Eggplant.place

198d

Living without my self

Our culture valorises the big, coherent self: reading Robert Musil helps me embrace the beauty of my no-self existence

by Mette Leonard Høeg

https://aeon.co/essays/robert-musil-gives-confidence-to-the-no-self-minority-like-me?utm_source=Aeon+Newsletter&utm_campaign=a074b02ade-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2026_04_07&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-4ef8a26106-72664972

Musil at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/37187

#books #literature

Robert Musil in 1900

Unknown author - Scan du livre .Musil, Journaux

Musil faces the camera directly with a composed, self-possessed expression. He has short, neatly parted dark hair, a trim moustache, and wears a dark jacket with a white collar and bow tie.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Robert_Musil#/media/File:Robert_Musil_1900.jpg

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27d

67 days later... I finally finished reading Darwin's Descent. I knew I would spend a significant amount of time with this book, but this is still a new personal record. Thoughts are being committed to paper, but for now, here is the obligatory mugshot. Annotations galore! Especially if you consider (second photo) that I ended up annotating both Darwin's original text and the numerous annotations.

#Books #BookReview #Bookstodon #Scicomm #Evolution #Darwin #CharlesDarwin #HistoryOfScience #ScienceHistory #HistSci @princetonupress @princetonnature @bookstodon

A photo of three books standing on a small, brown, wooden table. The out-of-focus background shows black shelves full of books and part of the beech-coloured laminate floor.

On the right, The Descent of Man, showing a white oblong hardback with a colour photo of a fan of brown bird feathers with noticeable eyespots (these belong to the argus pheasant). The book is heavily annotated with coloured Post-it notes.

On the left, two books: "Darwin and the Making of Sexual Selection", a white hardback with a period black-and-white cartoon illustration of a woman in Victorian garb seen from the back, holding a small umbrella. Her head, back, and the umbrella are covered with coloured peacock feathers.

In front ot it, lying down, is "A Most Interesting Problem", showing a white hardback with the title written across the spine.

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A top-down photo of three books lying on a small, brown, wooden table. The out-of-focus background shows black shelves full of books and part of the beech-coloured laminate floor.

In the centre, "The Descent of Man", showing a white oblong hardback resting, page open, on a bookstand that is not visible. The book is open on a random page to show both columns of text on each page densely annotated with coloured Post-it notes.

On the left, two books, one lying on top of the other. On top, "A Most Interesting Problem", showing a white hardback with two monotone colour illustrations of a chimpanzee skeleton in yellow and a human skull in green. Partially visible underneath is "Darwin and the Making of Sexual Selection", a white hardback with a red box that contains the title in white font and the author's name in black font. The illustration on the cover is hidden by the book lying on top.

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197d

Shakespeare Gardens Around the World Honor the Playwright—and Hold Their Own Storied History

The curated plots of flowers, herbs and trees serve as windows into Shakespeare’s work and life

by Mary Randolph

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/shakespeare-gardens-around-the-world-honor-the-playwright-and-hold-their-own-storied-history-180988497/?utm_source=smithsoniandaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=editorial&lctg=93133550

Flowers from Shakespeare's Garden at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/64102

#books #literature

Illustration from Walter Crane's 1906 book, Flowers from Shakespeare's Garden.

A young woman in a pink Regency-style dress and wide-brimmed floral hat kneels in a garden, gathering an armful of vividly coloured flowers — daisies, poppies, irises, marigolds and more — before a marble bust of Shakespeare on a pedestal, set against dark topiary.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Shakespeare_garden.jpg

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197d

Have you enjoyed Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir?

Then you’ll probably also enjoy The Andromeda Strain and The Andromeda Evolution. They, too, explore the idea of an extraterrestrial microorganism, a mystery that must be solved to save Earth, and plenty of fascinating scientific details.

Sci-fi readers, what other similar books would you recommend?

