A finger in every country
Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words by Randall Munroe
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I love the conceit of this book – fun graphics explaining scientific and physical phenomenon with a limited word set.
That said – I generally do like complex books with a varied and specific vocabulary.
Wonderful as an exercise, and I think I might experiment a little with Simple Writer, a tool he has for composing writing using the same limited word set.
Tears and Saints by Emil M. Cioran
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Cioran remains, as always, a brilliant writer. However I connected most with this book when it verged away from hagiography and god, and towards sadness and death.
In the dark clarity around sadness, around loneliness, around death, Cioran remains – peerless.
Each aphorism bursts with the precision and pulchritude of a struck tuning fork.
There were some unexpected gems about music that I was not expecting in a book of saints and tears.
Only a must read for the Cioran completist, or for those who want to read of the tears that fill saint’s hearts.