Slater Shrieve > Recent Status Updates

Calvino's favorite motif is a welcomed one: cities reflected identically, either in the sky, in the water beneath, or further underground: living souls reflected in corpses or the undead. The cities' reflections take on a life of their own; each citizen, merchant and bazaar is reflected while they remain distinct from each other.

If I could only bring a few books on a desert island, this would definitely be one of them.

This is a beast of a popular mechanics books. I'd even say it's the clearest explanation of a single interpretation of quantum mechanics, better than QBism by Hans Christian von Baeyer. That's not to say I prefer this interpretation (that's a discussion for another time), but as far as argument clarity goes, Carroll's won.

Ananthaswamy's treatment of the measurement problem is also top-notch and highly recommended.

The ingenuity of the humor is another factor: begging you boss for a month's advance on your paycheck just to spend it all on fox to wear around your neck in the hopes that it will give you the confidence to bump the police officer you walk past daily who wronged you so many years ago—only to have him not even notice when you finally do bump into him—cuts right to the core of self-consciousness and self-doubt.

As I revisit this classic, I realize that this is my favorite book (I have yet to revisit the book closest to my heart, The Stranger).

Not only for the perfect prose in which the three humiliating (and hilarious) stories that led him underground are recounted, but for the absolutely unique prose in which the novel—especially the first part—is told, and for the focus on unrelenting conscious experience itself.