Practical Criticism, I.A. Richards (an amusing demonstration of the incompetence of most readers in showing the bizarre incomprehension of the plain meaning of many poems and the extreme inconsistency of their critical evaluations thereof, and Richards makes that point at length; still, I remain totally unconvinced by his claim that the “tinkles” poem is of any merit!)
Although Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself: A Road Trip with David Foster Wallace, Lipsky 2010 (for DFW completionists only. As DFW himself points out during the conversations, a writer is not at his best extemporaneously; any good work is the condensation of the peak moments of months or years. It is interesting to see DFW express his thoughts in a rather raw, unfiltered, and direct way, but I don’t think anyone needed confirmation of the standard interpretations of Infinite Jest when he already laid out all his cards in his “E Unibus Pluram” essay on television, did they?)
Nonfiction Books Thread
Epic Measures: One Doctor. Seven Billion Patients., on Christopher Murray’s Global Burden of Disease
Practical Criticism, I.A. Richards (an amusing demonstration of the incompetence of most readers in showing the bizarre incomprehension of the plain meaning of many poems and the extreme inconsistency of their critical evaluations thereof, and Richards makes that point at length; still, I remain totally unconvinced by his claim that the “tinkles” poem is of any merit!)
Although Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself: A Road Trip with David Foster Wallace, Lipsky 2010 (for DFW completionists only. As DFW himself points out during the conversations, a writer is not at his best extemporaneously; any good work is the condensation of the peak moments of months or years. It is interesting to see DFW express his thoughts in a rather raw, unfiltered, and direct way, but I don’t think anyone needed confirmation of the standard interpretations of Infinite Jest when he already laid out all his cards in his “E Unibus Pluram” essay on television, did they?)
Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha (unrateable due to lack of personal experience)