Seth K. Thomas

I have a book called Great American Short Stories - and no, mom, I did not steal this from your house. My mother swears that I steal all her books, and rightfully so. I have pilfered some texts in the past. However, I got this particular book of short stories from one of those take-a-book-leave-a-book structures in the front yard of somebody's house. I left Twilight. Anyway, the first story in the book is Rip Van Winkle . I had never actually read Rip Van Winkle before. The only thing I knew about Rip Van Winkle was that he “fell a-hella-sleep;” and considering the context in which Rip was mentioned in the Run DMC song, I associated Rip with fairy tales and nursery rhymes. So I was pleasantly surprised by the short story.  I love the way Irving told the story of Rip and the conventions used. For example, the story begins pre-revolutionary war and ends post-revolutionary war, and this is shown by the picture in front of the pub Rip frequents. Before the long sleep, the portrait w...

I once participated in a stranger book exchange on Instagram. I received a book called The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power by Deirdre Mask. I found it to be a fascinating read. Consider the first few lines of the introduction: "In some years, more than 40 percent of all local laws passed by the New York City Council have been street name changes. Let me give you a moment to think about this." I took this moment and then dove into this book headfirst. I am a sucker for a good book, and The Address Book is good. Mask travels to Kolkata, Haiti, Philadelphia, Korea, Iran, South Africa, and other cities worldwide, delivering on the book's title. One thing I found fascinating in the book, cause I love words, is what3words.com . As I found out in the book, there are efforts to tackle the lack of an address issue that is huge in the world. One of the solutions is the address system what3words. The system divides the world into sq...

Counting down the days and nights The love and happy that lies ahead Seems to outweigh today's joy