Archive for March, 2008
Take a Ride on the Reading
Alberto Manguel is an erudite and eloquent observer of the human condition. A Reading Diary (Knopf Canada, 2004) is his one-a-month, later-in-life revisiting of his favorite classics. Each book is a point of departure for philosophical musings and philological mischief. Each spins off quotes and anecdotes that lead the reader behind and beyond the text. […]
Descent into Madness
In Bee Season (Doubleday, New York, 2000), Myla Goldberg describes the slow disintegration of a dysfunctional family and the brave attempt of one little girl to keep it together. It is a coming-of-age novel entangled in the cobwebs of an obsessive compulsive mother coming apart.
The mother’s obsession with The Perfect leads her to collect items […]
Finding Style in Forgotten English
I love the English language. I am referring here to the richness and texture of the language and the myriad of ways in which it allows itself to be used.
Depending on who does the counting and how, the English language comprises a half million plus words, not including what some philologists refer to as word […]
In Praise of Quotations
Over the course of my career, I have made (altogether too) many presentations. I am not that charismatic a speaker and so I like to use props. Things like obscure and, at first glance, disconnected-from-plot paraphernalia, a little management by walking around, dazzling graphics that may or may not move around, just clever enough quips, […]
