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The French have a single word for the whole package of natural, interactive forces that affect the grapevine and its fruit: terroir (pronounced ter wahr). Terroir encompasses: The soil and subsoil of a vineyard, including its mineral
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“All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the corruptible.”
― Chapterhouse: Dune
― Chapterhouse: Dune
“I have no hobby. As far as my activities beyond the bounds of my recognized profession are concerned, I take them all, without exception, very seriously. So much so, that I should be horrified by the idea that they had anything to do with hobbies—preoccupations in which I had become mindlessly infatuated in order to kill the time—had I not become hardened by experience to such examples of this now widespread, barbarous mentality.”
― The Culture Industry
― The Culture Industry
“There is a strong and fairly substantial theory in India as elsewhere that the gypsies of Europe originated in tribes driven out by Indian population displacements of the remote past.”
― A Goddess in the Stones: Travels in India
― A Goddess in the Stones: Travels in India
“What is admired is success, achievement, the quality of performance,” writes the psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, “rather than the quality of experience.” But what if we don’t want to become virtuoso musicians or renowned artists? What if we only want to dabble in these things, to see if they might subtly change our outlook on the world or even, as we try to learn them, change us? What if we just want to enjoy them?”
― Beginners: The Joy and Transformative Power of Lifelong Learning
― Beginners: The Joy and Transformative Power of Lifelong Learning
“That word, which has an almost entirely pejorative meaning today as a hopelessly superficial dabbler, is derived from the Italian dilettare, which means “to delight.” As the art historian Bruce Redford notes, “dilettante”—one who exhibits delight—entered English with the formation of the Society of Dilettanti, an eighteenth-century group of Englishmen who had returned from the grand tour brimming with enthusiasm for Continental art and culture. As the process of acquiring knowledge gradually became more specialized, Redford notes, the meaning of the word shifted. By the time George Eliot wrote Middlemarch in the early 1870s, the word had become an insult.”
― Beginners: The Joy and Transformative Power of Lifelong Learning
― Beginners: The Joy and Transformative Power of Lifelong Learning
Science Book Chat
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Talk about your favourite science books, here or on Twitter using the #scibookchat hashtag. We'll occasionally pick a book to discuss in more detail, ...more
Goodreads Librarians Group
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Goodreads Librarians are volunteers who help ensure the accuracy of information about books and authors in the Goodreads' catalog. The Goodreads Libra ...more
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Audio & audiobooks are getting more and more popular for commuters & those wanting to squeeze in another book or two a month while doing other activit ...more
Expats - The English-speaking French
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A group for people who have moved (or want to move) from an English-speaking country to a French-speaking country (or the other way). Hopefully we can ...more
Join Us in France Book Group
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— last activity Jul 11, 2017 05:57PM
This book group is dedicated to discussing English-language books that have to do with France: culture, lifestyle, history, travel, etc. Group membe ...more
sean’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at sean’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
175 books
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1,586 books
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83 friends
121 books
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4,053 friends
14,720 books
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657 friends
1,151 books
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106 friends
1,567 books
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5,640 friends
2,164 books
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1,174 friends
2,150 books
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552 friends
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