitchens, In Retrospect


I set this column/review aside almost a month ago. Since then, Hitchens died. How does that change one’s reading of it? How has its meaning changed?

Posted on by the coffee philosopher

‘Posterity Isn’t Kind To Columnists And Essayists And Book Reviewers, Even The Best Ones.’


A wistful, critical account of Christopher Hitchens, including his bullying and his drinking.

Posted on by the coffee philosopher · 1 Comment

Poetry Broadsides


I’ve always liked the idea of broadsides. The original ‘newspapers,’ passed around seventeenth century coffeehouses, were broadsides. I’m even working a newsletter for work that mimics old fashioned broadsides.

H0w about one that supports St. Marks Bookstore?

Posted on by the coffee philosopher

Gifts For Booklovers


I have seen a lot of articles lately offering advice as to what to give the booklover in your family or social circle.

Let toss in my own two cents. A suggestion that seems to be strangely lacking in many of these lists.

You see, as a booklover myself, I am not very interested in retro-fashionable reading glasses, literary themed bookends, neckties with pictures of books on them, or things that look like books but – and this is so wacky! – aren’t actually books.

What I would like for Christmas is a book.

Posted on by the coffee philosopher

Amazon & Libraries


What it all means (hint: no one’s quite sure, except that they’re pretty sure Amazon is evil).

Posted on by the coffee philosopher

Poor Old Bodhi Tree


The Bodhi Tree Bookstore, once a favorite haunt of mine back in my Hollywood days (the location, not the industry), will, apparently, disappear from existence should a buyer not be found by New Year’s Eve.

Raise a glass of green tea (which they used to offer for free to visitors) in their memory, should, as expected, no white knight come in to save them.