“
Books: a beautifully browsable invention that needs no electricity and exists in a readable form no matter what happens.
”
”
Nicholson Baker
“
I am a product [...of] endless books. My father bought all the books he read and never got rid of any of them. There were books in the study, books in the drawing room, books in the cloakroom, books (two deep) in the great bookcase on the landing, books in a bedroom, books piled as high as my shoulder in the cistern attic, books of all kinds reflecting every transient stage of my parents' interest, books readable and unreadable, books suitable for a child and books most emphatically not. Nothing was forbidden me. In the seemingly endless rainy afternoons I took volume after volume from the shelves. I had always the same certainty of finding a book that was new to me as a man who walks into a field has of finding a new blade of grass.
”
”
C.S. Lewis
“
He uncovered the boat, his hands working the knots like he'd been doing it his whole life. Under the tarp was an old steel rowboat with no oars. The boat had been painted dark blue at one point, but the hull was so crusted with tar and salt it looked like one massive nautical bruise.
On the bow, the name Pax was still readable, lettered in gold. Painted eyes drooped sadly at the water level, as if the boat were about to fall asleep. On board were two benches, some steel wool, an old cooler, and a mound of frayed rope with one end tied to the mooring. At the bottom of the boat, a plastic bag and two empty Coke cans floated in several inches of scummy water.
"Behold," Frank said. "The mighty Roman navy.
”
”
Rick Riordan (The Son of Neptune (The Heroes of Olympus, #2))
“
All writers are vain, selfish, and lazy, and at the very bottom of their motives there lies a mystery. Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand. For all one knows that demon is simply the same instinct that makes a baby squall for attention. And yet it is also true that one can write nothing readable unless one constantly struggles to efface one's own personality. Good prose is like a windowpane.
”
”
George Orwell (Why I Write)
“
Of all needs a book has,
the chief need is to be readable.
”
”
Anthony Trollope
“
We are absurdly accustomed to the miracle of a few written signs being able to contain immortal imagery, involutions of thought, new worlds with live people, speaking, weeping, laughing. We take it for granted so simply that in a sense, by the very act of brutish routine acceptance, we undo the work of the ages, the history of the gradual elaboration of poetical description and construction, from the treeman to Browning, from the caveman to Keats. What if we awake one day, all of us, and find ourselves utterly unable to read? I wish you to gasp not only at what you read but at the miracle of its being readable.
”
”
Vladimir Nabokov (Pale Fire)
“
How does it happen that a writer who's not even very good - and I can say that, I've read four or five of his books - gets to be in charge of the world's destiny? Or of the entire universe's?"
If he's not very good, why didn't you stop at one?"
Mrs. Tassenbaum smiled. "Touché. He is readable, I'll give him that - tells a good story...
”
”
Stephen King (The Dark Tower (The Dark Tower, #7))
“
I’m a freelance editor. I turn decent books into decently readable books and hopeless books into hopeless books with better grammar.
”
”
T. Kingfisher (The Twisted Ones)
“
All books have to be researched, but readable books have their research buried.
”
”
Joshua Cohen (Book of Numbers)
“
I think there are many ways to matter." He plucks the book from his pocket. "These are the words of a man - Voltaire. But they are also the hands that set the type. The ink that made it readable, the tree that made the paper. All of them matter, though credit goes only to the name on the cover.
”
”
Victoria Schwab (The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue)
“
She was indeed the literature I thought she would be, on par with excellence and not-so-readable.
”
”
Kavipriya Moorthy (Dirty Martini)
“
A deeply true, wholly aching account of the dangerous way we live now--LOVE JUNKIE is great fun to read, and finally fully redemptive. Rachel Resnick brings a light, delightful touch to a hard subject, and creates a great, relatable, readable memoir.
”
”
Elizabeth Wurtzel (More, Now, Again: A Memoir of Addiction)
“
Of all reviews, the crushing review is the most popular, as being the most readable.
”
”
Anthony Trollope (The Way We Live Now)
“
I do not think of type as something that should be readable. It should be beautiful.
”
”
Ed Benguiat
“
E. A. Poe defines a short story as readable in a single sitting. I imagine a “single sitting” was longer back in his day. But I digress again.
”
”
Gabrielle Zevin (The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry)
“
Every moment of a science fiction story must represent the triumph of writing over worldbuilding.
Worldbuilding is dull. Worldbuilding literalises the urge to invent. Worldbuilding gives an unnecessary permission for acts of writing (indeed, for acts of reading). Worldbuilding numbs the reader’s ability to fulfil their part of the bargain, because it believes that it has to do everything around here if anything is going to get done.
