mark a rayner | scribblings, squibs & sundry monkey joys: Why Everyone Should...
“Now I will destroy the whole world.” – What Bokonists say when they commit suicide, Cat’s Cradle, Chapter 106 You’d think a story about the end of the world – not just the world of one person, or...
View Articlemark a rayner | scribblings, squibs & sundry monkey joys: Remembrances of...
Watership Down: A Reviewmory This was one of my childhood faves, and all of my friends had read it as well. So, you’d think a bunch of 12-year-old boys would find this a laughable premise, a book about...
View Articlemark a rayner | scribblings, squibs & sundry monkey joys: The Fellowship of...
Not to be confused with the movie, the book version of The Fellowship of the Ring includes several scenes with the mysterious, and quite possibly brain damaged, Tom Bombadil. On the positive side, Tom...
View Articlemark a rayner | scribblings, squibs & sundry monkey joys: Classics of Travel...
The Odyssey The Odyssey is a story about a homicidal maniac (Odysseus) who refuses to ask for directions. This tragic flaw, shared by many men, leads his crew to disaster. Some are eaten by monsters,...
View Articlemark a rayner | scribblings, squibs & sundry monkey joys: Dune
Dune is an epic science fiction tale about religion, inter-stellar politics, and the awesomeness of riding around on giant worms that crap out the greatest drug ever.* The drug in question is called...
View Articlemark a rayner | scribblings, squibs & sundry monkey joys: Lord of the Flies
Lord of the Flies follows a group of boys as they go to the worst summer camp ever. There are no tents or cabins for them to sleep in, the food is terrible, and the staff seem to have left … Continue...
View Articlemark a rayner | scribblings, squibs & sundry monkey joys: The Catcher in the Rye
In 1950, J.D. Salinger was hired by the New York City Tourist Bureau to write a jazzy and young novel about the city that never sleeps, in hopes of increasing general awareness about the city, and why...
View Articlemark a rayner | scribblings, squibs & sundry monkey joys: The Stranger (The...
I read this originally in French class, sometime during my high school career. (Where I was a music nerd, and a hard-core nerd, long before that was remotely cool.) Most of this famous existential work...
View Articlemark a rayner | scribblings, squibs & sundry monkey joys: Ender’s Game
This is a fun and page-turning read about eugenics, institutionalized child abuse, and interstellar genocide. Humanity is at war with a distance race of aliens (called “Buggers”) and for some reason,...
View Articlemark a rayner | scribblings, squibs & sundry monkey joys: Review: The Silence...
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars In 1961 Martin Luther King Jr. told an audience on the New York University campus: “Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable… Every step toward the goal of justice...
View Articlemark a rayner | scribblings, squibs & sundry monkey joys: Engineering an...
How would you react if I told you it wasn’t your fault you’re fat? Not entirely, anyway. Not the way that the medical profession or society at large would have you believe. At least part of your spare...
View Articlemark a rayner | scribblings, squibs & sundry monkey joys: Classics of...
This is a fun and page-turning read about eugenics, institutionalized child abuse, and genocide. Humanity is at war with a distance race of aliens (called “Buggers”) and for some reason, the adults are...
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