From the category archives:

Reading

A book? A meme.

August 20, 2006

I have always been a voracious reader. As a kid, I snuck into my walk-in closet to read when I was supposed to be asleep. (I haven’t had to do that in a long time.) In the past six months, however, I have read fewer books than in any six month period that I can [...]

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Interested in poetry

April 1, 2006

Poetry I, too, dislike it. Reading it, however, with a perfect contempt for it, one discovers in it, after all, a place for the genuine. – Marianne Moore I like this poem; it made me smile. Read Moore’s earlier, longer version of the poem here. April is National Poetry Month.

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Rough draft

July 4, 2005

If you grew up in the United States, then you will have read the Declaration of Independence. Have you ever read Thomas Jefferson’s rough draft of the document, which was edited by Benjamin Franklin and John Adams prior to being presented to the Congress? Here’s one of the best-known portions of the document, indicating deletions [...]

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A language for building

June 20, 2005

In the book meme that I posted recently, I listed Christopher Alexander’s A Pattern Language as a book that means a lot to me. In December of 1983, shortly after I applied to architecture school, Paul gave me a copy of A Pattern Language for Christmas. It was early in the difficult period in our [...]

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A book meme

June 4, 2005

When Bakerina tagged me for this book meme, I wrote most of a response. Then I went to California on business, and spent most of yesterday in the Oakland airport trying – unsuccessfully for quite a while – to get home. As a result of this delay, my responses changed somewhat. Total number of books [...]

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When authors read

April 17, 2005

One of the assignments for the memoir-writing class I’m taking is that each student attend an author reading, and report back to the class about it. After weeks of finding nothing on bookstore event schedules that interested me, in this week I found four authors whose readings I wanted to attend. I’ve been to two [...]

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When you drink from the river of silence

March 21, 2005

To celebrate World Poetry Day, and because Isabella asked about the books of poetry that Helen gave me for my high-school graduation. From Kahlil Gibran’s Sand and Foam: I am forever walking upon these shores,Betwixt the sand and the foam,The high tide will erase my foot-prints,And the wind will blow away the foam.But the sea [...]

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More thanks

November 30, 2004

This poem comes by way of Philip, who left it as a comment for Jilbur. It was new to me, and I loved its evocation of the everyday, the small, even perhaps the annoying as being cause for thanksgiving. Thank you, Philip. Poem in Thanks Lord Whoever, thank you for this airI’m about to in- [...]

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