When I was younger, I thought there were two basic ways you could approach culture. The first was to immerse yourself in the cultural canon, consuming everything prestigious and universally revered by “the critics.” This approach has its merits, but it can be constraining. By definition, whatever is universal cannot touch the particular. You can …
As soon as I arrived, I randomly picked this book in the institute’s library, expecting it to be a short and lighthearted novel –– a perfect way to start my reading routine in the new environment. However, Such a Long Journey was a long and exhausting read, like Gustad’s dense life. There is an excruciating …
This is a good book that could have been great. I have been interested in effective altruism since I stumbled upon Practical Ethics by Peter Singer almost by chance at my college library. The reasoned perspective on doing good was seductive to an intellectually curious law sophomore, growing disenchanted with the moral foundations of juridical …
Audre Lorde is poetry and poet at the same time – it starts with her name, candidly justified on page 24 of my Penguin Modern Classics edition of Zami: “I did not like the tail of the Y hanging down below the line in Audrey, and would always forget to put it on, which used …
Murakami has a way to bewitch his readers through a bluntly mundane approach to the surreal and unpalpable. His writing entrances us in a world that is half magical and exotic, half intimate and familiar. This suspense – the way it pends from one side to the other, never really firmly landing in none – …
In a particular hard time of my life, I landed what can be described as the dream job I have never dreamt of by providing support services for Khan Academy. Naturally, I am grateful to Sal Khan – me and many other people who have benefited from his pioneering online lectures. This book encapsulates much …
This book discusses climate change. Although it is already six years old, by then the perspectives were already terribly dark. I wonder what more recent work has to say about the subject, although I suspect it doesn’t bring any good news. It starts by presenting the many structures that both created and sustain the problem. …