Archive for April 2011
Review: Introducing Statistics
While I visited family in Louisville last week, I browsed through Carmichael’s bookstore, of the last independent book sellers in the city. I ran into a section of books called “Introducing …. A Graphic Guide.” The titles ranged from Introducing Freud: A Graphic Guide to Introducing Buddha: A Graphic Guide. The one on statistics caught my eye, so I bought it and read it over the next couple days. Read the rest of this entry »
Self-Governance and the Expansive View of Politics
Normally I do not put much stock in political polling, especially on deep policy issues after politicians on both sides of the aisle demagogue political talking points with the American people. However, this recent poll on the front page of The New York Times certainly caught my attention. Although the poll includes policy-oriented questions, it also includes emotive questions and shows that nearly 70% of Americans believe the nation is on the wrong track; meanwhile, disapproval of President Obama’s handling of the economy has never been higher—57% of Americans. The poll concludes: “Americans are more pessimistic about the nation’s economic outlook and overall direction than they have been at any time since President Obama’s first two months in office, when the country was still officially ensnared in the Great Recession.” Read the rest of this entry »
Literature Review: Rilke’s Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge
Today was a particularly nice day in the United Kingdom, the kind that does not come around often in this part of the world. The sun was fully out and the temperature in the high 60’s—a rarity this time of year—and in England of all places! With the fleetingness of this moment in mind, I decided to shirk my thesis writing and head outside for some pleasure reading. Once situated on the bank of the Thames, I brandished a copy of the Austrian poet, Rainer Maria Rilke’s Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge. Although I had read it before, I wanted to see what I could get out of it a second time. As all of Rilke’s writing does, The Notebooks keep on giving. Read the rest of this entry »
Review: Conroy’s Reading Life
In 2009, I became interested in Louis L’Amour Westerns by reading his Education of a Wandering Man. Two weeks ago, perusing Amazon, Pat Conroy’s My Reading Life struck my eye so I bought it, and read it as soon as it arrived. It’s a little volume, and takes hardly any time at all to finish. Read the rest of this entry »
