Maria Popova is the "curator" of the blog "Brain Pickings". If you are interested in books, this is a go-to-site for thoughtful commentary on books of many genres. See "She's Got Some Big Ideas", , Bruce Feiler, New York Times, 2012-11-30.
From the article I added Albert Einstein's "Ideas and opinion" to my reading list. Popova is quoted in the article with:
“In times of turmoil, I often turn to one of my existential pillars of comfort: Albert Einstein’s ‘Ideas and Opinion.’ ” She ended with this thought: “There is a way to critique intelligently and respectfully, without eroding the validity of your disagreement. It boils down to manners.”
Her latest entry as of 2012-12-06 is "The 10 Best Psychology and Philosophy Books of 2012"
By: Maria Popova 2012-12-04, "From Buddhism to the relationship between creativity and dishonesty, by way of storytelling and habit".
From the sidebar, I went to "Isaac Asimov on Science and Creativity in Education"
by Maria Popova, 2011-01-28 "What vintage science fiction has to do with the future of self-directed learning."
It includes some snippets of Bill Moyers' interview with Isaac Asimov. From this article, I added Asimov's "The Roving Mind" to my reading list.
My booklist from suggestions on the web is getting so long, maybe I should turn my computer off, sit in an easy chair, and start reading the books on my list (plus a few I would like to reread). Maybe I'll be halfway through my list be next Christmas? Maybe by the time you make your way through all of Popova's blog entry you'll visit my blog again next Christmas.
Happy reading. May you always find something not only interesting but something you find is more interesting than anything else for the moment.
Showing posts with label blogs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blogs. Show all posts
Thursday, December 06, 2012
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Why print media won't go away yet
Since I've stopped writing my Party of One Reader Weekly column and written exclusively for this blog, my readership has gone down drastically. Over the years, I've counted (not very accurately) 158 fans of my column. That is, people I've met or known who have said they enjoyed reading my columns. In sharp contrast, this blog only gets 4-6 readers a day, mostly through the feed, and none to two directly.
I've told a dozen or more people that they can read my writings here at
http://mdmagree.blogspot.com
Some have no computer, some use their computer infrequently, and many friends that use their computers daily and liked my column don't come here.
What kind of hurts the most is that friends who liked my column are surprised to learn I no longer write for the Reader.
But even the Reader Weekly has low online readership. See
http://readerweekly.wordpress.com
Granted, the Reader is way, way behind in posting current stuff. Granted that few readers send in letters to the editor. But after one year of being online at its current address, the forum has only eight registered users one post.
I think the cause of the disparity in readership is the convenience of the newspaper. One can pick up a newspaper at anytime anywhere and read any selection quickly. To access a newspaper online, one has to have the computer on, one has to be connected to the web, and one has to remember the address of or have a bookmark for a particular paper. Then one has to wait for the initial page to download. In some cases this may seem instantaneous, but in two many cases it can be a "long" wait. Loading 2 of 10 pages, loading 5 of 15 pages, loading 20 of 43 pages, ... loading 62 of 158 pages. One could read the entire comic page on paper while waiting.
Probably the only thing that will stop the presses is bankruptcy. See "Running government like a business, a counterexample".
P.S. You can see most of my past columns from
http://www.cpinternet.com/~mdmagree
or do a search of "magree" and "reader weekly". With Google you will have to ask for all the results; otherwise it gives you only a sample of the articles I've posted.
I've told a dozen or more people that they can read my writings here at
http://mdmagree.blogspot.com
Some have no computer, some use their computer infrequently, and many friends that use their computers daily and liked my column don't come here.
What kind of hurts the most is that friends who liked my column are surprised to learn I no longer write for the Reader.
But even the Reader Weekly has low online readership. See
http://readerweekly.wordpress.com
Granted, the Reader is way, way behind in posting current stuff. Granted that few readers send in letters to the editor. But after one year of being online at its current address, the forum has only eight registered users one post.
I think the cause of the disparity in readership is the convenience of the newspaper. One can pick up a newspaper at anytime anywhere and read any selection quickly. To access a newspaper online, one has to have the computer on, one has to be connected to the web, and one has to remember the address of or have a bookmark for a particular paper. Then one has to wait for the initial page to download. In some cases this may seem instantaneous, but in two many cases it can be a "long" wait. Loading 2 of 10 pages, loading 5 of 15 pages, loading 20 of 43 pages, ... loading 62 of 158 pages. One could read the entire comic page on paper while waiting.
Probably the only thing that will stop the presses is bankruptcy. See "Running government like a business, a counterexample".
P.S. You can see most of my past columns from
http://www.cpinternet.com/~mdmagree
or do a search of "magree" and "reader weekly". With Google you will have to ask for all the results; otherwise it gives you only a sample of the articles I've posted.
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