The Marginalian
The Marginalian

Reads from 2014

Leonardo’s Brain: What a Posthumous “Brain Scan” Six Centuries Later Reveals about the Source of Da Vinci’s Creativity
Leonardo’s Brain: What a Posthumous “Brain Scan” Six Centuries Later Reveals about the Source of Da Vinci’s Creativity

How the most creative human who ever lived was able to access a different state of consciousness.

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Ah-Ha to Zig-Zag: Maira Kalman’s Sweet Design-History Alphabet Book about Embracing Uncertainty and Imperfection
Ah-Ha to Zig-Zag: Maira Kalman’s Sweet Design-History Alphabet Book about Embracing Uncertainty and Imperfection

“Life is not a straight line. Life is a zig-zag.”

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Mr. Tweed’s Good Deeds: An Unusual Counting Book about the Power of Small Kindnesses
Mr. Tweed’s Good Deeds: An Unusual Counting Book about the Power of Small Kindnesses

“A library is no place for three lost mice.”

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The Mirror and the Meme: A 600-Year History of the Selfie
The Mirror and the Meme: A 600-Year History of the Selfie

How glass, tin, and mercury converged on a Venetian island in the 15th century to fundamentally change the way we look at ourselves.

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William S. Burroughs and Tennessee Williams Talk Writing, Drugs, and Death in 1977
William S. Burroughs and Tennessee Williams Talk Writing, Drugs, and Death in 1977

“Deliberate, conscienceless mendacity, the acceptance of falsehood and hypocrisy, is the most dangerous of all sins.”

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Diane Ackerman on What Working at a Suicide Prevention Hotline Taught Her About Loneliness and Resilience
Diane Ackerman on What Working at a Suicide Prevention Hotline Taught Her About Loneliness and Resilience

“So often loneliness comes from being out of touch with parts of oneself.”

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Adrienne Rich on the Alchemy of Human Possibility and What “Truth” Really Means
Adrienne Rich on the Alchemy of Human Possibility and What “Truth” Really Means

“The possibilities that exist between two people, or among a group of people, are a kind of alchemy. They are the most interesting thing in life. The liar is someone who keeps losing sight of these possibilities.”

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The Fluid Dynamics of “The Starry Night”: How Vincent Van Gogh’s Masterpiece Explains the Scientific Mysteries of Movement and Light
The Fluid Dynamics of “The Starry Night”: How Vincent Van Gogh’s Masterpiece Explains the Scientific Mysteries of Movement and Light

“In a period of intense suffering, Van Gogh was somehow able to perceive and represent one of the most supremely difficult concepts nature has ever brought before mankind.”

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The Jacket: A Sweet Illustrated Meta-Story about How We Fall in Love With Books
The Jacket: A Sweet Illustrated Meta-Story about How We Fall in Love With Books

A gentle reminder that to be somebody’s favorite thing in the world requires a certain quality of thingness.

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Showroom vs. Sanctuary: Rebecca Solnit on What Our Dream Homes Reveal about Our Interior Lives
Showroom vs. Sanctuary: Rebecca Solnit on What Our Dream Homes Reveal about Our Interior Lives

“The dream of a house can be the eternally postponed preliminary step to taking up the lives we wish we were living.”

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