Finished reading: The Wizard Who Kept Himself Suspicious by Scott Lynch 📚

Knives Out: Wizard Edition

Like everything Scott Lynch does, it was great fun.

“A wizard is not defined merely by the spells he might cast, my colleague. Remember Estorion’s Great Law: Wizard, know the true names of all things, see all, understand all that is seen.”

It was the logic of little children, staring one another down on a playground, but it was also the logic of mighty sorcerers. To be seen flinching was a sort of death.

Finished reading: Transbluesency by Amiri Baraka 📚

Doesn’t matter the form, every poem sounds like Amiri.

“Books that broke everything wide open” for Maggie Smith.

showing me possibilities — in form, and in content — that I couldn’t access before

• C.D. Wright’s Deepstep Come Shining
• Lyn Hejinian’s My Life
• Carole Maso’s Break Every Rule
• Clarice Lispector’s The Stream of Life

Finished (a selective) reading: The Ghost Map by Steven Johnson 📚

Early breakthroughs in data visualization in pre-germ theory London mapping contagion and overthrowing the status quo. My kind of story.

Finished reading: The Parent’s Tao Te Ching Ancient Advice for Modern Parents by William Martin 📚

I loved this book. Has to be one of the best books on parenting.

Finished reading: Bluecrowne by Kate Milford 📚

Continuing to visit the Greenglass House universe with the kids.

nothing stays the same. Nothing can. Time works upon everything, and every morning we wake into a subtly different world than the one we fell asleep in the night before. Nothing stays the same. You have only to turn to the sea you love so much to know this is true.

Do I remain behind, hoping the things I love will stay unaltered although I know better, or do I become part of the change in the world and take the memory of what I love with me?

Those who are desperate to keep things from changing tend to do more damage than good.

A community has folks who are like pillars—they hold it together and shape its character. There’s almost always a smith, a keeper of lore, and a keeper of sanctuary, and then the others can vary.

Come, let us have a short cruise to shake the dust from my timbers. You have all the time in the world for prettying, but this day will only last until nightfall.

The tiller and the shabby sail translated those four marine dialects into a smooth-flowing poem of motion.

No one whose first response to an object is to remark upon how well it would tear out another’s throat is likely to seek a gentle-hearted collector for it.

Perfectly ordinary, I’m afraid, but ordinary has its uses as well.

Not all powers are magic.

I suspect as the daughter of a privateer, the girl herself would be the first to tell you that in a battle, tactics and strategy are as much of the fight as force. Watching for unexpected opportunities. Seeing that the ones firing the guns have what they need. And sometimes I imagine in the end the greatest victories come down to sheer, thickheaded courage.

But we ignore our instincts far too easily.

The saddest thing a mother or father must learn is that one cannot protect one’s children from hurt.

This is what a ship is for, she realized: first and foremost always, a thing for fighting with. No matter how much prettying was done to make it elegant. No matter how much it felt like home.

Instead of looking for instruction, they cultivate skills like creativity, independence, self-confidence, ingenuity, and the ability to problem solve.

A skill set that will only become more important as AI continues to unfold.

_ via The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday 📚_

Finished reading: Galatea A Short Story by Madeline Miller 📚

But that is the mark of a good source myth; it is water so wide it can reach across centuries.

Finished reading: There is No Antimemetics Division by Qntm 📚

Finished reading: A Parade of Horribles (Dungeon Crawler Carl) by Matt Dinniman 📚

I miss it already