books

228d

Time-Wasting, Truth-Wasting Exercises | Los Angeles Review of Books

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228d

Happy to discover THE EXPERT OF SUBTLE REVISIONS on this list of greatest books (sharing a historical, speculative and science fiction category along with Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon, Ilana Masad's Beings, and many more excellent books). Check out the full list!

#books #bookstodon @bookstodon

https://thegreatestbooks.org/the-greatest/fiction,historical-fiction,metaphysical-visionary-fiction,science-fiction/books/since/1960

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227d

Lost page of the Archimedes Palimpsest identified in Blois, central France

edited by Gaby Clark, reviewed by Robert Egan

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-lost-page-archimedes-palimpsest-blois.html

Archimedes at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/2545

#books #archeology #mathematics

One page of Archimedes Palimpsest, On Floating Bodies

A photograph of two worn parchment pages showing a palimpsest — older text and diagrams visible beneath and alongside later overwriting. The pages are divided into columns of small Greek minuscule script, heavily faded and stained, with foxing and discolouration across the surface. On the right side of each page, geometric diagrams are visible — lines, angles, and labelled points — consistent with mathematical proofs. The parchment is damaged and warped, with the underlying and overlying texts creating a ghostly layered effect in brownish-grey tones.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archimedes_Palimpsest#/media/File:ArPalimTyp2.jpg

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227d

I am one of the nearly 10,000 authors contributing our names to Don't Steal This Book; a protest launched today at the London Book Fair.

If AI developers wish to use our work in their software they can ask us for permission. If we agree, they can pay us to license it on clearly defined terms.

This is how copyright operates.

Tech companies ignoring copyright is theft. For the UK government to even consider allowing this to continue is a disgrace.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/mar/10/thousands-authors-publish-empty-book-protest-ai-work-copyright

#books #writing

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226d

Does culture make emotion?

Franz Boas helps us solve the puzzle of where our emotional lives originate: in our selves or in the cultures around us

by Noga Arikha

https://aeon.co/essays/who-am-i-when-i-care-emotion-through-the-lens-of-franz-boas?utm_source=Aeon+Newsletter&utm_campaign=6f4e4a3692-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2026_02_24_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-4ef8a26106-72664972

Franz Boas at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/40195

#books #literature #antropology

The Indian Tribes on Vancouver Island and on the Coast of British Columbia Based on his own research, Dr. Franz Boas

Boas, Dr. Franz - Boas, Dr. Franz (1887). Zur Ethnologie Britisch-Kolumbiens [Monograph]. Dr.A.PETERMANN'S MITTEILUNGEN AUS JUSTUS PERTHES' GEOGR.ANSTALT 1887, 33, 129–133, 161

The main map uses colour-coded shading to delineate tribal territories — yellow for Kwakiutl tribes, pink for Salish tribes, and green for West Vancouver tribes — with dotted lines marking sub-group boundaries. Three inset maps (Karton A, B, and C) provide detail of northern and eastern areas. Tribal names are densely labelled across the coastal and inland regions. A legend (Erklärung) and scale bar appear at lower centre.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kwakwaka%CA%BCwakw#/media/File:DIE_INDIANERST%C3%84MME_von_VANCOUVER_I%E1%B4%B0%CC%A3_und_an_der_K%C3%9CSTE_von_BRITISCH-COLUMBIA.jpg

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226d

Paisley Book Festival 2026
15–17 May

The Paisley Book Festival is a platform for celebrating books, reading and writing in Paisley over the course of three days.

Now entering its seventh year, the theme for the 2026 Paisley Book Festival is “Everyday Heroes, Everlasting Icons”.

For the full programme of events, visit the PBF website:

https://paisleybookfestival.com/programme-full/

#Scottish #literature #Paisley #books #bookfestival

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228d

My first podcast ever. Recorded with Dennis McKenna (who would say?). Words fail to express my gratitude and respect for this gentleman. zenjoy!

https://mckenna.academy/mka-podcast/books-human-creativity-and-humble-a-graphic-meditation-tool-for-openness/

#humble #books #podcast

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225d

In the Film Death in Venice, Music Is the Narrator

A haunting score shapes the rise and fall of a writer consumed by infatuation.

By: Angelica Frey

https://daily.jstor.org/in-the-film-death-in-venice-music-is-the-narrator/

Death in Venice at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/66073

#books #literature #movie #music

Thomas Mann, Nobel Prize winner for literature in 1929.