Above all, worldbuilding is not technically necessary. It is the great clomping foot of nerdism. It is the attempt to exhaustively survey a place that isn’t there. A good writer would never try to do that, even with a place that is there. It isn’t possible, & if it was the results wouldn’t be readable: they would constitute not a book but the biggest library ever built, a hallowed place of dedication & lifelong study. This gives us a clue to the psychological type of the worldbuilder & the worldbuilder’s victim, & makes us very afraid.
”
”
M. John Harrison
“
Books are readable drugs.
”
”
Carla H. Krueger
“
I shall be so glad if you will tell me what to read. I have been looking into all the books in the library at Offendene, but there is nothing readable. The leaves all stick together and smell musty. I wish I could write books to amuse myself, as you can! How delightful it must be to write books after one's own taste instead of reading other people's! Home-made books must be so nice.
”
”
George Eliot (Daniel Deronda)
“
Perhaps you thought that “getting it working” was the first order of business for a professional developer. I hope by now, however, that this book has disabused you of that idea. The functionality that you create today has a good chance of changing in the next release, but the readability of your code will have a profound effect on all the changes that will ever be made.
”
”
Robert C. Martin (Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship)
“
Typography is two-dimensional architecture, based on experience and imagination, and guided by rules and readability.
”
”
Hermann Zapf
“
Only a writer who has the sense of evil can make goodness readable.
”
”
E.M. Forster
“
Agatha Christie called her books 'yarns'. A good yarn is very readable.
”
”
Barbara Bothwell
“
Ben m’boy,” Jubal said gently, “as a reporter you are hard-working and sometimes readable.
”
”
Robert A. Heinlein (Stranger in a Strange Land)
“
My Homer does not speak in your grandparents’ English, since that language is no closer to the wine-dark sea than your own. I have tried to keep to a register that is recognizably speakable and readable, while skirting between the Charybdis of artifice and the Scylla of slang.
”
”
Emily Wilson (The Odyssey)
“
Genius' was a word loosely used by expatriot Americans in Paris and Rome, between the Versailles Peace treaty and the Depression, to cover all varieties of artistic, literary and musical experimentalism. A useful and readable history of the literary Thirties is Geniuses Together by Kay Boyle-Joyce, Hemingway, Scott Fitzgerald, Pound, Eliot and the rest. They all became famous figures but too many of them developed defects of character-ambition, meanness, boastfulness, cowardice or inhumanity-that defrauded their early genius. Experimentalism is a quality alien to genius. It implies doubt, hope, uncertainty, the need for group reassurance; whereas genius works alone, in confidence of a foreknown result. Experiments are useful as a demonstration of how not to write, paint or compose if one's interest lies in durable rather than fashionable results; but since far more self-styled artists are interested in frissons á la mode rather than in truth, it is foolish to protest. Experimentalism means variation on the theme of other people's uncertainties.
”
”
Robert Graves
“
His lamp shines on my head, and by His light I go through darkness,
”
”
John Bunyan (The Pilgrim's Progress: A Readable Modern-Day Version of John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress (The Pilgrim's Progress Series Book 1))
“
My writing, on the other hand, is always done with my readers in mind. I never write for my own amusement. I always try to put across an idea that I feel is important, in the most easily readable form I can manage. This has annoyed some of my academic colleagues, who feel that I am oversimplifying my subject, but I argue that at least my writings are widely read, while theirs stay firmly within the confines of their academic ivory towers. And I always work with one special rule in mind: simplification without distortion. This is, in fact, much harder than the usual self-indulgent academic writing.
”
”
Desmond Morris
“
She'd become an English major for the purest and dullest of reasons: because she liked to read. The university’s “British and American Literature Course Catalog” was, for Madeleine, what its Bergdorf equivalent was for her roommates. A course listing like “English 274: Lily’s Euphues” excited Madeleine the way a pair of Fiorucci cowboy boots did Abby. “English 450A: Hawthorne and James” filled Madeleine with an expectation of sinful hours in bed not unlike what Olivia got from wearing a Lycra skirt and leather blazer in Danceteria. Even as a girl in their house in Prettrybrook, Madeleine wandered into the library, with its shelves of books rising higher than she could reach … and the magisterial presence of all those potentially readable words stopped her in her tracks.
