as you all know, i'm: a) addicted to projects (and my book club, my long classics project, and my genius prwelcome to: THE PENGUIN GREAT IDEAS PROJECT!
as you all know, i'm: a) addicted to projects (and my book club, my long classics project, and my genius project are all on pause) b) mildly behind on my reading challenge (see: months-long reading slump and corresponding existential crisis) c) very into short books that make me look smart (much like the penguin great ideas collection).
i have acquired a couple dozen penguin great ideas installments, and i will be attempting to read one a day until i get bored, catch up, or reach spiritual fulfillment!
i was nervous to read this, as both a huge oscar wilde fan and a huge fan of lying...
but this was a hater's paradise.
the first story is about how literature is better than life, mostly because lying rules. these are two opinions at the core of my personal philosophy and reading affirmations of them in oscar wilde's prose was a dream fulfilled.
the second story is about how critics are as valuable as (if not more valuable than) the artists themselves, and as one of goodreads' preeminent annoying people picky readers that ruled too.
as you all know, i'm: a) addicted to projects (and my book club, my long classics project, and my genius prwelcome to: THE PENGUIN GREAT IDEAS PROJECT!
as you all know, i'm: a) addicted to projects (and my book club, my long classics project, and my genius project are all on pause) b) mildly behind on my reading challenge (see: months-long reading slump and corresponding existential crisis) c) very into short books that make me look smart (much like the penguin great ideas collection).
i have acquired a couple dozen penguin great ideas installments, and i will be attempting to read one a day until i get bored, catch up, or reach spiritual fulfillment!
immediately the very first try of this took longer than a day, but i'm going to chalk it up to the remnants of my reading slump and not question whether this is an overwhelming and kind of annoying idea that will send me right back into it.
this book was way more readable than the others i've read (or started and abandoned) in the collection. a lot of the time they're so dense as to almost balance out how short they are. but this was lovely both in reading experience and in language, and i can see myself returning to it.
as you all know, i'm: a) addicted to projects (and my book club, my long classics project, and my genius prwelcome to: THE PENGUIN GREAT IDEAS PROJECT!
as you all know, i'm: a) addicted to projects (and my book club, my long classics project, and my genius project are all on pause) b) mildly behind on my reading challenge (see: months-long reading slump and corresponding existential crisis) c) very into short books that make me look smart (much like the penguin great ideas collection).
i have acquired a couple dozen penguin great ideas installments, and i will be attempting to read one a day until i get bored, catch up, or reach spiritual fulfillment!
i am addicted both to projects and to short books that are Edifying (read: make me seem cool and intellectwelcome to: THE PENGUIN GREAT IDEAS PROJECT!
i am addicted both to projects and to short books that are Edifying (read: make me seem cool and intellectual) so this series of teeny classics, which i once alleged i would be attempting to read on a daily basis until they were done and now just pick up based on vibes / my shoddy memory, are perfect.
this sounds like a directive to not jump to conclusions...but what if jumping to conclusions is one of my life's passions.
either way i want it to be summer so badly i could probably use some instructions.
i read a lot of aristotle's main stuff in an (inexplicably mandatory) ethics class i took in college, so this didn't have the one thing every book in this series has had thus far: novelty.
i am addicted both to projects and to short books that are Edifying (read: make me seem cool and intellectwelcome to: THE PENGUIN GREAT IDEAS PROJECT!
i am addicted both to projects and to short books that are Edifying (read: make me seem cool and intellectual) so this series of teeny classics, which i once alleged i would be attempting to read on a daily basis until they were done and now just pick up based on vibes / my shoddy memory, are perfect.
this was, like most installments in these editions, very didactic and occasionally very dry and very fine. i didn't find the topic itself as interesting as i've found some others, so...tough for both me and bushido....more
as you all know, i'm: a) addicted to projects (and my book club, my long classics project, and my genius prwelcome to: THE PENGUIN GREAT IDEAS PROJECT!
as you all know, i'm: a) addicted to projects (and my book club, my long classics project, and my genius project are all on pause) b) mildly behind on my reading challenge (see: months-long reading slump and corresponding existential crisis) c) very into short books that make me look smart (much like the penguin great ideas collection).
i have acquired a couple dozen penguin great ideas installments, and i will be attempting to read one a day until i get bored, catch up, or reach spiritual fulfillment!
this is not exactly what its title purports itself to be, which is a problem i've been having with this series, which is also insane because these are so little that that should be a physical and spiritual impossibility, but...
i am both addicted to projects and very into short books that make me look smart, so this project (which iwelcome to: THE PENGUIN GREAT IDEAS PROJECT!
i am both addicted to projects and very into short books that make me look smart, so this project (which i continually forget about, as part of my distracted poetic hugh grant-like charm) is a perfect fit.
