One of my co workers brought back some star sand for me from a beach in Taiwan. The star shaped grains of sand are actually tiny exoskeletons of foraminifers, a marine protozoa. These creatures lived on the ocean floor, but their skeletons are washed up by the tide. Walking along a beach like that, you …
Manipulators
I've begun reading The Talented Mr. Ripley and am finding the character, Tom, very interesting in a 'look at that crime scene' kind of way. I only vaguely remember the movie, but so far the story of the novel is about a small time con artist, and very charming man Tom Ripley being sent to Europe …
Orlando, by Virginia Woolf
Orlando tells the story of an English nobleman living during the reign of Elizabeth I. At the age of 30 he mysteriously turns into a woman, then lives on for 300 further years. He is an aspiring writer and poet, and meets many people over his/her life. At the start of the book, he falls …
Nature as an alien world
I'm still reading The Peregrine, very slowly because the lack of narrative drive makes it a bit hard to get into. But it is starting to draw me in with the eerie feeling of looking into an alien world, even though all he is describing is perfectly natural Earth. Seeing the lives of animals without …
Strange things
I've been listening to Orlando, by Virginia Woolf, and had heard a bit about it so I knew the main character transformed into a woman--but I had expected it to be a sort of reincarnation thing. As it happens, he just wakes up one morning to be a she with no explanation given. And, I …
Jonas David 