I recently had a friend accuse me of “judging a book by its cover” and I would like to explain what is wrong with this cliche. First: It is obvious that the only way to accurately judge a book is by reading it. HOWEVER, since there are exactly 42.7 gazillion books in the known universe, and since I can not read them all or even read a significant portion of them, I must somehow choose which of those books to read. I have several tools I use to make those choices: I do in fact use a book’s cover as […]
Other People’s Blogs
I read a LOT of blogs written by other people. It’s kind of my version of reading short stories. I enjoy the way that people can place snippets of their lives out there for the whole world to see. I often aspire to this type of writing, but i fall woefully short in my ability to open myself like these bloggers who i’m recommending do. I have a page on my blog which i update every so often where the blogs of those people which i most value are linked with an explanation of what their blogs are like. The […]
Books About Books
Because i won’t be teaching on the Epistles of John this Sunday due to Mother’s Day, i want to post this for all my bibliophile friends. I love books. It’s an irrational thing. I enjoy reading them, but i actually LOVE just having them. I love seeing them lined up on my bookshelves. I dream about having a library room with wall to wall books. The thing is, i have more books than i am likely to ever be able to read, and still, i continue to buy them and put them on my bookshelves. I often justify this in […]
Book Review: What If?
The full title is “What If: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions” and it is the most fun and most enjoyable non-fiction book i’ve ever read. The author (Randall Munroe) is the creator and writer of the comic XKCD which is extremely geeky. The title is a very good description of what the book is about and the word ‘absurd’ is used with good reason. Here are just a few of the questions which are answered in a very scientific and fun way in this book: What would happen if everyone on earth stood as close to each other as they […]