Snowstorms are conducive to being tucked in lots of blankets on the couch, fire blazing, tea in hand with a book (or 2 or 3). So I’ve assembled for you a list of books I’ve enjoyed that you may find delight in. (And one thing: if you click on the links to the books, it’ll take [...]
For those of us residing in the Northern hemisphere, Winter’s knocking on our door. Now that we’ve travelled, harvested and feasted, we’re ready to get cozy by the fire and do some serious reading and tea drinking. I tend to keep all the books I’m currently reading stacked next to the bed and piled on [...]
Some time ago I began working on what I’ve dubbed a working herbal. Er, maybe just a notebook of plant information…either way, I have a 18″ by 30″ monster of a moleskine notebook (my unrivaled favorite notebook). Each page is dedicated to an herb. At first I freaked out because the paper was unlined. I [...]
Foxfire is a book series about the traditions and folklore of rural Appalachia. It highlights the ties between a region’s people and their land. The subjects covered are just fucking incredible: Snake lore, the art of moonshining, ghost stories, spring wild foods, hog dressing, dulcimers, burial customs, rain-making, flintrock rifles, folk magic, food preservation, and lotsa [...]
This book, written in by Italian architect Luigi Serafini is a field guide of an alien world. An encyclopedia of the fantastical.There are sections on physics, chemistry, mineralogy (including many drawings of elaborate gems), geography, botany, zoology, sociology, linguistics, technology, architecture, sports (of all sorts), clothing, and so on. It’s difficult to find a copy, and [...]
Codices iconographici – i.e. illuminated manuscripts with no text or merely explanatory text” is the name of a manuscript collection of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek which was established in the 19th century under J. A. Schmeller and described in a hand-written inventory. With the addition of new acquisitions, this inventory was continued in handwriting until 2002. [...]
A definite highlight of last weekend was visiting Proteus Gowanus and the Morbid Anatomy Library. Morbid Anatomy is just one of those amazing blogs that’s able to tie together so many broad ideas and keep the subject matter focused enough to really drive those ideas home. So I was really excited to visit with Ms. [...]
This is a review I wrote last year about their book The Subsistence Perspective: Beyond the Globalized Economy for the Center for World Indigenous Studies’ quarterly journal The Fourth World Journal. It’s a little scholarly but don’t let that deter you. Reading about global economics can be intimidating. Attempting to understanding it and possible alternative [...]
Edward Tufte, lovingly called a “Pioneer of Visual Data Analysis,” is an artist and statistician at Yale University. His sensitivity in the areas of visual literacy has provoked a number of works that are reshaping the dialogue on how information is expressed and presented.
By T.W. Rolleston, illustrated by Willy Pogàny, 1913 I recently came across this book from an entry in the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections at the Cornell Library. I am stunned by the illustrations. It reminds me of a Andrew Lang’s Fairy Books and W. Heath Robinson’s books. Although this book has been long [...]
I’ve been wanting to write about this book for a while. The author, John Bodley, presents the idea that there is a maximum number of interpersonal interactions that one person can grasp. Any systems (or societies) that are larger than that become too big and unmanageable to be efficient. In his words, the majority of [...]