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It has a dark past - one in which a number of humans were killed. A past that caused it …
every recipe using self-rising flour and salted butter is tiring me out
When the Guardian of the West Passage died in her bed, the women of Grey Tower fed her to the …
This work is an autobiography told in the third person, and includes coverage of his …
Zinsser writes his autobiography in the third person, playing both the somewhat disdainful biographer of "R.S." and R.S. himself. The conceit is characteristically weird, unnecessary, and extremely well done and funny, but I think it also is a distancing device for a man who doesn't really want to share anything personal about himself. Which makes for a frustrating autobiography!
In the rare moments when he does talk concretely about his life, the book is extremely fun (his account of his abortive attempt at a private medical practice, for example, is laugh-out-loud funny). But he spends most of the book and in long discursive discussions of the issues of his day, which unfortunately tend to end up either boring (unless you are very interested in his views on the state of medical pedagogy in 1940), or euphemistically "of their time." While the book is not surprisingly racist, sexist, or eugenicist for …
Zinsser writes his autobiography in the third person, playing both the somewhat disdainful biographer of "R.S." and R.S. himself. The conceit is characteristically weird, unnecessary, and extremely well done and funny, but I think it also is a distancing device for a man who doesn't really want to share anything personal about himself. Which makes for a frustrating autobiography!
In the rare moments when he does talk concretely about his life, the book is extremely fun (his account of his abortive attempt at a private medical practice, for example, is laugh-out-loud funny). But he spends most of the book and in long discursive discussions of the issues of his day, which unfortunately tend to end up either boring (unless you are very interested in his views on the state of medical pedagogy in 1940), or euphemistically "of their time." While the book is not surprisingly racist, sexist, or eugenicist for the era, and I do think Zinsser has some amount of critical thinking on these fronts, it is still ultimately racist, sexist, and eugenicist.
So, instead of the boring bits and the yikes bits, let us remember the part where he pretends to have rabies, bites a classmate, and is only stopped when someone dumps a tank of sea urchins on him. Or skip this one and just read Rats, Lice, and History.
This work is an autobiography told in the third person, and includes coverage of his …
All of which goes to prove that, as I pointed out in the first chapter, R.S. was really a quite ordinary person about whom it was hardly worth while to write a book.
incredible final sentence
"In a village at the edge of the wilderness of northern Russia, where the winds blow cold and the snow …
It seems like the main idea in this book is leaving cake batter at room temperature for a couple days to ferment before baking it, I am extremely interested
"In a village at the edge of the wilderness of northern Russia, where the winds blow cold and the snow …
The Scarlet Pimpernel (2002, Modern Library)
The Scarlet Pimpernel (1905) is a play and adventure novel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy set during the Reign of Terror …
Amina al-Sirafi should be content. After a storied and scandalous career as one of the Indian Ocean’s most notorious pirates, …
This work is an autobiography told in the third person, and includes coverage of his …
For prose, scientific or otherwise, as for riding horses, he believed one should be start sober; when he was writing essays on educational subjects, he felt that a spot of beer put him into the solemn-ass mood and thus a little closer to the state of mind of the professional pedagogue.
my whole life is shaken seeing "-ass" used like this in a book published in 1940
This work is an autobiography told in the third person, and includes coverage of his …
I had attracted unfavorable notice in various ways, the most recent of which had been the liberation of a goat in the lecture room of Professor Hyslop, the psychologist of Mrs. Piper fame, who was the that moment describing the technique of afterimages.
a life committed to fighting disease and absolute hijinx
Some stories take more than one lifetime to tell. There are wrongs that echo through the ages, friendships that outpace …
This work is an autobiography told in the third person, and includes coverage of his …
I have to interject here, a little over half way through, that I do not recommend this book. Just stick with Rats, Lice, and History.
This work is an autobiography told in the third person, and includes coverage of his …
[My father’s] other idiosyncrasy was a copy of Faust for the pocket of every coat he possessed. He bought small paper editions, and had them bound in soft black leather.
Aspirational
