The Atlantic. Review of Plutarch’s Lives, by Arthur Hugh Clough, John Dryden, and Plutarch. January 1860. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1860/01/plutarchs-lives/627616/

Some excellent quotes and evidence for the importance of Plutarch's Lives, almost more so than the importance of this particular translation.

www.stellar-events.org Reviews

Read A System for Writing by Bob Doto by [[Ton Zijlstra]] – Interdependent Thoughts

Typewriter Video Series - Episode 187: Remington Ten Forty by [[Joe Van Cleave]]

JVC: Somewhere between a portable and an ultraportable. Good, but not great. Could be a solid, easy-to-use machine for a type-in. He wasn't a fan of the touch. Likely wouldn't use it as a daily machine.

Remington Monarch by [[Joe Van Cleave]]]

The Remington Monarch (rebadged as a Singer Graduate), is one of the few machines with 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, and 3 line spacing settings.

It has a true carriage lock on the front of the machine.

Generally solid build, particularly on the main body. Only some portions on the back are pressed metal.

JVC generally likes this machine with respect to it's contemporaries.

Tom Hanks Reviews the Children’s Novel ‘Olivetti,’ by Allie Millington by [[Tom Hanks]]

Fancy Topology Book by [[The Math Sorcerer]]

1974 text on topology by Murray Eisenberg

Topology: A Short Introduction by [[badbettybooks]]

only the most surface level review here from the perspective of a relatively unsophisticated undergraduate

Book Review: “Impossible Creatures,” by Katherine Rundell by [[Laura Miller]] in New York Times

I hadn't put her Donne work together with her children's writing...

Read Sun 8/25/2024 7:02 PM

Strange Loops: Reading a Book on How to Read a Book by [[Sascha Fast]]

Not quite sure of what Fast is getting at here. Language barrier perhaps?

A Quick Overview on the Groma Kolibri by [[Typewriter Chicago]]

Lucas Dul loves the Groma Kolibri as one of the finest (ultraportable) typewriters out there.

He also loves the Omega 2 (which is nearly identical to the Princess 200.)

Typewriter Video Series Episode 31: Culling the Herd by [[Joe Van Cleave]]

Rating typewriters by:<br /> - looks<br /> - feel<br /> - print quality

Howard L. Wilson, creator of the Memindex system starting 1903 and in wide use through the 1950s, would be proud that a modern variation of his system is still living in analog form. While it doesn't provide the bench depth of options of materials and sizes, the system is compact, modern, and just as simple as the original. The handcrafted archive boxes now bring the system up to par with its predecessor with grace and an elegant minimalistic esthetic.

Perhaps in a few years we might see something akin to Yawman & Erbe or Shaw-Walker's 16 drawer filing cabinets for long term storage of multiple years?

Cothran, Ann, and George E. Mason. “The Typewriter: Time-Tested Tool for Teaching Reading and Writing.” The Elementary School Journal 78, no. 3 (1978): 171–73. https://www.jstor.org/stable/1001415

No new results here, but a modest overview and literature review of research on typewriters in classrooms.

These Three Books Help Put the US Election in Perspective by [[Matt Hooper]]

Back to the Futura: The Jetsons' Typewriter - Royal Futura 800 600 400 by [[Lazy Dog Typewriters]]

Empire Sky-Riter Typewriter Review by Smith Corona: The End of Empire by [[Lazy Dog Typewriters]]

Triumph Norm 6 Revisited by [[Joe Van Cleave]]

The 7Keys Retro Typewriter Keyboard by [[Just My Typewriter]]

Sarah thought it was fairly solid for a mid level price. Replaceable blue keys, so a nice mechanical keyboard experience. Better than some of the cheap white label drop ship keyboards in the space.

Royal Empress by [[Joe Van Cleave]] and [[Kevin Kittle]]

Royal Standards were broadly the same internally from 1912 onward.

The Royal HH: my FAVORITE desk typewriter by [[Just My Typewriter]]

Good basic intro, and overview, but doesn't get into deep functionality review. Short list of some writers who used it from Richard Polt's site, though not complete.

Typewriter Video Series - Episode 173: Olympia SG-3 by [[Joe Van Cleave]]

Type Shop, Ep. 15: The Ultimate Keyring Toolset Guide by [[Typewriter Chicago]]

Charles Gu's new keyring pliers for about $500 for a set are as good as if not better than vintage tools. In particular the new rubber pieces seem to help protect from breaking the original glass key tops which will then require replacement.

