Like a lot of people, I don’t enjoy having my picture taken. Hold on. I typed “like a lot of people” almost automatically, as one of those thumbsucker openings that allows a writer to warm up before diving into what he/she/ze really means to say. As soon as I wrote it, though, I started to wonder…. Continue reading »
Archives for The Way We Live Now
Coding and “Computhors”
Is this internet killing books? What do poetry and software have in common? Can computers write literature? The Times Literary Supplement asked me to write about three books that take up those questions: The Edge of the Precipice: Why read literature in the digital age?, edited by Paul Socken; Geek Sublime: Writing Fiction, Coding Software,… Continue reading »
Boxed In
Look what the Post did with the layout of my latest review (I wrote about Cubed: A Secret History of the Workplace, by Nikil Saval). Nifty! And slanty. The online version might be a little easier to read. What did I think of the book? It’s well and dutifully researched, stylishly written, and ultimately something… Continue reading »
Busy, Busy, Busy
Are you busy? Of course you are. It’s the modern (Western, middle-class, parent, plugged-in) condition: For many of us, life unspools as a never-ending to-do list. Wake up, pack lunches, get the kids to school, get ourselves to our jobs, work all day, collect the kids, make dinner, supervise homework, do the laundry, walk the… Continue reading »
The Soul of an Old Machine
I hit an unexpected and unwelcome writing hiatus this past month when my netbook stopped working. I want to say that the netbook died or that it decided to quit on me, but that would be giving it a life and a sense of being that it doesn’t deserve, much as I loved it. (And… Continue reading »