A black-and-white portrait photograph of Thomas Mann in three-quarter view, his right hand raised to his temple in a thoughtful pose. He has neatly combed dark hair, a short moustache, and deep-set eyes with a serious, somewhat intense expression. He wears a dark jacket, white shirt, and tie. A ring is visible on his finger.

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Mann#/media/Datei:Thomas_Mann_1929.jpg

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225d

How Women Researchers Changed Our Understanding of Women’s Economic Lives

How can better data drive economic change? ‘We Do Declare’ uses oral histories to reveal how women collected evidence, reframed the conversation about money, and shaped lasting policy and economic opportunity.

by Rachel F. Seidman

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/blogs/smithsonian-american-womens-history-museum/2026/03/09/we-do-declare-collect-new-data-and-ask-new-questions-about-money/?utm_source=smithsoniandaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=editorial&lctg=93133550

Women’s Economic Lives & Women economy at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/68759
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=women+economy
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/57913

#books #literature #womenhistoryMonth

Cover image of the book Women and Economics

by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

A plain dark burgundy cloth book cover with centred text in gold or cream lettering reading: Women and Economics / A Study of the Economic Relation Between Men and Women as a Factor in Social Evolution / By Charlotte Perkins Stetson. No illustration or decoration, just typography on a solid ground.

https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/57913/pg57913-images.html

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225d

📚 We Do Not Part by: Han Kang

One winter morning in Seoul, Kyungha receives an urgent message from her friend Inseon to visit her at the hospital. Inseon has injured herself in an accident, and she begs Kyungha to return to Jeju Island, where she lives, to save her beloved pet—a white bird called Ama. A snowstorm h...

https://bookblabla.com/book/we-do-not-part

#books #reading #libraries #fiction #literaryfiction #friendshipfiction #worldliterature #korea

One winter morning in Seoul, Kyungha receives an urgent message from her friend Inseon to visit her at the hospital. Inseon has injured herself in an accident, and she begs Kyungha to return to Jeju Island, where she lives, to save her beloved pet—a white bird called Ama. A snowstorm hits the island when Kyungha arrives. She must reach Inseon’s house at all costs, but the icy wind and squalls slow her down as night begins to fall. She wonders if she will arrive in time to save the animal—or even survive the terrible cold that envelops her with every step. Lost in a world of snow, she doesn’t yet suspect the vertiginous plunge into darkness that awaits her at her friend’s house.

Blurring the boundaries between dream and reality, We Do Not Part powerfully brings to light the lost voices of the past to save them from oblivion. Both a hymn to an enduring friendship and an argument for remembering, it is the story of profound love in the face of unspeakable pain—and a celebration of life, however fragile it might be.

WINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD IN FICTION
FINALIST FOR THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE IN FICTION
LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD AND THE NBCC BARRIOS BOOK IN TRANSLATION PRIZE
A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR
ONE OF THE ATLANTIC'S 10 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR
ONE OF THE OBSERVER 25 BEST BOOKS OF THE CENTURY (SO FAR)

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: THE N

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215d

Why it pays to be bored

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167d

📚 The Last Contract of Isako by: Fonda Lee

Isako is a legendary swordswoman, but every legend must come to an end. When her long-time client unexpectedly retires, she plans to follow—to walk out into the frozen wasteland of their planet with her head held high and her family enriched by her dea...

https://bookblabla.com/book/the-last-contract-of-isako

#books #reading #libraries #fiction #sciencefiction #cyberpunkfiction #dystopianfiction #actionadventure

Isako is a legendary swordswoman, but every legend must come to an end. When her long-time client unexpectedly retires, she plans to follow—to walk out into the frozen wasteland of their planet with her head held high and her family enriched by her death. But when she's offered a final mission, she can't refuse, especially when she realizes who lies at the center of it all: Martim, her last—and worst—apprentice, who's somehow made his way to the top. As she's thrust into a world of corporate espionage and shadowy secrets, what she uncovers could forever change humanity's existence among the stars.

The Last Contract of Isako is epic science fiction like only Fonda Lee can write it—set in a world where money trumps loyalty, the elite have the power to extend life or end it, and one woman in the twilight of her calling must decide what's ultimately worth living—or dying—for.

A battle-worn corporate samurai undertakes one last mission on a merciless planet where death is always a mere breath away, in this standalone dystopian epic from the author of the modern fantasy classic Jade City.

LIVE BY THE CODE. DIE BY THE KNIFE.

