***** analysis of why we laugh; brilliant

the title is apt; i learned "zero" from this book

"i am not a scientist": no kidding!

*** detailed account of pilgrimage on the compostelle trail in spain

Mes Chemins de Compostelle sans Paul Coelho Fiorenzo Martorana

** meditation on civilization

**** wine in italy in 1968 and 1975; 715 pages in italian; modesto lanzone mentioned; favors local, untreated wines

*** some great passages about life in sicily in the 1950s

*** good book; sad story

***** masterpiece...perfect...gripping plot.

***** brilliant survey of the current state of paleoanthropology; well written

**** another great one; wildly inventive

wow...everything I hate about paul auster, but with allusions to paul auster! name-dropping, pedantic quotations, self-involvement, unbelievable characters: it's all here!

** difficult book; middle section is incomprehensible; last section is magical

**** another great one; clearly a huge influence on cormac mccarthy

**** joycean, poetic, shocking, moving

**** another amazing novel; life stripped to the bone with words

confused pseudo-marxist ideas combined with bad writing and typos

**** amazing; flannery o'connor + henry james + cormac mccarthy

aphorisms

"An aphorism should be entirely isolated from the outer world like a little work of art and complete it itself like a hedgehog." —Schiller

**** brilliant 86-page novel; notes of kafka and more; a masterpiece

**** funny, well written, engrossing

* less good sequel

* fifty shades lite

***** brilliant, profound, essential, bravo!

*** the south american céline; some great vignettes

** "pride and prejudice'" meets "the secretary"; very entertaining; I read three volumes in five days

**** balanced account; fascinating story

**** it's not kin selection—it's group selection...look at the ants!

*** very depressing...what a miserable life.

*** very well done!

**** witty and informative

* a remarkable life indeed but a very badly written book

* book itself is quite good; chapters tacked on at end do not belong there

**** classic

** very strange "modest proposal"

*** roméo et juliette chapter is hilarious

*** strange and entertaining

**** profiles of trumpeters; very depressing; most die, forgotten at age 30...

**** strange and amazing short novel; the only thing i can compare it to is kafka

** strange fictional chronicle of vassar grads in 1930s NYC

elegiac and pretentious

* life in a cubicle; daisey is quite a talker