- Seeing Like A State by James C. Scott.
I just had to reproduce the cover below. It’s a picture of a road that is simultaneously supposed to be straight and run across a line of constant latitude. It’s very representative of the theme of the book: states trying to achieve certain narrow goals and getting unexpected results.
- Nabokov’s Favorite Word Is Mauve by Benn Blatt.
Blatt quantifies several famous authors’s quirks. George RR Martin likes to describe things as “black as pitch”; women authors use the words pillows, lace, curls, dress, china, skirt, and curtains more often than men; the word most indicative of a British as opposed to an American writer is wanked.
- Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell.
Orwell’s memoir of his time fighting in the Spanish Civil War. Funnier than you would expect.
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