Tuesday, February 03, 2026

Recent Watching and Reading

We watched Dr. No — the very first time that Sean Connery played James Bond: 1962.
Better than we remembered it. The script was pretty faithful to the book (unlike some of the later films).

I’m still in the middle of reading some of these books, but I hope to finish them soon.

A.S. Byatt, Ragnarok
I expected a better narrative from A.S.Byatt than this book offers.
Not much more than a somewhat tedious retelling of the myths.
This one, I did finish — it’s short.

Edward Berenson, Perfect Communities: Levitt, Levittown, and the Dream of White Sububia.
There’s a lot of good social history in this book, but it’s way too long.
I was very interested in the final years of Levitt and his giant subdivisions of affordable homes.
Speculation: The author never saw a note card that he could bear to omit.

Victoria Redel, I Am You — still reading
A historical novel about a woman artist in the Dutch Golden Age.

Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman: The Stoics
I didn’t read much of this book as it’s really more a reference work,
ho-hum summarizing what’s known of each philosopher.
I hoped for a readable account of these early philosophers’ thoughts.

Eskimo Folk-Tales and Memories

Eskimo Folk-Tales collected by Knud Rasmussen (1879 – 1933),
a Greenlandic–Danish polar explorer and anthropologist

Small sculpture of a Tupiak, a monster that plays a role
in the Greenlandic Inuit folk tales.
We bought this when we visited Greenland a few years ago.

Inuit art that we saw in the museum in Greenland.

From Eskimo Folk-Tales: “A tupilak frightening a man to death in his kayak.”

Illustration of kayaks from Eskimo Folk Tales.

Caption on above photo: “Hunters encountering Sarqiserasak, a dangerous troll, who rows in a half kayak himself, and upsets all he meets with his paddle.” p. 35

A kayak demonstration that we saw in Greenland.