Karen Carlson

That sounds great !

I'm good, thanks. I don't do well in hot weather, so this isn't my time of year, but that's why I live in Maine, where fireplace-and-tea weather is just around the corner (except, no fireplace, but I have a vivid imagination). Reading has slowed; I'm worried about my mind aging to dust.
And you?

On the other hand, fails:
Cover/title often attracts, but like a pretty girl they can disappoint when examined more closely.
I'm not interested in 'beautifully written'.
Most frequent disappointment is the 'everybody's reading it' Best Seller everybody's promoting.

Various ways.
Plot sounds interesting.
Structure or style sounds interesting.
Setting interests me (medical, science, academia, music, religion, writer).
Authors I've read before.
and: books I should have read but haven't ('broccoli books').

"How blind the minds of men to fate and future, to minding limits even in good luck!"
- 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘈𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘪𝘥, Book 10.501, Bartsch trans.
Catherine Project Reading Group, Week 5

I find the Templars less interesting than the Abbey of his Name of the Rose, but the twisted conspiracy story is great. Fun reading right now!

book cover

Foucault's Pendulum - Umberto Eco.

picture of bottles of water

Not lying - Hannaford Black Cherry Sparkling Water is the most refreshing thing ever. Other flavors, not so much, but this one is great!

Not yet - I have to go back to S3 because I forget most of it! Have you? Is it good? S3 felt incomplete, as I recall

You're still reading way more than I am - I'm kinda stuck these days, pick up a book, 'nope, not gonna read that', pick up another, 'too hard' pick up another 'no, not that one either I'm gonna watch The Bear'...

Thank you for your important work!

John Barth: Lost in the Funhouse (Doubleday 1969/Anchor 1988) [IBR2025] It was about this time that I came across the writings of the great Argentine Jorge Luis Borges, whose temper was so wedded to the short forms that, like Chekhov, he never wrote a novel, and whose …

"There, my tale's afloat. I like to imagine it drifting age after age, while the generations fight, sing, live, expire."
Thoughts on reading John Barth's 𝘓𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘍𝘶𝘯𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘦, or, my elementary education in postmodernism. 💙📚👀
sloopie72.wordpress.com/2025/08/03/j...

"The hinges turn, the iron gates of war burst open"
- 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘈𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘪𝘥, Book 7.622, Bartsch trans.
Catherine Project Reading Group, Week 4

the Yale OCW that included Barth also has Pynchon's Crying of Lot 49, great lecturer, so I'm thinking that's my next postmodern move. Not this year though.

What did you read, outside of Barth? One of these days I have to read Ulysses and I really don't want to. This was a short story 'series' as he calls it, and that's my comfort zone, so it helped. Some of them were right up my alley. Some, not so much.

book cover

John Barth's 𝘓𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘍𝘶𝘯𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘦. I can't say I fully understand it (up to now I've avoided postmodernism for the most part), but I love it nonetheless.

Right now I'm trying to decide between Plato (Republic), Virginia Woolf (Mrs. Dalloway/To The Lighthouse), or Borges (Ficciones). Or James Joyce (Dubliners/Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man). Oh, Or Dostoevsky. Or

by given image: cherry blossoms (of course)
by poetic imagery: laughing mountain
by personal resonance: spring melancholy

Who wants to read something cool with me this Fall?

Money is a Virus from Outer Space

#WilliamSBurroughs once famously suggested that “language is a #virus from #outerspace.” That got me thinking what if it was really #money that was the virus from outer space. So, I wrote a #sciencefiction story based on that theme. doncurren.blogspot.com/2023/01/mone...

Maile Meloy: Both Ways is the Only Way I Want It (Riverhead 2010) [IBR2025] He was doomed to ambivalence and desire. A braver man, or a more cowardly one, would simply flee. A happier or more complacent man would stay and revel in the familiar, wrap it around him like an o…

"What kind of fool wanted it only one way?"
Thoughts on reading Maile Meloy's short story collection, 𝘉𝘰𝘵𝘩 𝘞𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘖𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘞𝘢𝘺 𝘐 𝘞𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘐𝘵, in tandem with my reading buddy Andrew. 💙📚👀
sloopie72.wordpress.com/2025/07/27/m...

"Three times he tried to wrap his arms around his father's neck; three times his hands passed through the insubstantial shade..."
- 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘈𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘪𝘥, Book 6.700, Bartsch trans.
Catherine Project Reading Group, Week 3

Hoopoe woodblock print in black on washi paper

This little hoopoe is based on an old piece, from a series that predates Bsky, so this is an opportunity to post the whole thing here.

The Conference of the Birds is a 12th-c mystic poem by Attār of Nishapur. Its tale of birds seeking their King is an allegory of the seeker’s journey to Truth. 🧵

my notes from reading group with images of various birds

Wow, I didn't realize it until I saw the other birds - when I did the reading group, I'd copied some of your art into my notes! I wasn't even following you at the time, but I found your art!

Yes, please! I don't respond much, but I love having your work in my feed, making my days a little more beautiful.

I'm so happy seeing this. I read The Conference of the Birds last year, love your hoopoe!

E. M. Forster: Howards End (1910) via The Catherine Project [IBR2025] England was alive, throbbing through all her estuaries, crying for joy through the mouths of all her gulls, and the north wind, with contrary motion, blew stronger against her rising seas. What did…

“Only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted, and human love will be seen at its height.”
Thoughs on reading E.M. Forster's 𝘏𝘰𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘥𝘴 𝘌𝘯𝘥 with The Catherine Project. 💙📚👀
sloopie72.wordpress.com/2025/07/21/e...

"Cursed love, you make us stoop to anything."
- 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘈𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘪𝘥, Book 4.12, Bartsch trans.
Catherine Project Reading Group, Week 2

Echo is next on my list. I loved The Time of our Singing. Just read The Gold Bug Variations, loved it too, but have caveats as a recommendation. I'm resistant to Overstory for various weird reasons. His wonderful short story To the Measures Fall (TNY, BASS 2011) got me started!

which two?