Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift

Gulliver’s Travels, originally published in 1727, is in the public domain. Using the Android Kindle app on my phone, I read the AmazonClassics ebook shown above, which I downloaded during the Covid lockdowns when Amazon made a bunch of classic ebooks available to download for free. However, this Amazon ebook does not include the illustration in Part 3, Chapter 5 of the automatic writing machine, which features in another blog post of mine. I therefore recommend the Standard Ebooks version of Gulliver’s Travels, which does include this illustration, and which, moreover, is free. (Standard Ebooks offers a growing selection of Gutenberg ebooks that have been noticeably improved in terms of proofreading, typesetting, cover design, etc. All free.)

Where does Gulliver go? Are his travels funny? What’s Jonathan Swift trying to say, anyway? (Do I even like satire at all?) Does the book resemble the 1939 animated film adaptation? Find the answers to these questions below.

Continue reading Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift

When and Why I Read Gulliver's Travels

I know a little about Gulliver's Travels by cultural osmosis, but that's not the same as having actually read it! I know that Lilliputian means 'diminutive' because Lilliput is a place full of small people who famously tie Gulliver down (and that brobdingnagian means 'huge' because Brobdingnag is a place full of huge people). I've heard of houyhnhnms, and about some kind of mechanical word machine that people use for writing. It's time to fill in the gaps.

Genre: English literature / satire
Date started / date finished: 10-Mar-25 to 17-Mar-25
Length: 306 pages
ISBN: B073WW8W3R
Originally published in: 1726/2017
Amazon link: Gulliver's Travels

She: A History of Adventure by H. Rider Haggard

How did I come to read this book?

I read Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne because it’s on a lot of lists of classic books, and I’ve read other top Verne books, but not this one.

Then, because I somehow thought Journey to the Center of the Earth had more dinosaurs in it, I read The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle, which is possibly the one I was thinking of.

The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle made me think of Michael Crichton’s novels The Lost World and also Congo, which I read in 2010.

Congo was (according to Wikipedia) inspired by King Solomon’s Mines, a novel by H. Rider Haggard, which I’ve also repeatedly seen on lists of classic books, so I read King Solomon’s Mines.

Then, because the novel She is by the same author as King Solomon’s Mines, and I’ve seen it on lists of classics (some indicating that it was an early science-fiction or early feminist novel), I read it too.

Phew!

Overall impression? What a creepy story. Really not my style.

There were some interesting psychological/philosophical observations, and some poetic, if melancholy, descriptive passages, but mainly the atmosphere was, in general, unpleasantly macabre. The physical surroundings of the characters consisted almost entirely of caves and tombs, except when the characters were traveling on stormy seas or across mosquito-infested swamps. There is no joy in this book whatsoever; the survival of the narrator is a matter of narrow escape—of relief rather than victory. But maybe that’s the point? Reading the book is like passing through a haunted house: you frighten yourself thoroughly with impossibilities, and then return to the real world with a new appreciation for normalcy.

So yeah. Well done, H. Rider Haggard. Thanks, I hate it.

See below for some more specific observations on this unsettling book from 1886.

Continue reading She: A History of Adventure by H. Rider Haggard

When and Why I Read She: A History of Adventure

This is the other famous book by the author of King Solomon's Mines.

Genre: classic adventure
Date started / date finished: 28-Feb-25 to 08-Mar-25
Length: 245 pages
ISBN:
Originally published in: 1886/2006/2020

King Solomon’s Mines (book vs. 1950 movie)

Mainly the difference is that the book has a big battle in the middle that the movie doesn’t have at all, and the movie has a love story that’s nowhere in the book. See below for complete plot summaries of the book and movie.

Continue reading King Solomon’s Mines (book vs. 1950 movie)

When and Why I Read King Solomon's Mines

The "lost world" novel that inspired Michael Crichton's Congo.

Genre: adventure
Date started / date finished: 22-Feb-25 to 27-Feb-25
Length: 270 pages
ISBN: na
Originally published in: 1885/2000/2018

Neurotribes by Steve Silberman

The subtitle of this copy is “The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity.” An alternate subtitle I’ve seen is “The Legacy of Autism and How to Think Smarter About People Who Think Differently.” But I see the book as being more of a history of autism and less of a prophecy or practical manual. That being said, it was fascinating. It’s no wonder the book won an award (the 2015 Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction, now known as the Baillie Gifford Prize).

