Tag: books

  • Shameless plug

    The book that I’m currently devouring is The Forgotten Man by Amity Shlaes, an economist who writes articles for media outlets like Bloomberg. I was a little worried this would turn out to be a great big yawner, even while it has a relevance to contemporary times so intimate that I shouldn’t even say how… Read.

  • Origins

    For months, I’ve been watching the shelves of the local thrift store’s book nook for a copy of Darwin’s Origin of Species and getting no joy. Several textbooks on Darwin showed up, and one I even bought because it had excerpts from Origin, but I wanted the real deal. I thought maybe I wasn’t looking… Read.

  • Book ’em, Danno

    I was served notice by the book police this week, nothing truly criminal but every bit as determined as a real-life summons. I opened the envelope that came to our mailbox from the Monona Public Library with no small amount of trepidation. They’re so strapped for cash they don’t mail anything unless they’re about to… Read.

  • There’s a right way, and a guy way

    I’ve made it to page five hundred something of The Making of the Atomic Bomb when it finally got really good, and by “really good” I mean I got to the part that guys would like most: The part about how they got the atomic bomb to blow up. This was not as easy as… Read.

  • Out Go The Lights!

    I’m still trying to sleep off the effects of this head cold I caught, so this will necessarily be brief before I have to go medicate myself with my hourly fistful of over-the-counter drugs, drink a pint of water and stretch out on the recliner for my early-mid-late-afternoon nap. My symptoms today are a lot… Read.

  • I god a ruddy node

    One of the benefits of working in an office environment is receiving a steady paycheck. I think we can all agree on that. Maybe another thing we can all agree on is one of the most glaring detriments: Having to acquire a whole new herd immunity. I have no idea if this has ever been… Read.

  • Back to the Grindstone

    Hoo-boy, I am beat! A whole day of regulating and licensing Cheeseheads sure does wear me out! My Darling B confirms that feeling like a well-wrung dish rag after laboring mightily all day for the Great State of Wisconsin is pretty common, and I’d better get used to it. Well, hoe-kay! If I gotta, then… Read.

  • Gotham

    I’ve been lusting after a hardbound copy of Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898 ever since I spotted it on the shelves at Paul’s Bookstore on State Street. Alas, it was priced way over the limit of what I’ll spend on any book (five dollars) that isn’t about rockets or choo-choo trains,… Read.

  • Book me

    While I was doinking around on the internet yesterday I followed a link to someone’s blog where I found a list of the science fiction novels considered “masterworks” by the publishing house Orion Publishing Group. They consider these novels so important that they “deserve to be in print and kept there, rather than languishing as… Read.

  • Digging In

    When I picked her up from work, My Darling B noticed the back seats of the car were folded down. “What were you hauling home today?” she asked. She doesn’t miss a thing. I made an early-morning visit to the local lumber yard to bring home some plywood to start Phase II of the great… Read.

photo of the author and the author's best friend