#scifi #books #bookstodon #sciencefiction #projecthailmary #andyweir
@books
@bookstodon

The Andromeda Strain and The Andromeda Evolution

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197d

Ebook and paperback: https://books2read.com/FeyFighters

Two soldiers on opposite sides, pixie Commander Stargazer Candleflash and human Sergeant Edwin Harris, find their fates forever entwined, first by revenge, but as they crash together in a dangerous rainforest, they’re forced to work together, just to survive. Will they make it or will their bickering get them killed?

@bookstodon
#author #indieauthor #writing #fantasy #scifi #sciencefiction #sff #sciencefantasy #scifi #actionadventure #fiction #books

(Left) The cover of Fey Fighters, by Owen Tyme.

The background is the stars of space, with nebula-like clouds, in blue. This has been divided into jigsaw puzzle pieces by dark lines marking the lines between pieces.

The foreground features an enormous, stylized phoenix, which is composed of fire. The phoenix looms over an Earth-like world heavily obscured by cloud cover.

(Right) The same world from the cover orbits a purple gas giant, with a stream of flame above it, which may be the phoenix, with the following text over the top:

“We’re in a human-made, goblin-enchanted spacecraft, powered by a dryad that’s under the mistaken impression she’s a nuclear reactor, half-piloted by a pixie and half-piloted by a human.”

“Is there anywhere we can go we won’t be shot on sight?”

(Bottom) https://books2read.com/FeyFighters

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197d

#OTD In 1859, Samuel Langhorne Clemens receives his steamboat pilot’s license.

https://lithub.com/lit-hub-daily-april-9-2026/

Books by Mark Twain at PG:

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/53

#books #literature

Young Mark Twain. He is turned to his left. He moustache and hair appear brown.

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197d

Kobo(dot com) has eReaders that work great and so far they haven't gotten weird about what you can do with any old readers. My oldest one is going on 9 years old and has been passed down to my kid, who uses it daily.

Additionally, you can still break the DRM of Kobo books easily in Calibre. You don't need Amazon for literally anything book-related at this point. Every eBook I own (around 4k at this point?) is FREE. They are mine. It's still possible to do this. (If an author only sells on Amazon, well, that's a choice they made.)

Audiobooks? There's libro.fm, which lets you download unlocked files. All your current "locked" Audible books? You can easily break the locks on all of those too. My audiobooks are all free.

#Books #ebooks #Bookstodon #Kobo #Calibre #DRM

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162d

Reading True Color by Kory Stamper (non-fiction book about the quest to define colour, from a lexicographer who worked at a major dictionary).

Decided to get it as an ebook rather than audiobook because I wanted to see the colours she’d be discussing.

And then what did I do?

That’s right, I loaded it on my black-and-white ereader.

#books #FacePalm @bookstodon

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177d

Why Does Music in Science Fiction Sound Like That?

Imagining the sound of other worlds has a long past—and persistent creative limits.

By: Angelica Frey

https://daily.jstor.org/why-does-music-in-science-fiction-sound-like-that/

Full article available for download:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/27106975?mag=why-does-music-in-science-fiction-sound-like-that&seq=4

Music & Science Fiction at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/bookshelf/50
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/bookshelf/68

#Books #Literature #Music

Title page of New Atlantis in the second edition of Francis Bacon's Sylva sylvarvm: or A naturall historie. In ten centvries. London. Printed by J.H. for William Lee at the Turkes Head in Fleet-street, next to the Miter, 1628.

Published after the authors death, by William Rawley Doctor of Divinity, late his Lordships Chaplaine.

