Tag Archives: reading

2020 Reading Re-Cap: The Top Ten

Posted on February 27, 2021 by polloplayer

If you look back at 2020 as a total loss, you just didn’t spend enough time reading. For me, at least, books were the saving grace of a year of living fearfully. Books were a refuge and an escape, so … Continue reading →

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2020 Reading Re-Cap: Lighten Up!

Posted on January 9, 2021 by polloplayer

“Wow that year sure flew by” …said absolutely no one about 2020. Yet, somehow there were still more books than time. For the first time ever, I managed to fail my reading goal which makes absolutely no sense given that … Continue reading →

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Canceling Culture.

Posted on January 2, 2021 by polloplayer

Whew! We’ve finally boot-kicked 2020 to where it belongs – the rear view mirror. Everyone’s circumstances were different, and thus, one’s means of coping varied – (bourbon, anyone?) My personal long distance memory of it might eventually be summed up … Continue reading →

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2019 Reading Recap: Behaving Badly

Posted on February 1, 2020 by polloplayer

There are so many reasons to read; distraction is one, edification another. And then there is the sheer joy of schadenfreude. Strictly defined as pleasure derived by someone from another person’s misfortune, in reading it is this and more. Because … Continue reading →

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Owl be reading.

Posted on November 23, 2019 by polloplayer

Anomalous as it may seem, winter is upon us in Southern California (hey, we’ve got lows in the 40’s this week!). Because the owls are back, and that means, definitively, winter. We’ve heard a pair hooting softly back and forth … Continue reading →

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Ten fewer stars in the sky: the best of the best.

Posted on March 9, 2019 by polloplayer

Well, finally, here we are. Still wheezing and a bit flu-befuddled but back on the home coast and able to lift our heads off the pillow. That’s a start! And at the very least, the scenery is a bit more … Continue reading →

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2018 Reading Re-cap: The Best of the Rest, Part I

Posted on February 16, 2019 by polloplayer

“Acquiring even simple pieces of information physically alters the structure of our neurons”   writes John Medina in Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School (264 pages, paperback, published 2009) Maybe this is why I … Continue reading →

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He Said, She Said: Memoirs and Biographies, Part II

Posted on February 9, 2019 by polloplayer

Alas, I will never travel to most of the nooks and crannies of the world I’d like to see, but sometimes I’m tempted to buy one of those travel maps and put pins in it for the places I’ve gone … Continue reading →

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He Said, she Said: Memoirs and Biographies, Part I

Posted on February 2, 2019 by polloplayer

“Hell is other people” said Sartre. Maybe so. But reading about them is an absolutely delicious pastime. I got up close and personal with some extraordinary folks via an even dozen biographies and memoirs in 2018. Here’s half of them: … Continue reading →

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A different kind of travel: the 2018 book list.

Posted on January 12, 2019 by polloplayer

Let’s put a bookmark in the river cruise for a bit – time to do the annual reading retrospective. To make it just a bit less jarring, we’ll start with four books from the 2018 reading list that echoed places we … Continue reading →

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