Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

I Only Understood a Third of this Book but I Still Liked It

The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus

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Everything I’ve read by Albert Camus I have loved, and it is the same for The Myth of Sisyphus, only a portion of which I probably understood. From the back of the book: “[T]he essay presents a meditation on suicide–the question of living or not living in a universe devoid of order or meaning.” As I understand it, in this book/essay, Camus uses the term “absurd” to mean the meaninglessness of the universe. It is through the acknowledgement of this absurdity that the limits of […]

You’ll Be Examining More Than Just the Chicken and the Egg Here

From Darwin to Derrida: Selfish Genes, Social Selves and the Meanings of Life by David Haig

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David Haig’s From Darwin to Derrida: Selfish Genes, Social Selves and the Meanings of Life is probably not one of the most accessible books that I could close the year on—which is why I decided to make it my second last and not the last review of the year.  David Haig is an Australian biologist and current George Putnam Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University. I first came across his work when reading up about genomic imprinting and maternal-fetal conflict. (These subjects are […]

“I’m not interested in burning myself [out] by whole-assing stuff that will be fine if I half- or quarter-ass it. Being able to achieve maximum economy of ass is an important adult skill.”

Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts by Oliver Burkeman

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This year I picked my top five books and Burkeman garnered the number one spot for another book, but he earned the superlative for “most likely to change your life” for this one. I first discovered him (like not that I “discovered him” but that when I became aware of him, you get my meaning) on NPR Life Kit in an episode titled “How to Rethink What You Spend Your Time – And Life – Doing.” This simple 21 minute episode shook me upside down, […]

A conversation between two poets

Wise Up! Wise Down!: A Poetic Conversation by John Agard and JonArno Lawson

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The last few weeks have been filled with one thing after another! I needed some down time for reading as what I have found of late is pretty tough. Prison camps, transgender issues, first crushes, The Holocaust. Therefore I found this odd and little looking book called,  Wise Up! Wise Down!: A Poetic Conversation by John Agard, JonArno Lawson and illustrated by Satoshi Kitamura on line and read it for a nice winding down. This book is a unique mix of subjects and forms for […]

“Don’t stop beginning. Begin and begin and begin. Begin endlessly—that is, without the taint of even eventual ending.”

All Things Are Too Small: Essays in Praise of Excess by Becca Rothfeld

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Literary critic Becca Rothfeld argues against the modern inclination toward minimalism, and insteads advocates embracing all the messy and irrepressible things that make the human existence so rewarding. I am this book’s target audience, because like Rothfeld I wonder if in the process of streamlining our world we have reached an unpleasantly bland and bloodless zeitgeist. I enjoy colorful and unusual clothes and furniture. I find the aesthetic of minimalism boring. I love the over the top pulp literature of yesteryears. I don’t want the […]

A little BS might go a long way

On Bullshit by Harry G. Frankfurt

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The late Princeton University philosopher Harry G. Frankfurt might just be best known, when he’s known, for a little book titled On Bullshit. When I say little, I mean the library copy I currently have on my desk measures roughly 4×6 inches, and is a bit under 1 cm thick. 20oz mug included for size reference. I’d heard of this book before at an academic conference when a former classmate of mine used it to consider whether or not the Roman politician Cicero’s works fell […]



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