The 2023 Rover Typewriter: Worst Machine Ever? by [[Typewriter Chicago]]

I know Michaels was carrying the We R Memory Keepers typewriter, but hadn't heard about Home Depot carrying them.

Olympia SM3 & 9 Comparison by [[Joe Van Cleave]]

available at: https://www.unz.com/print/SaturdayRev-1940mar09-00006/

Barzun, Jacques. "Read, Do Not Run" Review of How to Read a Book, by Mortimer J. Adler. The Saturday Review, March 9, 1940.

Jacques Barzun wrote a review of of the Great Books when they came out in 1952.

Barzun, Jacques. “The Great Books.” The Atlantic, December 1952. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1952/12/the-great-books/642341/.

See notes at: https://hypothes.is/a/8o-z3DHLEe6_PMtDOvwCmg

My first "ultra-portable" (Skyriter 1955) by [[Just My Typewriter]]

55 had an integral cover versus later versions which had bags.

Typewriter Video Series - Episode 143: Rocket Versus Skyriter by [[Joe Van Cleave]]

Typewriter Video Series Episode 407: Remington Ten Forty by [[Joe Van Cleave]]

worth of peer reviews

It looks like the Stephen King entry has a picture of the book cover taped into it. This is an interesting idea.

How much time do book reviewers really spend on either a book or their actual review? Often it's a rushed process at best. How much can a reader get out of a quick read and gut reaction?

Perhaps things may be good from some of the best of the best reviewers, but generally, the author likely put more work into their work than the reviewer did.

Left Behind by [[Nancy Isenberg]]

This is of interest because Isenberg's White Trash came out in January 2016 just a five months before Vance's Hillbilly Elegy was released. As a result she didn't get to reference it in her book.

Top 10 Typewriters for Writers by [[Daniel Marleau]] (created One Typed Page)

Hermes 3000

Iroful Fountain Pen Friendly Paper Review - Better Than Cosmo Air Light? by [[Blake's Broadcast]]

A mini-review of For You by Patrick Rhone by [[Jacoby]]

[[Curtis McHale]] in Duly Noted – Jorge Arango

Arango's book sounds like what I expected it would.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSuz01zvOjE Jerry Michalski's review of The Great Transformation (1944) by Karl Polanyi

The Notebook by Roland Allen review: a history of scribbling by [[Thomas W Hodgkinson]]

The Notebook by Roland Allen review – notes on living by [[Sukhdev Sandhu]]

Not so much of a review as the dumping out of most of the reviewer's highlights from the book. I get the impression that he at least read it and paid attention, but what did he actually think of it?

How to Read (and Understand) Hard Books<br /> Jared Henderson https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laXcJyx9xCc

A short overview of Adler and Van Doren's How to Read a Book

Not bad, though Henderson accidentally reads "syntopical" as "synoptical".

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/27/business/media/reviewed-usa-today-ai-writers.html

Goldfajn, Tal. “Thou Shalt Show: On Robert Alter’s Translation of the Hebrew Bible.” Book Review of The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary by Robert Alter. Los Angeles Review of Books, June 2, 2020. https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/thou-shalt-show-on-robert-alters-translation-of-the-hebrew-bible/.

Bruce, James. “The Godless Bible.” Book Review of The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary by Robert Alter. Law & Liberty, July 15, 2022. https://lawliberty.org/book-review/the-godless-bible/.

After such a scathing review, really?? I'd be interested to hear a few paragraphs about why.

Alexander, Bryan. “Undents, Volvelles, and Didymus the Brazen-Gutted: Notes on Ann M. Blair’s Too Much to Know.” Bryan Alexander (blog), January 12, 2016. https://bryanalexander.org/reviews/undents-volvelles-and-didymus-the-brazen-gutted-notes-on-ann-m-blairs-too-much-to-know/.

Hay, Daisy. Review of Rare, Obsolete, New, Peculiar, by Sarah Ogilvie. London Review of Books, October 19, 2023. https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v45/n20/daisy-hay/rare-obsolete-new-peculiar.

https://dothemath.ucsd.edu/2023/09/the-dawn-of-everything/

Someone complaining of Scott Scheper's teaching/pedagogy/"system".

