![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Wednesday reading — arts and sciences
Apr. 23rd, 2014 08:42 pmWhat I've been reading
I read Son of Interflux, one of Gordon Korman's non-Macdonald Hall books. Although I strongly suspect it has to do with the fact that he must have written This Can't Be Happening at Macdonald Hall before he went through puberty, I do so very enjoy his habit of pairing slashy male friendships with wacky hijinks. Reminds me of Wodehouse in that regard.
I read The Large, the Small and the Human Mind, which is a sort of short introduction to Roger Penrose, who was in turn one of Neal Stephenson's inspirations in writing Anathem, one of my very favorite books. Interestingly, while I happened to be reading it, physicists talking about consciousness was in the news.
I read Travels in Hyperreality, a collection of Umberto Eco's newspaper and magazine articles. "Cultural anthropologists accept cultures in which people eat dogs, monkeys, frogs, and snakes, and even cultures where adults chew gum, so it should be all right for countries to exist where university professors contribute to the newspapers," as he deadpans in the preface to the American edition. The titular piece is probably also the best: a glorious travelogue through American reproductions of other times and places and artworks.
What I'm reading now
I started rereading Death of a Fool, only it is so boring. That is probably why I have never reread it before. Also I vaguely thought it belonged much earlier chronologically, with the big glut of titles in the form of "Death [and | in | around | somehow pertaining to ] the $noun", but apparently not. The whole conceit of my chronological reread dictates that I must finish it before I can proceed.
I read Son of Interflux, one of Gordon Korman's non-Macdonald Hall books. Although I strongly suspect it has to do with the fact that he must have written This Can't Be Happening at Macdonald Hall before he went through puberty, I do so very enjoy his habit of pairing slashy male friendships with wacky hijinks. Reminds me of Wodehouse in that regard.
I read The Large, the Small and the Human Mind, which is a sort of short introduction to Roger Penrose, who was in turn one of Neal Stephenson's inspirations in writing Anathem, one of my very favorite books. Interestingly, while I happened to be reading it, physicists talking about consciousness was in the news.
I read Travels in Hyperreality, a collection of Umberto Eco's newspaper and magazine articles. "Cultural anthropologists accept cultures in which people eat dogs, monkeys, frogs, and snakes, and even cultures where adults chew gum, so it should be all right for countries to exist where university professors contribute to the newspapers," as he deadpans in the preface to the American edition. The titular piece is probably also the best: a glorious travelogue through American reproductions of other times and places and artworks.
What I'm reading now
I started rereading Death of a Fool, only it is so boring. That is probably why I have never reread it before. Also I vaguely thought it belonged much earlier chronologically, with the big glut of titles in the form of "Death [and | in | around | somehow pertaining to ] the $noun", but apparently not. The whole conceit of my chronological reread dictates that I must finish it before I can proceed.
