In an earlier post I mentioned that I was excited to get Xunzi: The Complete Text. But I won’t be reading it for a while, as right now I am in the midst of Armand Leroi’s The Lagoon: How Aristotle Invented Science. As might be predicted from Mutants, it’s beautifully written. Armand really has a way with prose, and he picks very engaging subject matters. As a biologist it’s no surprise that I’m a partisan of Aristotle when it comes to the ancients, so the topic is certainly congenial. In any case, I already recommend The Lagoon to any readers who have some time and energy to put into a book. It’ll be worth it at the end, and the writing is such that you’ll enjoy the endeavor.

Second, I want to make a few notes about comments. As most of you know I moderate comments. Many of you I know, and pre-approve, and many of you I do not. Just a few common sense pointers

1) Comments that begin with a gratuitous insult at me will probably not be published and you’ll be banned.

2) Comments which attempt to lecture me on something I already know about will probably not be published. I’ve been blogging for 12 years now and have written a lot of things about a lot of topics. Just because I don’t address something you think you know about in a specific post doesn’t mean I haven’t addressed it in the past. People on the internet think they are very bright, I get that, but you have to prove it here.

3) I’m good at recognizing elliptical comments which are trying to slip in something in a roundabout way. Just be direct, I don’t smile upon that sort of bashfulness.