One needs to read a bit between the lines with only the initial context, but they circled around later to say:

I am talking about that A**net guy

Shalini Misra, Patrick Roberts, Matthew Rhodes. (2020). Information overload, stress, and emergency managerial thinking. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction Volume 51, December 2020, 101762 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2020.101762

reply to u/IvanCyb at https://www.reddit.com/r/antinet/comments/15eljnf/how_do_you_refer_from_and_to_multiple_sources/

Usually if I find a quote somewhere, I'll try to track down the original source, check the context and excerpt it from the original. If it's something mission critical, I might note that it was excerpted and used in other sources and whether it was well excerpted for their case or not. Sometimes, quoting can also help to make a solid case about the influence a work had and notes on that can be a useful thing. If I make multiple notes about the same sort of idea, that's fine, though I typically try to file them all next to each other for easy consultation and comparison, if necessary. As an example, I have quotes from multiple sources about note taking indicating that one should only write on one side of a(n index) card. Some quote earlier sources, some state it without attribution, some say they've learned to do so over time and with experience. Some give reasons why and some don't. The only way to track these practices over time is to note them all together for comparing and contrasting. It wasn't until I'd seen the third mention that I realized the practice was an interesting/important one and worth tracking, so I had to go back and dig up the originals which I had written briefly on their bibliographic cards with page numbers, so it made things easier to create main cards out of them. Because they're all stored together, there's only one index entry for them (for the first one), under "note taking" with the subheading "write only on one side". Alternately I might have made a single note card about the idea of the practice and created a list with pointers of those who used it (or didn't) and links to the sources where I originally found them. Do what makes most sense for you for tracking based on your own situation and needs. You may also find that these things happen frequently when doing literature reviews and things are repeated often within a field. Sometimes it's helpful to figure out who said a thing first and whether or not others are repeating/quoting them or coming to the same conclusion on their own. Is it a solid conclusion? What is the evidence or lack thereof? The only way to know is to start keeping track of these patterns in your reading and notes. Where and how you choose to track it in your zettelkasten is up to you. Sometimes it may be in brief notes with the original source, sometimes in a "hub note", and still others broken out into primary cards collected together.

At 9¢/card these are very expensive in comparison to bulk cards which usually can be found for 1-2¢/card. The difference however is in the luxuriousness of the silky smooth texture. Whether you're writing with your favorite fountain pen or a carefully chosen pencil. I don't know if these are the same brand of Bristol cards that Vladimir Nabokov used for his writing, but one could easily image him using such lovely material.

These provide a very smooth writing experience for fountain pens, gel pens and pencils. I particularly love the way my Tennessee Reds and Blackwing 602s glide over their surface. In comparison to some Japanese stationery, I'd put these cards somewhere between tsuru tsuru (slippery) and sara sara (smooth). If you're looking for a toothier paper, you'll definitely want to look elsewhere. They take fountain pens pretty well with no feathering or ghosting. My juiciest fountain pen dries in about 15 seconds, while a drier extra fine is dry in about 7 seconds, so it may take some care not to smear ink if you're on the messier end of the spectrum.

Pencil erases reasonably well, though there may be some minimal residual ghosting here. At 205 gsm, they've got a satisfying thickness unseen in most index cards and one is unlikely to rip or crinkle them when erasing. They're also thick enough that the wettest Sharpie won't bleed much less ghost through. You have to hold a card up to a backlight to see the appearance of any ghosting through it and even then, not well.

For the sticklers used to using standard 4 x 6" index cards, one should take note that the dimensions of these are slightly shorter in both dimensions—they're closer to 3.94" x 5.91". This means that you might have to take some care that while flipping through mixed company of cards your Exacompta can potentially hide between larger imperial sized cards. They're also close to, but not quite A6 in size either (105 x 148.5 mm or 4.1 x 5.8 inches).

My first impressions of the Onyx Boox Tab Ultra C<br /> by Cato Minor

via: https://www.3x5life.com/collections/frontpage/products/3x5-life-system-with-mini-course

They apparently offer a mini course outlining the system.

One wonders how much "why" they offer?

https://fromthe.study/analog-review/

Ostensibly the text of the review in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvLkVimqv8E

https://hamlet.andromedayelton.com/

• Given a thesis, find out which other theses are most conceptually similar.