I bought this book in 2018; I’m glad to have finally read it.

Continue reading Neurotribes by Steve Silberman

When and Why I Read Neurotribes

I've been reading about brains and genetics.

Genre: psychology
Date started / date finished: 05-Feb-25 to 22-Feb-25
Length: 486 pages
ISBN: 9780399185618
Originally published in: 2015/2016
Amazon link: Neurotribes

Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne translated by Frederick Amadeus Malleson

This adventure is full of realistic true details about, say, strangely geometric basaltic columns, but at the same time, it’s full of absolute nonsense. That’s par for the course for science-fiction, but this is early science-fiction. Now, our science-fiction stories are typically out in space, or in the future. In the time of Jules Verne, there were still many mysteries much closer to home.

Therefore, to read and enjoy this book in spite of advances in geological knowledge, you have to ignore the voice in your head that says, “Of course there isn’t a cavity deep inside the earth that sustains plant and animal life similar to the plant and animal life of prehistoric times.” You have to think to yourself, “What if there were?”

What if your uncle and employer, a grumpy old scientist—and the godfather of your charming girlfriend—proposed to go down into the theoretically hollow earth (which you believe is unbearably hot) based on some explorer’s writings from centuries ago? You’d think he was crazy, and you certainly wouldn’t want to go with him.

But your charming girlfriend tells you it is needful for you to go out into the world boldly and make a name for yourself. So you go. But you’re expecting your uncle’s crazy quest to fail at every moment, and you’re looking forward to throwing in the towel, turning around, and going home.

Eventually, you concede that you were wrong; but by that time, you’re more than a bit worried about how you’ll make it back alive to tell of the marvels you’ve seen. You descended into the bowels of the earth in a volcanic crater in Iceland, but you’ll emerge from a different volcano… in Italy!

When and Why I Read Journey to the Center of the Earth

This is one of the more famous Jules Verne stories. It keeps popping up on lists of classics. But I haven't read it, so I'm reading it.

Genre: sci-fi/adventure
Date started / date finished: 07-Feb-25 to 16-Feb-25
Length: 146 pages
ISBN: B074W95Z2Y
Originally published in: 1864/2017
Amazon link: Journey to the Center of the Earth

Transformers One (2024)

I didn’t know anything about this movie before watching it, except that it looked colorful; my husband watched a trailer, and I got a glimpse of it. In particular, I didn’t know this was an origin story about Optimus Prime and Megatron. It took me waaaay too long to figure that out! However, I’m proud that on my own I identified the voice of Laurence Fishburne (who played Morpheus in The Matrix).

Characters
Orion Pax (a younger Optimus Prime) is curious, brave, and loyal, but I wouldn’t choose him for a friend. He has about 500% too much spontaneity for my taste. D-16 (a younger Megatron), his best friend, is sadly lacking in resilience, it turns out. Elita-1 is ambitious and hardworking, and somehow gets tangled up in Orion Pax’s drama in spite of her strong preference for doing things by the book. B-127 (a younger Bumblebee, or as he calls himself, “Badassatron”) is awkward, energetic, and irrepressibly talkative.

Setting
The story takes place on Cybertron, a whole planet of transformers. Orion Pax, D-16, and Elita-1 work in the energon mines. B-127 works sorting trash, also deep below the city. The dynamic, metallic surface of the planet is home to some robot-like animals, some ruins, some actual green plants, and a colony of outcasts. And it’s visited by aliens from another world… Why?

Premise
Cybertron was defeated in an interplanetary war, and its guardians, the primes, were all destroyed, except Sentinel Prime, who periodically leaves the city to search for the Matrix of Leadership, an important object of power that was lost in the war. Orion Pax is looking for it too, because he dreams of being a hero; he feels his potential is being wasted.

Theme
There’s a very explicit theme: a rejection of “Might makes right.” Subsidiary messages have sensible things to say about the importance of friendship, truth, and self-actualization.

Style
It’s a PG-rated animated science-fiction action/comedy with a slick, bright neon color palette that manages to suggest the 1980s.

Overall?
I hope we get more of these! I was so disappointed with the Michael Bay series (I think I only watched the first two), for their trashy tone, meh choice of lead actor, and loud chaotic action. Therefore, it pleases me that someone has, uh, transformed the source material in a manner appreciably more watchable.

