Short and Sweet
I recently listened to an abridged version of Bill Bryson’s A Short History of Nearly Everything. It came on five CDs with a run time of just under six hours. The full version is three times that size, which makes sense since the printed book is 560 pages long. I try to read or listen [...]
Out of the Shadows
“Daniel arrived at the sprawling round hall, a virtual basilica of shadows spiraling up under a high glass dome. A labyrinth of passageways and crammed bookshelves rose from base to pinnacle like a beehive, woven with tunnels, steps, platforms and bridges that presaged an immense library of seemingly impossible geometry.” This was The Cemetery of [...]
Map Quest
When there is enough of anything, a cluster pattern will appear. This is the case even if the anything is randomly distributed. Cows, clouds and coffee drinkers cluster or clump, depending on how many there are and how wet it is. So do books. Dewey knew this and figured there was a future for his [...]
Picture Perfect
“Brevity is the soul of wit”, wrote William Shakespeare in Hamlet. It is also one of the key elements in making quotations…well…quotable. A quote is the literary equivalent of the 10-second sound bite. It has to be quick and, yes, it has to bite. If properly delivered, few get the chance to bite back. So [...]
