Category: Books (Page 1 of 3)
The Texas Board of Education has issued a required reading list for their public schools.
It seems pretty challenging, but good on them. I am not a Christian, but have no problem with the Bible being required reading as literature. Western civilization is Christendom, and is worth defending.
If you care looking for something to read or something to read to your kids, here’s the list.

The controversial movie, The Odyssey by Christopher Nolan opens in a little over a week. He made some casting decisions that are provocative, along with his choice to use the Emily Wilson translation.
It’s not obvious why the translation makes a difference.
This Reddit post provides an explanation for why the translation matters. A sample passage of The Odyssey is provided from several different translations.

A group of us went to see Project Hail Mary last night. I was disappointed.
Youtube reviewers and people in real life have been raving about it, and I really enjoyed the book. My expectations were too high.

WSJ: Margaret Atwood on the Lessons She Learned as a Young Girl
WSJ: Margaret Atwood on the Lessons She Learned as a Young Girl
Anyone who thinks that females are perfect, that girls are nicer, that every sadistic thing girls and women do is the fault of “the patriarchy,” has either forgotten a lot or never been a 9-year-old girl at school.
My cosmopolitan niece, dressed in lilac in the photo, was once chastised by Margaret Atwood for not being nice enough.

CNN: Former Vice President Dick Cheney dies at 84 years old.
I’m not one to celebrate somebody’s death. Cheney seems like he pissed everybody off, so others will be posting snarky articles about him in a couple of days.
A few years ago, I listened to Cheney’s memoir, In my Time.
The Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon is when you learn something new, then started noticing it everywhere.
I wasn’t aware that Science Fiction Erotica was a sub-genre of literature until I’d watched Shoe0nHead’s latest Youtube video. I started noticing the topic showing up on news and current event sites.

It’s 93o outside, so I’m staying in and catching up on some housecleaning. Sparky wanted to keep me company, but him walking on wet floors wasn’t helping. He doesn’t fully trust the vacuum cleaner. Since I was screwing up his afternoon, he decided to just go to bed until I settled down.
Or maybe Sparky didn’t like what I was listening to on Spotify.

Mythic Quest is an offbeat office comedy set at a video game development company. The characters are maximum diversity, with old and young, White, Black and Asian, gay and straight. It works because all of the characters have strengths and weaknesses. The show doesn’t avoid diversity topics, but when they come up, both sides are represented, but it all seems a bit silly.

We Are Legion [We Are Bob] is the first book in a five book series known as the “Bobiverse” by Dennis E. Taylor that came out in 2016. It’s funny, creative and thought-provoking, without any heavy-handed messaging for modern audiences. It’s an entertaining and engaging series, and one of the few that I ever revisit.