Balinese wood dragon #3

Item description / significance
This is a winged dragon carved from wood, made in Indonesia. Size: Height 22 cm x Depth 19 cm x Width 12 cm. Attached paper price tag says Rp 275,000 (~US$17). No damage.

Bought where
in China on Xianyu, the Chinese second-hand marketplace app

(Want one? Novica sells Balinese wood dragons.)

Age and origin
age unknown, made in Bali, Indonesia

What I like about it
It’s a dragon! With wings! The detail is good.

Other notes
This is actually the third second-hand Balinese wooden dragon I’ve bought! I found the other two in Singapore on the second-hand marketplace app Carousell. They’re a little bigger.

» See Dave the dragon

» See Karen the dragon

See below for photos of Dave and Karen’s little sister. Continue reading Balinese wood dragon #3

Innate: How the Wiring of Our Brains Shapes Who We Are by Kevin J. Mitchell

I used to work for Princeton University Press (PUP), and once in a while I go look through their list of new releases. There was a time when I read the whole printed catalog cover to cover in the course of my duties; it always made me want to get hold of the books and become more informed on topics ranging from the geology of South America to… Dining Posture in Ancient Rome.

Now, it’s no different. I see PUP books, I want to learn stuff! A while back I heard about a PUP sale, and made a list of books to be considered for purchase (as ebooks, since I’m out of range of most English-language book supply chains, and the books I can get aren’t cheap). But I don’t like forking over money for ebooks, because I don’t feel like they’re mine, I can’t see them on my shelf, and there’s a limitless supply of public domain ebooks that I can read for free. So in the end, I narrowed the shortlist down to just one book, this one. It purports to answer a compelling question, one that’s addressed to some extent in the twin studies book I read recently: What makes us who we are?

Continue reading Innate: How the Wiring of Our Brains Shapes Who We Are by Kevin J. Mitchell

When and Why I Read Innate: How the Wiring of Our Brains Shapes Who We Are

I'm reading this because the twins book made me want to learn more about inherent differences and similarities between people.

Genre: neuroscience
Date started / date finished: 27-Jan-25 to 07-Feb-25
Length: 306 pages
ISBN: B07CSHZRGN
Originally published in: 2018
Amazon link: Innate: How the Wiring of Our Brains Shapes Who We Are

Entwined Lives by Nancy L. Segal

My reading is about half fiction and half non-fiction; among non-fiction books, there are a lot of pop-science books; among the pop-science books, there are a lot of pop-psychology books. Some of the pop-psychology books have made interesting (but rather isolated) statements about twin studies. These statements intrigued me; surely the scientific study of twins deserved to be described in more depth. Finally, I’ve read a whole book about twin studies!

Author Nancy L. Segal is a researcher (and a twin) with an early 2000s-style website and a number of books to her name; this book, Entwined Lives: Twins and What They Tell Us About Human Behavior, isn’t the most recent book she’s published, but seems to be the most general. It may actually be the most accessible, general book on twin studies in existence. So if the topic interests you, read on.

Continue reading Entwined Lives by Nancy L. Segal

When and Why I Read Entwined Lives

FINALLY I'm reading a book that I hope will shed more light on my understanding of the nature/nurture debate from the perspective of twin studies. Once in a while I read a sentence that suggests a surprising amount of similarity between identical twins is innate (twin brothers separated at birth both walk backwards into the sea?), but of course the reality is complex. And maybe after this I can read a book that's more recent than 1999, lol.

Genre: biology
Date started / date finished: 28-Dec-24 to 04-Feb-25
Length: 337 pages
ISBN: 0525944656
Originally published in: 1999
Amazon link: Entwined Lives

The Novels of E.M. Forster

I recently read seven works by E.M. Forster in order of publication:

  • Where Angels Fear to Tread (1905)
  • The Longest Journey (1907)
  • A Room with a View (1908)
  • Howards End (1910)
  • A Passage to India (1924)
  • Maurice (written in 1913–14, published posthumously in 1971)
  • Aspects of the Novel (1927)

Forster is known for the mantra “Only connect,” a quote from Howard’s End. Perhaps his best-known novel, which I read previously, is A Passage To India. My favorite of the novels is A Room with a View, which I read and posted about previously.

See below for some thoughts on Forster’s writing.

Continue reading The Novels of E.M. Forster