Reading for August and September

Here’s our upcoming schedule for those who want to read ahead!

August

In August, Maxime Lenormand – whose wonderful Minds Behind Maps podcast was an inspiration for this podcast – will be on to discuss two wonderfully strange and short books by the incomparable Antoine de Saint-Exupéry: The Little Prince and Night Flight.

Both are quite short but neither was an easy read for me. I’m very grateful to Maxime for getting me to read them as they’re both beautiful meditations on what it is to be a human.

September

In September, Jordan Tigani will be on to discuss a essay by Jorge Luis Borges called “The Analytical Language of John Wilkins.” Note that this is not a Borges story and is not in the Collected Fictions book. There are multiple versions of it available online, and I recommend this one hosted by Douglas Crockford which includes the original Spanish alongside an English translation.

Despite being an essay, it is partially fiction and includes mention of a nonexistent Chinese encyclopedia called the Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge that has its own wikipedia page.

Many thanks to Jordan for introducing me to this essay. It’s as profound as it is hilarious.


As always, drop me a line at jed at techsontexts.net if you have suggestions for pieces to discuss or guests I should have on.

Happy reading!