1628 title page of New Atlantis, an unfinished utopian work by Francis Bacon, Lord Verulam, Viscount St. Alban. Features period typography and a small decorative woodcut engraving at the bottom.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Atlantis#/media/File:Bacon_1628_New_Atlantis_title_page_wpreview.png

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180d

Great interview by #Palfest w/ author/illustrator #MollyCrabapple about her new book #HereWhereWeLiveIsOurCountry: The Story of the #JewishBund

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zn01FwM_xnM

#Bund #bundism #JewishHistory #JewishLeft #antizionism #Palestine #PalestineQuestion #memoirs #books @bookstodon

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177d

Book Review: Anti-State, by Allen Stroud
Stewart Hotston has our review of Stroud's latest space opera, a standalone in his long running universe, at the Hugo Finalist NOAF blog:
http://www.nerds-feather.com/2026/04/review-anti-state-by-allen-stroud.html

#books #sciencefiction #review #bookstodon @bookstodon

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196d

Today at the NOAF blog, @mikechenwriter 's THE PHOTONIC EFFECT gets a review from @Princejvstin
http://www.nerds-feather.com/2026/04/review-photonic-effect-by-mike-chen.html

#books #bookstodon #review #sciencefiction @bookstodon

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174d

The Moral Beauty of Middlemarch

George Eliot’s masterpiece teaches us to live faithfully a hidden life.

By George Scialabba

https://www.plough.com/en/topics/life/beauty/the-moral-beauty-of-middlemarch

Middlemarch at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/145

#Books #Literature

Dorothea Brooke and Will Ladislaw from Middlemarch by George Eliot.

A composed woman in red sits beside an earnest young man who leans toward her. Warm, intimate interior with latticed windows.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middlemarch#/media/File:Dorothea_and_Will_Ladislaw.jpg

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195d

Japanese researchers look at 800-year-old books and trees for signs of extreme solar events

On Feb. 21, 1204, Japanese poet Fujiwara no Teika described in his diary a bizarre phenomenon: the northern Kyoto skies suddenly burning red at night.

by By Tomoko Otake

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2026/04/10/japan/science-health/fujiwara-no-teika-diary-solar-storms/

Full article here:
https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/pjab/102/4/102_pjab.102.011/_article

Solar cycle at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=solar+cycle

#books #old_manuscripts #medieval_solar_activity

A drawing of Fujiwara no Teika, known as a courtier, waka poet and scholar of the late Heian and early Kamakura periods.

The figure is seated and dressed in elaborate court robes with wide sleeves and intricate patterns. He wears a formal headpiece and has a composed, slightly turned facial expression. In one hand, he seems to hold a rectangular object—possibly a writing tablet or scroll.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fujiwara_no_Teika.jpg

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177d

📚 When the Storm Passes by: Manel Loureiro

In the summer, the Isle of Ons is a vacation paradise. But in the winter, when nature is unpredictable and supply boats are rare, Ons is far less inviting.

Yet the off season is perfect for Roberto Lobeira, who hopes to find peace and inspiration to write his new novel....

https://bookblabla.com/book/when-the-storm-passes

@bookstodon

#books #reading #libraries #fiction #thrillers #suspensefiction #crimefiction #psychological

In the summer, the Isle of Ons is a vacation paradise. But in the winter, when nature is unpredictable and supply boats are rare, Ons is far less inviting.

Yet the off season is perfect for Roberto Lobeira, who hopes to find peace and inspiration to write his new novel. Instead, the island's few permanent residents give Roberto an unnerving and cautionary welcome. There are even warnings of chilling Galician folklore that keep him on edge--and on watch at night. Then when Roberto finds a mysterious bundle floating near the shore, the contents trigger in the residents old family feuds, scores to settle, and an unspeakable thirst for revenge.

As a palpable sense of dread grows more threatening, a violent storm portends even worse to come. With all communication to the outside world shut down, Roberto must face not only the forces of nature but forces he has yet to comprehend on an island where people will do anything to survive.

For a writer seeking sanctuary, a seductive island off the Galician Atlantic coast induces a primal fear in a prize-winning shocker by the international bestselling author of the Apocalypse Z series.

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195d

This week's #NewBooks at the library: Three more books from the January clearance sale of my employer:
- The Rise of Horses: 55 Million Years of Evolution from Johns Hopkins University Press (one I might just review in tandem with a more recent book on horse evolution. At some point.)
- Extraction to Extinction: Rethinking our Relationship with Earth's Natural Resources from @sarabandbooks.
- The Good Ancestor: How to Think Long Term in a Short-Term World from WH Allen. Somewhere there is a review series brewing about long-term thinking (no, not *that* sort of long-termism!)

