I prefer reading real books. I love their feel, their heft, even their smell–musty and old, or inky and new. Some books have beautiful bindings, dust-covers with wonderful artwork, high-quality paper and lovely fonts. They are a pleasure to read. Even the lowly paperback with its fragile binding and quickly deteriorating paper can spark joy.… Continue reading Ebooks for Learning a Foreign Language
Category: Language
Index Verborum Prohibitorum
The Catholic Church for centuries maintained a list of banned books, the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, only abolishing it in 1966. Governments, particularly fascist ones, also have had a pronounced tendency to ban books for moral, religious, or political reasons. Such censorship is a repugnant form of thought control. It is no surprise that the fascist… Continue reading Index Verborum Prohibitorum
Le Truman Show
Le “Truman Show” est un film qui est sorti en 1998. C’était réalisé par Peter Weir et c’était écrit par Andrew Niccol. Le personnage principal est Truman Burbank qui est joué par Jim Carrey. Truman Burbank est un homme normal qui vit dans une ville normale. Son enfance était heureuse. Il es t… Continue reading Le Truman Show
Paris Update
We’ve been in Paris (France, not Kentucky) a week now. We have moved into the apartment that will be our living space for the next six months. Gretchen and I have spent the week settling in, figuring out where to shop for food, how to get around the city, how to work the washing… Continue reading Paris Update
Lose The Loose
Most commonly misused word on the Internet? Not your vs you’re, not its vs it’s, it’s …. loose for lose.
What's Happened To The Bookstores?
If you are a bookstore aficionado you can’t have avoided noticing how they have deteriorated over the last ten years. Fewer books, less variety, more open spaces and chairs, fewer people, most of whom are there to drink coffee and work on their laptops using free Wifi connections — it’s hard to pin it down… Continue reading What's Happened To The Bookstores?
English-Only Fans Need To Learn English
Some of the people pushing English as the official language of the United States barely can speak it themselves. I am especially upset about the trend over about the last 10 years of what I call “pronoun confusion.” I refer to this kind of statement: “John drove Mary and I to the mall.” Argggggggh! Who… Continue reading English-Only Fans Need To Learn English