i have acquired a couple dozen penguin great ideas installments, and i will be attempting to read them until i get bored, catch up, or reach spiritual fulfillment!
also this appears to be a series of 1,000 single paragraph chapters, which is...also goals.
this is mostly about how to not care or worry about anything, and just kind of vibe through life unaffected by things like losing everything or your wife dying, so.
as the most sensitive person on earth who cares about everything that has ever happened and is determined to worry about everything that ever will...
as you all know, i'm: a) addicted to projects (and my book club, my long classics project, and my genius prwelcome to: THE PENGUIN GREAT IDEAS PROJECT!
as you all know, i'm: a) addicted to projects (and my book club, my long classics project, and my genius project are all on pause) b) mildly behind on my reading challenge (see: months-long reading slump and corresponding existential crisis) c) very into short books that make me look smart (much like the penguin great ideas collection).
i have acquired a couple dozen penguin great ideas installments, and i will be attempting to read one a day until i get bored, catch up, or reach spiritual fulfillment!
sojourner truth...i have no choice but to stan. in these pages she is so FUNNY, so concise, so brash and smart. it rules.
a lot of this is told in the form of other people relating sojourner truth's speeches, as she was unable to read or write, and that makes this collection not just a reminder that she is awesome, but also an interesting and telling reflection of social storytelling, of history, and of perception.
at the end the collection kind of pointlessly and inexplicably switches to various other speeches from non-sojourner truth people, which is really setting them up to fail. they were nowhere near as good.
anyway, i've said it before and i'll say it again: i am loving this project!!!...more
i am both addicted to projects and very into short books that make me look smart, so this project (which iwelcome to: THE PENGUIN GREAT IDEAS PROJECT!
i am both addicted to projects and very into short books that make me look smart, so this project (which i continually forget about, as part of my distracted poetic hugh grant-like charm) is a perfect fit.
i have acquired a couple dozen penguin great ideas installments, and i will be attempting to read them until i get bored, catch up, or reach spiritual fulfillment!
i commemorated dr. king's legacy on mlk day with his own words. they serve as a critical reminder that, although he has been defanged in political memi commemorated dr. king's legacy on mlk day with his own words. they serve as a critical reminder that, although he has been defanged in political memory, he was a brave and controversial idealist with searing, world-changing theories all his life.
this little book contains beautifully rendered arguments for affirmative action, for pacifism, for unions, and for socioeconomic equality that are as emotionally effective as they are logical.
it hurts the heart to read the final pages of this selection, in which dr. king shares his hopes that jfk's assassination and the nonviolence of the civil rights movement have begun a long turn toward peace and forgiveness in the world. it doesn't feel that way lately. but i'll continue to hope.
bottom line: on this mlk day and every other day, i feel grateful and i feel hopeful....more
as you all know, i'm: a) addicted to projects (and my book club, my long classics project, and my genius prwelcome to: THE PENGUIN GREAT IDEAS PROJECT!
as you all know, i'm: a) addicted to projects (and my book club, my long classics project, and my genius project are all on pause) b) mildly behind on my reading challenge (see: months-long reading slump and corresponding existential crisis) c) very into short books that make me look smart (much like the penguin great ideas collection).
i have acquired a couple dozen penguin great ideas installments, and i will be attempting to read one a day until i get bored, catch up, or reach spiritual fulfillment!
in all seriousness, if i was only allowed to have one opinion, it'd be being against the death penalty. this didn't have too much new to say on the argument (although it was written the better part of a century ago, to be fair) but it is sharp and concise.
i am both addicted to projects and very into short books that make me look smart, so this project (which hwelcome to: THE PENGUIN GREAT IDEAS PROJECT!
i am both addicted to projects and very into short books that make me look smart, so this project (which has been on pause for 3 months while i attempted to finish my reading challenge without having an average page count of 14) is a perfect fit.
i have acquired a couple dozen penguin great ideas installments, and i will be attempting to read one a day until i get bored, catch up, or reach spiritual fulfillment!
from page 4 this was already alarmingly prescient, but it never approached the same level of clever and eloquent that its first and title essay did for me — an issue i keep finding myself having with these books.
also, weil contradicted herself pretty often, was very much a moralist here, and at one point advocated against the need for freedom of speech, so.
this is very small and very dense. i had to read it out loud to myself at points, and also sometimes my dog,asking existential questions.
(buh dum ch.)
this is very small and very dense. i had to read it out loud to myself at points, and also sometimes my dog, but that was mostly to make myself laugh and she didn't seem very interested.
anyway.
around the 20% mark, i stopped to add all of the other books in this series to my tbr.
bottom line: get measurably smarter in 100 pages or less!...more