Hayes, William C. Review of Historical Records of Rameses III, by William F. Edgerton and John A. Wilson. American Journal of Archaeology 40, no. 4 (1936): 558–59. https://doi.org/10.2307/498809.

Tagged this because it's the first appearance of Zettelkasten in an English language setting in the JSTOR repository.

see also: https://hypothes.is/a/RYZOssqXEe2H5wtABI0puA

Started on 2023-03-24; finished on 2023-03-27.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geChDY3MQj8

Similar to TUL disk bound notebooks.

Paper is nice for fountain pens.

On the expensive side.

How to Take Smart Notes: One Simple Technique to Boost Writing, Learning and Thinking – for Students, Academics and Nonfiction Book Writers (my reading notes)<br /> by Raul Pacheco-Vega

How to Write a Thesis (Umberto Eco) - my reading notes<br /> by Raul Pacheco-Vega

perfunctory positive review; no great insight

Schiller, Melanie. “Ahrens, S. (2017). How to Take Smart Notes: One Simple Technique to Boost Writing, Learning and Thinking for Students, Academics and Nonfiction Book Writers.” Journal of Writing Research 9, no. 2 (October 15, 2017): 227–31. https://doi.org/10.17239/jowr-2017.09.02.05.

Should You Read Antinet Zettelkasten by Scott P Scheper<br /> by Curtis McHale

Generally mirrors most of my opinion.

Odd that there haven't been many reviews of this...

This is an important date to remember.

A Guide to Thesis Writing and a Guide to Life<br /> by Hua Hsu

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifDi2SsQjQM

Comparing the various e-note/e-reader devices, Kit Betts-Masters ranks them overall as follows: - Boox Note Air 2 - Supernote A5X - Remarkable 2 - Bigme Inknote - Kobo Elipsa - Boyue P10

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoQdUvCxvAY

https://inference-review.com/article/woits-way

link to: text: https://hypothes.is/a/macvwJ5zEe2kdF_K9kCN-A

<small><cite class='h-cite via'>ᔥ <span class='p-author h-card'> Chuck Grimmett</span> in 40 Questions for 2022 (<time class='dt-published'>12/27/2022 20:27:38</time>)</cite></small>

https://cagrimmett.com/life/2022/12/27/40-questions-for-2022/

reply to u/Subject_Industry1633 at https://www.reddit.com/r/Zettelkasten/comments/zwgeas/is_the_zk_method_worth_it_and_how_it_helped_you/ (and further down)

ZK is an excellent tool for literature reviews! It is a relative neologism (with a slightly shifted meaning in English over the past decade with respect to its prior historical use in German) for a specific form of note taking or commonplacing that has generally existed in academia for centuries. Excellent descriptions of it can be found littered around, though not under a specific easily searchable key word or phrase, though perhaps phrases like "historical method" or "wissenschaftlichen arbeitens" may come closest.

Some of the more interesting examples of it being spelled out in academe include:

• Thomas, Keith. “Diary: Working Methods.” London Review of Books, June 10, 2010. https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v32/n11/keith-thomas/diary.
• Webb, Sidney. Methods of Social Study. London; New York: Longmans, Green & Co., 1932. http://archive.org/details/b31357891.
• Eco, Umberto. How to Write a Thesis. Translated by Caterina Mongiat Farina and Geoff Farina. 1977. Reprint, Cambridge, MA, USA: MIT Press, 2015. https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/how-write-thesis.
• Sertillanges, Antonin Gilbert, and Mary Ryan. The Intellectual Life: Its Spirit, Conditions, Methods. First English Edition, Fifth printing. 1921. Reprint, Westminster, MD: The Newman Press, 1960. http://archive.org/details/a.d.sertillangestheintellectuallife. (Particularly ch 7 if I recall correctly)

For academic use, anecdotally I've seen very strong recent use of the general methods most compellingly demonstrated in Obsidian (they've also got a Discord server with an academic-focused channel) though many have profitably used DevonThink and Tinderbox (which has a strong, well-established community of academics around it) as much more established products with dovetails into a variety of other academic tools. Obviously there are several dozens of newer tools for doing this since about 2018, though for a lifetime's work, one might worry about their longevity as products.

Another helpful verified purchase Amazon review on some mice. I found this while looking for a mouse that was (1) ergonomic, (2) rechargeable, and (3) wireless.

Reviewer gives some thoughts on the different ways ppl use mice and how that effects they need (or lack thereof) for a wrist brace.

