Bottom line up front: This is probably going to end up long, longer than it is now.  That might be true no matter when you're reading th...

I got the tl;dr out of the way in the title. I've written previously about the value of multiple points of view (literal points of ...

One of the best-known phenomena in the insect world is the unusual recurrence of various populations of cicada.  There aren't any cicada...

I participate from time to time at a site called Math StackExchange , where users ask and answer questions about mathematics.  Most often,...

The last of four Chinese novels on my reading list, 錢鐘書 Qián Zhōngshū's 圍城 Fortress Besieged , is its author's sole piece of long ...

Third on my Chinese novel reading list was 邊城 Border Town , by 沈從文 Shěn Cóngwén.  This slender volume, occupying only seventy or so pages...

The second Chinese novel in my reading program was Mo Yan's 生死疲勞 Life and Death are Wearing Me Out .  This absurd tale of reincarnati...