- "Collapse" by Jared Diamond
If you worry at night about the end of human civilization, 550 pages of small type by Jared Diamond should be enough soporific to knock you out for a month of bedtimes. If, on the other hand, you enjoyed "Guns, Germs, & Steel" and you're [ ... ]
- "The Middlesteins" by Jami Attenberg
I can't objectively review Jami Attenberg's latest novel, The Middlesteins, because I've known Jami for a couple years and I'm rooting for this book. It is, it turns out, gratifying to root for, because it's a best-seller and was the cover [ ... ]
- Regarding Warhol
I saw "Regarding Warhol: Sixy Artists, Fifty Years" at the Met today. I've always enjoyed Warhol: his every work makes a clear, prescient statement, and there are days I just want to go to a museum, understand what the art is saying to me, and [ ... ]
- Review of "Let Us Now Praise Famous Men" by James Agee and Walker Evans
"Let Us Now Praise Famous Men" by James Agee and Walker Evans, 1941. I give up. I can't finish this nor ever will. Walker Evans begins the book with a few dozen photos, most of which are mediocre at best, a handful of which are among the best [ ... ]
- Review of "Opening the Hand of Thought" by Kosho Uchiyama
Highly recommended, but don't feel bad for skimming the second half. The book's early chapters offer the most specific and practical guide to zazen that I have read—the method, its goals, and what the meditator can reasonably [ ... ]
- Review of "The Social Organization of Zen Practice" by David L. Preston
I read this while I was practicing at Zen Mountain Center in 2003; it describes the effect of peer pressure on new Zen students.
- "Digital Dharma"
I saw Digital Dharma last night at the Rubin Museum: Digital Dharma is E. Gene Smith's epic 50-year journey to find, preserve and digitize more than 20,000 volumes of ancient Tibetan text; a story of one man’s mission that became the [ ... ]
- Review of "The Snow Leopard" by Peter Matthiessen
- Review of "The Evolution of God" by Robert Wright
The Evolution of God, 2009 by Robert Wright, has two big ideas. Convincing: Our ideas of gods or God evolve in a social and political context. When we see gain in warfare, we imagine a vengeful God, but when our interests lie in [ ... ]
- Review of "JavaScript: The Good Parts" by Douglas Crockford
An obsessive and eccentric book, but well worth reading.