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16 books
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3 voters
“The resurrection of this once popular work [Ping Jinya's forgotten bestseller of the 1930s, Tides in the Human Sea] is a reminder that the histories of 'Chinese literature' currently in circulation are far from being histories of what most people actually read.”
― Changing Stories in the Chinese World
― Changing Stories in the Chinese World
“Why is it that you guys are so conservative in your views, in the face of the almost complete lack of understanding of what is going on in your field?” I asked. The answer was as simple as it was surprising. “If we [cosmologists] don’t accept some common picture of the universe, however unsupported by the facts, there would be nothing to bind us together as a scientific community. Since it is unlikely that any picture that we use will be falsified in our lifetime, one theory is as good as any other.” The explanation was social, not scientific.”
― How Nature Works: The Science of Self-organized Criticality
― How Nature Works: The Science of Self-organized Criticality
“The longer a nation's history, the more wars, invasions, wanderings, and periods of captivity it has seen-the greater the diversity of its faces.”
― An Armenian Sketchbook
― An Armenian Sketchbook
“Marco Polo, who wrote that Mongol couriers could cover 250 or even 300 miles in a single day. Reading historical tales about such exploits, one could be forgiven for imagining the steppe as a single flat grassland through which horsemen moved with a sense of freedom and ease. Here on horseback, though, it was clear the cavalry were negotiating deserts, mountains, rivers, swamps, heat, and frosts, and somehow keeping their horses fed and healthy, even before leaving Mongolia.”
― On the Trail of Genghis Khan: An Epic Journey Through the Land of the Nomads
― On the Trail of Genghis Khan: An Epic Journey Through the Land of the Nomads
“One of the most momentous, yet all but invisible, psychological changes in human history has been the intensification of a sense of insecurity and alienation from the world around us that arose when we became no longer able easily to get food in a few hours just by gathering it, or hunting it, but had to organize ourselves in a purposeful fashion simply to survive. This change is undocumented, though occasional clues can be gained about it from the comments of the few still alive who have lived through a version of it, such as old Australian Aboriginals. Its essence is subjection to a pervasive but unacknowledged, indeed unnamed, fear. It is the foundation of civilization.”
― The Retreat of the Elephants: An Environmental History of China
― The Retreat of the Elephants: An Environmental History of China
Epic Poetry and Prose
— 22 members
— last activity May 27, 2023 04:56AM
This group is dedicated to the discussion and promotion of ancient and contemporary epic poetry and prose. This group is dedicated to the idea that th ...more
Ahmed’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Ahmed’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
1,135 books
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413 books
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45 friends
2,539 books
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284 books
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18 books
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