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Observed: Films, Books and Plays

  • Now Reading: “Ikigai”

    Now Reading: “Ikigai”

    Now reading “Ikigai: The Japanese secret to a long and happy life” by Héctor García and Frances Miralles. According to the Japanese, everyone has an ikigai—what a French philosopher might call a raison d’être. Some people have found their ikigai, while others are still looking, though they carry it within them. Ikigai can be understood as “the happiness of always being busy” In Japanese, ikigai is written as 生き甲斐, combining 生き, meaning “life,” with…

  • Now Reading: Rabid

    Now Reading: Rabid

    Now reading: Rabid, A cultural history of the World’s most diabolical virus , by Bill Wasik and Monica Murphy

  • Now Reading: Sentient

    Now Reading: Sentient

    Now Reading: Sentient by Jackie Higgins After reading a review of this book in the Guardian, I thought it was a good book to add to my list. Jackie Higgins explains how the animal kingdom has given us new insights into how our senses function in a vivid and highly readable study

  • Now Reading: The Disordered Mind

    Now Reading: The Disordered Mind

    Now reading: The Disordered Mind by Erik R. Kandel. What unusual brain tell us about ourselves.

  • Now Reading: Dune

    Now Reading: Dune

    It is one (or actually several) of those books you have always heard something about, but actually never read it… Now Reading: Dune by Frank Herbert. I think it is high time I change that. It will take some time, and I hope it is worth it. Kull wahad!

  • Now Reading: Dark Data

    Now Reading: Dark Data

    Now Reading: Dark Data by David Hand I first came across a mention of this book in the Summer 2020 number of Imperial, the magazine for the Imperial College Community in a feature note about the book. It sounded like an interesting read and I had a look for the Princeton University Press book and to my surprise I found an version in Italian published by Rizzoli a few months earlier… I wonder how…

  • Now Reading: Foundation

    Now Reading: Foundation

    Now reading: Asimov’s Foundation. Actually it is a re-reading…