James Reffell writes about things.
Just to keep track, here s (most of) the non-fiction I read in 2015. The Reformation by Diarmaid MacCulloch Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt by Michael Lewis The Hoarders: Material Deviance in Modern American Culture by Scott Herring The Road to Middle-Earth: How J.R.R. Tolkien Created a New Mythology by Tom Shippey Unspeakable Things: Sex, Continue reading Reading #67: 2015 in Nonfiction
Just to keep track, here s (most of) the fiction I read in 2015. Annhilation by Jeff Vandermeer Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson (re-read) Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson Confusion by Neal Stephenson Seveneves by Neal Stephenson Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson The Martian by Andy Weir Gun with Occasional Music by Jonathan Lethem (re-read) Hawk by Steven Brust Continue reading Reading #66: Fiction in…
Just to keep track, here s (most of) the design books I read in 2015. Thoughts on Design by Paul Rand Creativity, Inc. by Ed Catmull 100 Diagrams that Changed the World by Scott Christianson How to Make Sense of Any Mess by Abby Covert I have trouble talking cogently about design books while I m designing, but Continue reading Reading #65: Design Books in 2015
Season of the Witch by David Talbot I didn t grow up in California, so certain things about the history of the state, and in particular the history of San Francisco, only slide into place when I have a little more context. This can be around little everyday things — it was only after reading a history Continue reading Reading #63: Season of the Witch Ancillary Justice
California Bones by Greg Van Eekhout I ve lived in California for almost 18 years now, but last year was my first visit to the La Brea Tar Pits. The pits themselves are bubbly, smelly, and a little anticlimactic. The life-sized models are 70s-esque and cartoonish. Watching paleontologists work on giant crated hunks of tar extracted Continue reading Reading #62: California Bones
I m skipping twenty or so books I ve failed to write about in a timely manner in favor of some more recent ones. London Under by Peter Ackroyd I love London, history, underground things, and spooky things–therefore this was a pleasure to read. It s not a linear history or narrative, more a series of vignettes focusing Continue reading Reading #61: The Inquisition, Vikings, and Cossacks
I m declaring reading note bankruptcy for anything read in 2013. Or early 2014. It was a busy summer and fall and winter. I did keep a list, though. Nonfiction Of the nonfiction, I particularly recommend How Music Works by David Byrne and A Paradise Built in Hell by Rebecca Solnit. Both expanded my understanding of what humans can do, Continue reading Reading #60 2013 Bankruptcy Edition
Nonfiction Revelations: Visions, Prophecy, and Politics in the Book of Revelation by Elaine Pagels This is a general introduction to the Book of Revalation, the historical contexts in which it was written and later understood, and what current scholarship has to say about it. I m not particularly literate in the Bible (nevermind biblical scholarship), so Continue reading Reading #59: Statistical…
It s a story full of lists. Some day music will only be air. There will be no objects to hold or fetishize and people will simply collect lists. No disc, nothing spooled or grooved, no heads to clean, no dust to wipe, no compulsive alphabetising. Nothing to put away in shoeboxes or spare cupboards and Continue reading Some day music will only be air
Nonfiction The Company We Keep: Reinventing Small Business for People, Community, and Place by John Abrams John Abrams is the founder of South Mountain Company, a design build worker-owned cooperative in Martha s Vineyard. His books describes the history of the company, their choice to move to a worker-owned cooperative model, and their overall philosophy Continue reading Reading #58:…