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224d

‘The Tibetan Book of the Dead’ is actually not just about death

The Tibetan Book of the Dead,” arguably is the most well-known Tibetan Buddhist text outside Tibet.

by Jue Liang

https://theconversation.com/the-tibetan-book-of-the-dead-is-actually-not-just-about-death-247174

Buddhist literature at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/subject/37455

#books #literature #buddhism

Tibetan Thanka of Bardo. Vision of Serene Deities, 19th century, Guimet Museum

A Tibetan thangka painting on a dark background. At the centre, a large black Buddha figure sits in meditation lotus posture within a luminous white and gold mandorla. Surrounding this central figure, arranged in concentric circular bands, are numerous smaller deity figures — Buddhas and bodhisattvas — each seated within individual oval or circular aureoles, rendered in warm reds, golds, whites, and greens. Two larger figures appear at the top in cloud-like settings. At the bottom, a more complex terrestrial or narrative scene is depicted with smaller figures, architectural elements, and landscape details.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e8/Bardo._Vision_des_divinit%C3%A9s_sereines.jpg/330px-Bardo._Vision_des_divinit%C3%A9s_sereines.jpg

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224d

The Dante Map: Mary Hensman’s Masterpiece

Posted by: Cynthia Smith

"In celebration of Women’s History Month, I am featuring the map below. It was designed by the 19th century scholar and mapmaker Mary Hensman. The map is a detailed guide to the places that the Italian poet Dante Alighieri visited as well as the locations mentioned in his literary works."

https://blogs.loc.gov/maps/2026/03/the-dante-map-mary-hensmans-masterpiece/

Books by Dante at PG:

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=Dante+Alighieri

#books #literature #cartography #womenshistorymonth

Dante Map. It shows Italy and other places in the Mediterranean associated with Dante

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157d

Bookworms rejoice: Kobo to get StoryGraph integration in June

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223d

Happy π Day! And Albert Einstein was born #OTD 147 years ago!

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

Isaac Newton used infinite series to compute π to 15 digits, later writing "I am ashamed to tell you to how many figures I carried these computations".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pi#cite_note-Newton-60

"I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world."

Einstein at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/1630

#books #mathematicsDay

Archimedes developed the polygonal approach to approximating π.

A dark Baroque oil painting depicting Archimedes leaning over a cluttered table in deep thought, his chin resting on his raised right hand. He has dishevelled grey-brown hair and wears a coarse brown robe with a white linen sleeve. On the table before him lie sheets of paper with geometric diagrams, an open book, a quill in an inkwell, a compass or dividers, and a small framed mirror or tile. His left hand rests on a luminous celestial or terrestrial globe.

Domenico Fetti - http://archimedes2.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/archimedes_templates/popup.htm

Portrait of Isaac Newton (1642-1727). This is a copy of a painting by Sir Godfrey Kneller (1689).

James Thronill after Sir Godfrey Kneller - http://www.newton.cam.ac.uk/art/portrait.html

An oil portrait of Newton shown from the chest up against a dark brown background. He has long, voluminous grey-silver hair falling to his shoulders, sharp cheekbones, and a direct, penetrating gaze. He wears a dark brown coat over a loosely open white shirt with no cravat.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pi#/media/File:GodfreyKneller-IsaacNewton-1689.jpg

Einstein in Pasadena, California, 1931

Associated Press - https://www.voanews.com/student-union/student-74-follows-einsteins-footsteps https://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/DEU-Forschung-Quantenphysik/ce5580ea4cbd4e4d8098482dbc0cf90f/36/0

Albert Einstein writes a density formula of the Milky Way on January 14, 1931 on the board of the Carnegie Institute of the Mt. Wilson Observatory in Pasadena, California. Text for a tensor element is R_ik = 0 written in large chalk letters on a dark blackboard, Einsten turning his head toward the camera with an alert, animated expression.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein#/media/File:Albert_Einstein_writing_on_a_blackboard_in_Pasadena_(1931).jpg

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223d

“The more time you spend here in the Highlands, the more you recognise and realise and come to feel yourself part of the different layers of the land [… people] see it as wild and untameable, when in actual fact it is very much a human landscape”

—Annie Worsley recommends her best five books on the Scottish Highlands

https://fivebooks.com/best-books/scottish-highlands-annie-worsley/

#Scottish #literature #poetry #naturewriting #memoir #NanShepherd #NormanMacCaig #Highlands #ScottishHighlands #books

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223d

#OTD in 1869 writer Algernon Blackwood was born. He "was an English broadcasting narrator, journalist, novelist and short story writer, and among the most prolific ghost story writers in the history of the genre."

