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Natasha Dow Schull
A cautionary tale about human-computer interaction and a subtle polemic against techno-libertarianism. Who knew the book of the decade would be a work of anthropology?
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Peter Turchi
A followup to Maps of the Imagination, which compared writing and cartography. This one looks at fiction as a form of puzzle or game.
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Georges Perec
An early, less playful work by the French Jewish writer who figures prominently in A Muse and a Maze.
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Shirley Hazzard
More stories of the 60s, also early and less distinctive, inspired by the author’s wasted years at the United Nations.
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Stafford Beer
Tough going, and I confess I could not finish, yet cybernetics finally made some sense (I think) from his detailed parallels between how people and corporations know what to do.
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Geoffrey Household
“It’s easy to make a man confess the lies he tells to himself; it’s far harder to make him confess the truth.”
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James Salter
Finally got around to this writer’s writer’s writer’s writer, who died in June. A dated sensibility but beautiful prose.
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Nell Zink
Adultery and birds and clever sentences, yet not at all like James Salter.
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Lynda Barry
Notes from the cartoonist’s writing workshop for nonwriters and nonartists. Even more helpful than an adult coloring book.
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Matthew Swanson and Robbi Behr
Another odd treat from the husband-and-wife team behind children’s indie Bobbledy Books. Actually published in 2015.
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