London, England

Work in progress

Walks (with Google Maps Links)

more information)

FreeToursByFoot, posted 2023)

FreeToursByFoot, posted 2023)

FreeToursByFoot, posted 2023)

“My London Walks” links

Other Information

Johnson’s House
Southwark walk
Self-guided “Literary London” walking tour (lots of ads)
Also see: Hidden London website’

w/CJS: Best Science & Nature Writing, 2022

April 2024 on…

Reading The Best American Science and Nature Writing , 2022 (ed. Ayaba Elizabeth Johnson) with CJS.

So far, as of May 2024, this is a very enjoyable read. I particularly appreciate the efforts of the editor to create a nice progression of topics, giving what is essentially an eclectic sampling of articles a higher level narrative.

Front Matter: Forward & Introduction

Series editor:

“The sweep of a spiral galaxy draws our eyes and attention much more than the black of space between the galaxies ever could. But there’s so much beauty to understand in the things we can’t see.”

Book editor:

Science and nature” I interpreted both more expansively and more narrowly than might be anticipated. Another bias of mine is being more enamored with ecology, evolution, and anthropology than with technology, medicine, and engineering. In short, 1 lean toward the “nature” in “science and nature.

w/RB: The Master Builder: How the New Science of the Cell is Rewriting the Story of Life, Alfonso Martinez Arias

* The Master Builder: How the New Science of the Cell is Rewriting the Story of Life, Alfonso Martinez Arias, 2023

March 2023…

I am reading this book with RB, a chapter or two at a time. My first impression is that it is going to be a great read. It has interesting and new-to-me science straight from a scientist who has spent his career studying this area, and it is well written too.

The premise of the book is that DNA gets too much credit for its role in shaping organisms, and that it is also important to pay attention to the ways in which cells carry out the ‘instructions’ of DNA. Unlike DNA, cells can respond to their environment, sense ambient conditions at the cellular level, and respond to distance and orientation. Quite a number of things that we would presume would be determined by genetics — everything from finger prints and retinal patterns to birth defects, propensity to diseases, and the location of organs in the human body — are determined by cells rather than DNA.

EP#15: The Making of the American Essay*

*EP#15: The Making of the American Essay, John D. Agata (Graywolf Press, 2016)

This is the 15th volume CT and I have taken up in our essay reading project. Here we return to the type of book we began with — the broadly historical anthology. This differs from previous anthologies we’ve read in that it appears that the editor introduces each piece, something we’ve wished for in the past, especially when we’ve been mystified by why an essay was selected.

Later: Now that we’re farther into it, I’m a little less keen on it. A lot of the material in here are not actually essays: there are short stories, one sermon, a book chapter or two, and some very long pieces (Mark Twain’s A Letter from Earth), none of which strike me as essays. I had hoped for essays, or at least short essay-like pieces… and there are some, but quite a lot is other material. Although his initial introductions were pretty good at situating selections, as the book moves on the introductions are less about the selections, per se, and instead his sort of personal arc through American History. He is also quite fond of experimental work — work that, while it might have raised questions at the time, or contributed to discourse among the literati, is difficult to imagine anyone reading for pleasure or even enlightenment.

LS: Land Above the Trees: A Guide to American Alpine Tundra, Ann Zwinger & Beatrice E. Willard

February 2024…

This book was recommended in Kim Stanley Robinson’s The High Sierra: A Love Story, as a good guide to the ecology and botany of the Sierra Nevada (and the upper portions of other North American ranges). And, indeed, it is beautifully written with a narrative style in which the reader moves through landscapes with the authors, looking at this and that, in contrast to what I had expected would be more of a catalog or encyclopedic approach. The book is divided into two principle parts: part 1 examines elements of ‘above the trees’ ecosystems, like fellfields or krumholtz; part 2 looks at particular North American tundra ecosystems, with one chapter being on the Sierra Nevada.

LS*–The High Sierra: A Love Story, Kim Stanley Robinson

November 2023

The High Sierra: A Love Story, by Kim Stanely Robinson. 2022.

* I was reading this for other reasons, but nevertheless it fits well into my project to read essays that focus on landscape and natural history.

TL;DR: I love this book. But it is not for everyone. On the other hand, it is organized in such a way that readers interested in particular topics — geology, history, etc. – could skip through the book attending to one or a few themes that interest them. It has great pictures, too.

I’m a big fan of KSR, and think it likely that I’ve read everything he’s written, although it is possible that that omits a few early science fiction novels that were retroactively published after he became better known. I like the complex characters he develops, the intensely developed worlds he portrays, and especially his attention to geology, climate, economics, politics, and the role of large institutions – themes that are uncommon in much science fiction. Also unusual is that he sometimes ventures beyond the borders of SF, as with his novel Years of Rice and Salt, and especially with this book, which is multi-threaded work the interweaves memoir, geology, natural history and history.