#Evolution #Horses #NaturalResources #ResourceExtraction #Environmentalism #Books #Scicomm #Bookstodon @bookstodon

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177d

What is the most unique/creative fiction you've run across lately?

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195d

#OTD in 1935 Anna Katharine Green died. "She was one of the first authors of detective fiction in the United States and distinguished herself by writing well plotted, legally accurate stories."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Katharine_Green

Books by Green at PG:

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/541

#books #literature

Photograph of Anna Katharine Green. She is turned to her right, but her face is towards the camera. Her coat is fur-lined.

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196d

IDK if Y'all have hard and fast rules about whether, or when, to DNF a book. I'm thinking that the book I'm reading might be a slow burn. I'll give it 50 pages to see.

If I really like the writing, but not so much the story, I'll generally stick it out. In this case, the story is more intriguing than the writing.

#books #bookstodon @bookstodon

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175d

The Life and Legacy of Hertha Sponer

Get a behind-the-scenes look at materials on Hertha Sponer, including a newly discovered lecture, recently featured at the March Trimble Lecture.

by Karina Cooper

https://www.aip.org/library/ex-libris-universum/the-life-and-legacy-of-hertha-sponer?mcid=81301bd1cc

Books in Women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/bookshelf/706

#Books #Science #WomenInStem

Hertha Sponer (far left) with physicists and chemists at the farewell party for James Franck (bottom center) in 1921 at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Berlin

Berlin physicists and chemists in 1920; back row, from left to right: Walter Grotrian, Wilhelm Westphal, Otto von Baeyer, Peter Pringsheim, Gustav Hertz; front row, from left to right: Hertha Sponer, Albert Einstein, Ingrid Franck, James Franck, Lise Meitner, Fritz Haber, Otto Hahn

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hertha_Sponer#/media/Datei:Berliner_Physiker_u_Chemiker_1920.jpg

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195d

Revering both cats and the work of Muriel Spark (there are many parallels…), and when I saw its cover, I couldn’t pass up on James Bailey’s new biography of the writer, Like a Cat Loves a Bird: The Nine Lives of Muriel Spark.

Great to visit the Portobello Bookshop today, too, maybe my favourite independent bookshop within easy reach of home.

#MurielSpark #LikeACatLovesABird #TheNineLivesOfMurielSpark #JamesBailey #PortobelloBookshop #Biography #ScottishWriters #Books #Bookstodon #AlwaysJudgeABookByTheCover @bookstodon

The new (April 2026) biography, Like a Cat Loves a Bird: The Nine Lives of Muriel Spark, by James Bailey. The hardback book’s cover shows a photograph of Spark holding one of her beloved cats, a magnificent black creature, to her chest.

The book rests on a tote bag from The Portobello Bookshop, which itself lies on a floral rug. The rug may or may not be embellished with cat hair.

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175d

This month's Distributed Proofreaders (DP) blog is about "Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship and Travels." This was a book by Wolfgang von Goethe which was translated into English by Thomas Carlyle.

https://blog.pgdp.net/2026/05/01/wilhelm-meisters-apprenticeship-and-travels/

#dp #dpblog #books #literature

Portrait of Goethe in 1828 by Joseph Carl Stieler. He is an older man with gray hair. He is sitting at a desk and holding a paper/manuscript in his right hand. He is wearing a black coat and a white cravat with a red pin holding it together.

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195d

I found out that the series I just started has 8 books and I ditched out.

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195d

"A new program unites West Coast readers for stories of Japanese American incarceration"

www.opb.org/article/2026/04/11/one-book-one-coast-japanese-american-incarceration/

"Libraries across Washington, Oregon and California have selected George Takei’s (@georgetakei ) graphic memoir 'They Called Us Enemy' for the 'One Book, One Coast' program."

I've read this book - highly recommended! 😁

@bookstodon

#Book #Books #Bookstodon #Libraries #AsianAmerican #History #AAPI