Author: seanv2
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Nerdsdropping: Overread in DC
I spend a good portion of my day schlepping from Maryland to Northern Virginia on the DC Metro, which gives me nearly two hours a day to read and nap while pretending to read. The Metro is also a good place to do some nerdsdropping on my fellow readers. Having lived in America’s most highly educated…
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Acquisitions: 3-8-2011
Lent is almost upon us, and this year I’m going to go without acquiring any books for 40 days. No laughter from the peanut gallery: I’ve done this before, so I know it’s possible. One consequence, though, is that I go on one final book-buying splurge before the restraint, sort of a bibliophile’s Mardi Gras…
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Acquisitions Week of 3/6/2011
Well my local shark pit of frenzied, desperate, deal-seeking bibliophiles (aka the soon to close Wall Street Borders) finally dropped the prices to 25-40% off. Now we’re talking. I look forward to when they drop to 35% off and I find myself buying slightly stained romance novels. David Mitchell, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de…
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Kessinger and the Public Domain
I would look like a fool (or a GOP presidential hopeful) if in the acknowledgments section of the book I am working on I thanked “the internet and the computers,” but in some ways a thanks is in order. Much of what I discovered in my research could not have been found without online databases,…
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Remaindered: Books that don’t belong
Another in an occasional series about books that disorient, perplex, or cause us to question our decision-making abilities. Today, we look at poorly produced literature for police on what to do when battling satanists. Ritualistic Crime Scene Investigation, by Dawn Perlmutter. The Institute for the Research of Symbolic & Ritual Violence, LLC (Pennsylvania, 2007). The…
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What to read next?
I envy readers who approach their reading systemically, readers for whom reading is a process of getting to the bottom of a few private obsessions. Systematic readers may not always know what book comes next—but they will at least be able to narrow it down to a few good candidates. I mean, if you’re obsessed…
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I’m a reader
My lovely wife (for full disclosure she is an editor on this site) gave me a Kindle for my birthday last August. I thought long and hard about getting one and finally I decided to get one for a few reasons. 1. It is difficult to read a large hardcover book while rocking an infant to…
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Introduction
I am reading about 12 books right now. I haven’t been able to finish anything in weeks, but hopefully this blog will spur me on. Meanwhile, here is a message I just received from one of my Amazon customers. Sir/Madam, Amazon sent me the following request: will you rate your experience with this seller? Now…
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Remaindered: False Nationalism / False Internationalism
It is hard to follow postings in this series which addressed a book on who built the moon and a children’s book on ritual satanic abuse, but I’ll try. With this entry I hope to broaden the remaindered column to include books which are peculiar, and perhaps of limited appeal, but may not be down…
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Before Bob Avakian was a punchline
Revolution in the Air: Sixties Radicals Turn to Lenin, Mao and Che, by Max Elbaum. Verso: London, 2006. Today, when the U.S. left consists of little more than Barbara Ehrenreich, a couple of blogs, and an anarchist burrito stand or two, it’s hard to imagine a time when the left was so vast and powerful…
Milo and the Calf 