306 books
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291 voters
Ensiform’s Profile
Ensiform's Recent Updates
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Ensiform
is now friends with Camille Vintner
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Ensiform
rated a book 2 of 5 stars
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| I suppose it should be noted that this book is not by Susan Meddaugh, but "based on the characters created by" her, an "adaptation" by Jamie White, based on a TV script by Matt Steinglass. A book written by a committee in pieces, for the purposes of...more | |
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Ensiform
rated a book 4 of 5 stars
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| A collection of essays and autobiographical pieces by the veteran character actor, amounting a book that is both memoir and pop philosophy. He’s a witty and self-deprecating story-teller who seems to have an inexhaustible cache of bizarre anecdotes,...more | |
"As with everything, it's not the nature of the content but how the story is told. You can find the whole panoply of human endeavor and drama in an hou...more
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Ensiform
rated a book 2 of 5 stars
The Book of Lost Books: An Incomplete History of All the Great Books You'll Never Read
by Stuart Kelly
read in November, 2012
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| A chronological survey of lost books and books that never were, from ideas for novels that never materialized on paper to valuable manuscripts burnt or censored or mislaid, from the anonymous ancients who assembled Gilgamesh and possible attribution...more | |
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So, like, I have a fetish, and it's becoming a problem. If someone told me there's a book out there and it's composed entirely of punctuation - no words, just 900 pages of exclamation marks, full-stops, and commas - I'd totally be there. I seem to...
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Read more of this review »
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Ensiform
rated a book 2 of 5 stars
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| The author, a mathematics and philosophy professor, writes about the basic concepts of simple arithmetic (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division), starting with the premise that numbers exist outside of human endeavor, then on to the definit...more | |
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Ensiform
rated a book 3 of 5 stars
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| Ray Smith (a stand-in for Kerouac himself), an itinerant poet, and his friend Japhy Ryder (Gary Snyder) search for an affirmative way of life in the mindless bustle of the modern era. Preferring cabins and hiking to cities and desk jobs, the two live...more | |
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Ensiform
rated a book 4 of 5 stars
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| The author trained to be a surgeon in the Navy and worked with Special Operations and attached to a SEAL team, as well as working as a trauma surgeon in El Paso. He describes his medical training, which took place in the days when interns were on cal...more | |
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Ensiform
rated a book 4 of 5 stars
More Sex Is Safer Sex: The Unconventional Wisdom of Economics
by Steven E. Landsburg
read in August, 2012
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| The author, an economist and columnist, uses cost-benefit analysis to tackle some thorny social issues, from the polygamy of the title to such varied topics as giving to charity, overpopulation, euthanasia, the global preference for baby boys vs. gir...more | |
“Do you also believe that what gives our lives their meaning is the passion that suddenly invades us heart, soul, and body, and burns in us forever, no matter what else happens in our lives? And that if we have experienced this much, then perhaps we haven’t lived in vain? Is passion so deep and terrible and magnificent and inhuman? Is it indeed about desiring any one person, or is it about desiring desire itself? That is the question. Or perhaps, is it indeed about desiring a particular person, a single, mysterious other, once and for always, no matter whether that person is good or bad, and the intensity of our feelings bears no relation to that individual’s qualities or behavior?”
― Sándor Márai, Embers
― Sándor Márai, Embers
“Forgiveness is not a matter of exonerating people who have hurt you. They may not deserve exoneration. Forgiveness means cleansing your soul of the bitterness of ‘what might have been,’ ‘what should have been,’ and ‘what didn’t have to happen.’ Someone has defined forgiveness as ‘giving up all hope of having had a better past.’ What’s past is past and there is little to be gained by dwelling on it. There are perhaps no sadder people then the men and women who have a grievance against the world because of something that happened years ago and have let that memory sour their view of life ever since.”
― Harold S. Kushner, Overcoming Life's Disappointments
― Harold S. Kushner, Overcoming Life's Disappointments
“Here I am, proud as Greek god, and yet standing debtor to this blockhead for a bone to stand on! Cursed be that mortal inter-indebtedness which will not do away with ledgers. I would be free as air; and I'm down in the whole world's books. I am so rich, I could have given bid for bid with the wealthiest Praetorians at the auction of the Roman empire (which was the world's); and yet I owe for the flesh in the tongue I brag with. By heavens! I'll get a crucible, and into it, and dissolve myself down to one small, compendious vertebra.”
― Herman Melville, Moby-Dick
― Herman Melville, Moby-Dick
“Indeed, a faint hypnopædic prejudice in favour of size was universal. Hence the laughter of the women to whom he made proposals, the practical joking of his equals among the men. The mockery made him feel an outsider; and feeling an outsider he behaved like one, which increased the prejudice against him and intensified the contempt and hostility aroused by his physical defects. Which in turn increased his sense of being alien and alone. A chronic fear of being slighted made him avoid his equals, made him stand, where his inferiors were concerned, self-consciously on his dignity.”
― Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
― Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
“When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross.”
― Sinclair Lewis
― Sinclair Lewis
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