How to Pronounce Knife

This was the best collection of short stories, I’ve read since O’Henry. No O’Henriesque twists, but fate and life and love deal the characters and us readers, enough drama that none are needed. A couple of lines, that struck me … Raymond didn’t like to talk back to his sister, but this time he thought she was wrong to say what she did. ...

July 30, 2021 · Mario Jason Braganza

A Mathematician’s Lament

This little book, had me yelling, “YEA! HELL, YEA!” at every page. The book’s evolved from this really beautiful lament, which is available online and has a newer section titled Exultation. The article has the main thrust of the book and is worth your time. (as is the book, specially if you have kids, or you teach kids, or if you want to shape someone’s thinking about Mathematics) Highlights from the book follow … ...

July 24, 2021 · Mario Jason Braganza

The Comfort Crisis

I kept reading books and articles about solitude and discomfort and boredom. This Michael Easter book covers all of it, succinctly in the frame of a journey to the Alaskan wilderness. Worth a read. Highlights from the book follow … “When our ancestors weren’t searching for food or getting pummeled by mastodons, they had long moments of downtime, lounging around for hours a day. They had to make something out of their boredom. ...

July 14, 2021 · Mario Jason Braganza

The Overstory

When a book keeps popping up in your radar, from a wide variety of sources, over months, then you just have to go read it. via the amazing Ricardo Siri. click the image to see full size. ...

May 31, 2021 · Mario Jason Braganza

Cashflow for Creators

If you want to someday make money from your skills and your craft, you owe it to yourself to read this. If you have never read Lucas, you owe it to yourself to read him. Buy Cashflow for Creators! My highlighted notes from the book follow … Craft is the nuts and bolts of how you do The Thing. For a writer, it’s stuff like grammar and spelling and reading. For a glass artist, it’s not mixing different COEs or—at the highest levels—how to mix different COEs. Painters need to understand that light and pigments blend colors very differently, how to prep and clean a canvas, and so on. ...

April 13, 2021 · Mario Jason Braganza

A Love Letter to Books

Despite financial troubles there’s a sense in which my childhood was immensely privileged — a pauper in the material world, I was a sultan in the world of ideas. — Erik Hoel I started by wanting to share that quote and link on my microblog and then my thoughts turned into a blog post sized comment. I decided to post it here too, then. ...

April 8, 2021 · Mario Jason Braganza