CHARLES HOY FORT HAS A special place in my weirdological heart, as he was the first writer to compile an exhaustive list (four books full, in fact) of oddities and anomalies. He is thus the (unwilling) intellectual godfather of every…
Tag: books
My first best friends.
First Graf: Path of the Just
MUSSAR (מוסר) IS A HEBREW TERM usually translated as “ethical behavior/discipline,” or to put it more succinctly, the fine art and science of being a mensch. Its roots are almost as old as Judaism itself — according to Genesius, it’s…
Moving Lines
“FOR GOD’S SAKE LET US sit upon the ground And tell sad stories of the death of kings.” — Wm. Shakspere, Richard II “Are you a dream, Merlin?” “A dream, to some. A NIGHTMARE TO OTHERS.” — Excalibur “Well, it’s…
I Am In Love With Edna St. Vincent Millay
EVIDENTLY, SHE WROTE A POEM in 1928 called “Dirge With Music.” I have not yet read any of her other works, but I hope they’re like this one. The last stanza says it all: Down, down, down into the darkness…
First Graf: Zen and the Art of the Internet
THE FIRST BOOK I EVER read about the Internet, in 1994, still gives me a wave of nostalgic novelty when I turn its pages now. The ‘Net was new in the public mind and not well understood back then, which…
First Graf: The Lore Of Sail
THE MARITIME SECTION OF MY home library is, like a captain’s yacht, small but well-appointed. I’ve been a ship geek since 1987-88, when I served as a deckhand/docent on a replica of the Golden Hinde, and my taste tends toward…
BUT WHAT WAS THE QUESTION?!?!?
QUIZ SHOW OVERHEARD ON THE TV as I entered the living room: That’s right, ‘Illuminati’ is the answer! You’ve won $100!”
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DO ANT THEOLOGIANS EXHORT THEIR multitudes against the fate awaiting them under Dante’s Magnifying Glass?
First Graf: The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Vol. 1
THERE ARE BOOKS, AND THERE are books. This one contains “The Greatest Science Fiction Stories of All Time Chosen by the Members of the Science Fiction Writers of America,” and is standard issue to all geeks and geekettes who want…
Storyteller’s Knot
THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF any story is the point at which it’s attached to the reader.
Pithyism #108
WITH THE ADVENT OF BLOGGING, men of letters have become men of keystrokes.
First Graf: Goldfinger
IF YOU HAVE NEVER READ the original James Bond stories by Ian Fleming, you don’t know James Bond. You also don’t know sweeping prose that zips along like a rocket; lush description with a reporter’s eye for detail; fourth-wall breaking…