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

Books by Blackwood at PG:

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/1370

#books #literature

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216d

This week's #NewBooks at the library: three more books from my employer's January sale
- The Second Jurassic Dinosaur Rush: Museums and Paleontology in America at the Turn of the Twentieth Century by Paul D. Brinkman from the University of Chicago Press;
- Shaping Humanity: How Science, Art, and Imagination Help Us Understand Our Origins, a wonderfully illustrated book by John Gurche from Yale University Press;
- Rethinking Human Evolution edited by Jeffrey H. Schwartz, a volume in the Vienna Series in Theoretical Biology from @themitpress.

#Fossils #Paleontology #Palaeontology #Dinosaurs #HistoryOfScience #ScienceHistory #HistSci #Anthropology #HumanEvolution #Books #Scicomm #Bookstodon @bookstodon

A photo of three books standing on a small, brown, wooden table. The out-of-focus background shows black shelves full of books.

On the left, The Second Jurassic Dinosaur Rush, showing a hardback with a two-tone black and blue cartoon illustration of a dinosaur peering into the window of an apartment building. This is a famous period engraving by Motty, published in 1886, that shows Iguanodon roaming the streets of 1880s Paris.

In the middle, Shaping Humanity, a black hardback showing a lifelike colour drawing of an ape looking directly at the viewer. The ape is reminiscent of an orangutan, except it has dark-brown to black skin and orange sclera surrounding its black pupils.

On the right, Rethinking Human Evolution, a black hardback showing a collage of fossil human skulls executed in a reddish-ochre colour.

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4d

At this point, I just laugh at the fact that I have no idea what's going on sometimes. The Rouse is an exercise in dogged persistence, curiosity, and tenacity. A better vocabulary would have helped me, too!

#bookstodon #books #TheRouse #ChinaMieville @bookstodon

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182d

finished reading Enter the Aardvark 🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑
by Jessica Anthony.

Two parallel stories connected across time by, of all things, a taxidermied aardvark. The ""Not Gay"" congressman is amusing in his superficiality and Reagan-esque pretensions. The Victorian-era taxidermist (also ""not gay"") is boring & obsessive. Quirky & original, and enjoyable enough.

#BookReview #Books #Bookstodon

@WildWoila @wildwoila@wyrms.de

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157d

What happens in the brain when we read #books?

In an fMRI study, #reading a #novel was associated with measurable changes in resting-state brain connectivity, with some effects persisting for several days.

A good #book does not just pass through us — for a while, it may actually change how the #brain is functioning.

Source: Short- and long-term effects of a novel on connectivity in the brain.

#bookstodon #science @bookstodon #booksky #bookstagram #readingcommunity

Edited 157d ago

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150d

New review! As this handsomely illustrated book shows, the evolutionary history of mammals in Africa is far more interesting than you would think at first blush.

https://inquisitivebiologist.com/2026/05/26/book-review-the-rise-of-mammals-in-africa/

#Books #BookReview #Bookstodon #Evolution #Paleontology #Palaeontology #Fossils #Mammals #Biogeography #Scicomm @bookstodon

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182d

Why ‘little red dots’ pose a big mystery about the Universe

by Jenny Greene

https://aeon.co/essays/why-little-red-dots-pose-a-big-mystery-about-the-universe?utm_source=Aeon+Newsletter&utm_campaign=0315165529-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2026_04_18&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-4ef8a26106-72664972

Original paper here:
https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.07320

Astronomy at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/bookshelf/101

#books #science #astronomy

Hubble Ultra-Deep Field image of a region of the observable universe (equivalent sky area size shown in bottom left corner), near the constellation Fornax. Each spot is a galaxy, consisting of billions of stars. The light from the smallest, most redshifted galaxies originated around 12.6 billion years ago, close to the age of the universe.

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

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212d

Habermas and climate action

Jürgen Habermas offers a framework for action on climate change – justice and deliberation are as important as the science

by Emilie Pratticois

https://aeon.co/essays/how-can-habermas-help-us-think-about-climate-change?utm_source=Aeon+Newsletter&utm_campaign=a8acf4af90-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2026_03_24&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-4ef8a26106-72664972

Climate changes at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/subjects/search/?query=climate+changes

#books #literature #environment

Fig. 1. Climatic changes and mountain building.
(After Schuchert, in The Evolution of the Earth and Its Inhabitants, edited by R. S. Lull.)

Diagram showing the times and probable extent of the more or less marked climate changes in the geologic history of North America, and of its elevation into chains of mountains.

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/37855/37855-h/37855-h.htm

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