A helpful Amazon review on 4 ergonomic wireless mice. I found this while looking for a mouse that was (1) ergonomic, (2) rechargeable, and (3) wireless. The viewer covered 4 different mice: - Anker B2C - 2 of the Jellycomb - MV045 - MV09D - iClever TM209G

This page is for the iClever, but the reviewer claims that it's just like the Jelly Comb MV045.

https://kimberlyhirsh.com/2022/12/02/my-reading-year.html

https://github.com/shaunabanana/snowball

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1590503604154093568.html

Regular review through one's note cards is important for the memory portion of directly remembering your insights and received wisdom, but they're also important for helping to allow you to grow them into new ideas as well as combining them with other ideas to allow dramatic innovation.

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.145.3631.478.b

Courtney, Jennifer Pooler. “A Review of Rewriting: How to Do Things with Texts.” The Journal of Effective Teaching 7, no. 1 (2007): 74–77.

Review of: Harris, Joseph. Rewriting: How To Do Things With Texts. Logan: Utah State University Press, 2006. https://muse.jhu.edu/book/9248.

https://mleddy.blogspot.com/2009/11/nabokovs-unfinished.html

Nice short review with some cultural touchstones which may have been alluded to in the text, but whose context may be missing in years to come.

Jones, Christopher P. “Zettelkasten.” Edited by R. Merkelbach and J. Stauber. The Classical Review 50, no. 1 (2000): 170–72.

Nothing at all about the titular word zettelkasten, but rather a negative review of a book on inscriptions...

This chapter is too entailed with productivity advice, which can be useful to some, but isn't as note taking focused for those who probably need more of that.

What is the differentiator between knowledge workers, knowledge creators, students, researchers, academics. How do we even clearly delineate knowledge worker as a concept. It feels far too nebulous which makes it more difficult to differentiate systems for them to use for improving productivity and efficiency.

Tiago's book follows the general method of the commonplace book, but relies more heavily on a folder-based method and places far less emphasis and value on having a solid index. There isn't any real focus on linking ideas other than putting some things together in the same folder. His experience with the history of the space in feels like it only goes back to some early Ryan Holiday blog posts. He erroneously credits Luhmann with inventing the zettelkasten and Anne-Laure Le Cunff created digital gardens. He's already retracted these in sketch errata here: https://www.buildingasecondbrain.com/endnotes.

I'll give him at least some credit that there is some reasonable evidence that he actually used his system to write his own book, but the number and depth of his references and experience is exceptionally shallow given the number of years he's been in the space, particularly professionally. He also has some interesting anecdotes and examples of various people including and array of artists and writers which aren't frequently mentioned in the note taking space, so I'll give him points for some diversity of players as well. I'm mostly left with the feeling that he wrote the book because of the general adage that "thought leaders in their space should have a published book in their area to have credibility". Whether or not one can call him a thought leader for "re-inventing" something that Rudolphus Agricola and Desiderius Erasmus firmly ensconced into Western culture about 500 years ago is debatable.

Stylistically, I'd call his prose a bit florid and too often self-help-y. The four letter acronyms become a bit much after a while. It wavers dangerously close to those who are prone to the sirens' call of the #ProductivityPorn space.

If you've read a handful of the big articles in the note taking, tools for thought, digital gardens, zettelkasten space, Ahren's book, or regularly keep up with r/antinet or r/Zettelkasten, chances are that you'll be sorely disappointed and not find much insight. If you have friends that don't need the horsepower of Ahrens or zettelkasten, then it might be a reasonable substitute, but then it could have been half the length for the reader.

https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=6183

Book review

Cook, Trevor. “Review: Blair, Ann M. Too Much to Know: Managing Scholarly Information Before the Modern Age. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010. Pp. Xv, 397. ISBN 978-0-300-11251-1 (Hardcover) $45.” Renaissance and Reformation 33, no. 4 (December 12, 2011): 109–11. https://doi.org/10.33137/rr.v33i4.15975.

Note that they've accidentally used the word "in" instead of "Before" in the title of the book.

Stages of annotation in the medieval period

When is Hypothes.is going to branch out into the business of professional readers to add aids to texts?! :)

Link this to the professional summary industry that reads books and summarizes them for busy executives

Link this to the annotations studied by Owen Gingerich in The Book Nobody Read.

https://bookmarks.reviews/