”
”
Jeffrey Eugenides
“
Certainly one quality which nowadays has been best forgotten—and that is why it will take some time yet for my writings to become readable—is essential in order to practise reading as an art—a quality for the exercise of which it is necessary to be a cow, and under no circumstances a modern man!—rumination. SILS-MARIA, UPPER ENGADINE, July, 1887.
”
”
Friedrich Nietzsche (The Genealogy of Morals (Dover Thrift Editions: Philosophy))
“
Designers provide ways into—and out of—the flood of words by breaking up text into pieces and offering shortcuts and alternate routes through masses of information. (...) Although many books define the purpose of typography as enhancing the readability of the written word, one of design’s most humane functions is, in actuality, to help readers avoid reading.
”
”
Ellen Lupton (Thinking with Type: A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, and Students)
“
What makes a clean test? Three things. Readability, readability, and readability.
”
”
Robert C. Martin (Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship)
“
Lettering creates readable art that comes to life, displaying a quirky, whimsical nature.
”
”
Peggy Dean (The Ultimate Brush Lettering Guide: A Complete Step-by-Step Workbook to Jump Start Modern Calligraphy Skills)
“
The magisterial presence of all those potentially readable words stopped her in her tracks.
”
”
Jeffrey Eugenides (The Marriage Plot)
“
No matter how elegant it is, no matter how readable and accessible, if it hath not tests, it be unclean. Dave
”
”
Robert C. Martin (Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship)
“
We are absurdly accustomed to the miracle of a few written signs being able to contain immortal imagery, involutions of thought, new worlds with live people, speaking, weeping , laughing... I wish you to gasp not only at what you read but at the miracle of its being readable.
”
”
Vladimir Nabokov (Pale Fire)
“
Once in every few publishing seasons there is an Event. For no apparent reason, the great heart of the Public gives a startled jump, and the public's great purse is emptied to secure copies of some novel which has stolen into the world without advance advertising and whose only claim to recognition is that The Licensed Victuallers' Gazette has stated in a two-line review that it is 'readable'.
”
”
P.G. Wodehouse (Mulliner Nights (Mr. Mulliner, #3))
“
Readability of code is now my first priority. It's more important than being fast, almost as important as being correct, but I think being readable is actually the most likely way of making it correct.
”
”
Peter Seibel (Coders at Work: Reflections on the Craft of Programming)
“
I’m such a terrible speller that sometimes I misspell words so bad that they become unreadably readable. For example, I might misspell a simple word like “Love” and have it come out as the properly spelled “Hate.”
”
”
Jarod Kintz (Love quotes for the ages. Specifically ages 18-81.)
“
God have mercy on a sinner like me and enable me to know and believe in Jesus Christ. For I understand that if the righteousness of Christ was not available or if I didn’t have faith in that righteousness, then I would be utterly rejected from your presence. Lord, I’ve heard that you’re a merciful God and have ordained that your Son, Jesus Christ, should be the Savior of the world.
”
”
John Bunyan (The Pilgrim's Progress: A Readable Modern-Day Version of John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress (The Pilgrim's Progress Series Book 1))
“
Once there was a woman who sculpted stories.
She sculpted them from all manner of things. At first she worked with snow or smoke or clouds, because their tales were temporary, fleeting. Gone in moments, visible and readable only to those who happened to be present in the time between carving and disintegrating, but the sculptor preferred this. It left no time to fuss over details or imperfections. The stories did not remain to be questioned and criticized and second-guessed, by herself or by others. They were, and then they were not. Many were never read before they ceased to exist, but the story sculptor remembered them.
Passionate love stories that were manipulated into the vacancies between raindrops and vanished with the end of the storm.
Tragedies intricately poured from bottles of wine and sipped thoughtfully with melancholy and fine cheeses.
Fairy tales shaped from sand and seashells on shorelines slowly swept away by softly lapping waves.
”
”
Erin Morgenstern (The Starless Sea)
“
Jesus has given me rest by means of His sorrow and life by means of His death!
”
”
John Bunyan (The Pilgrim's Progress: A Readable Modern-Day Version of John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress (The Pilgrim's Progress Series Book 1))
“
Musicians do not get on stage without hearing the song singing inside of them. Poets do not write as if they are jotting down a sermon, they see everything in their subconscious before presenting it to the conscious, which they later turn to readable materials. Artist do not draw and paint without painting in dream states, trance, or see an art form that others do not see. Being creative does not calls for being any supernatural entity, but in creating with the entities inside of you.
”
”
Michael Bassey Johnson (The Infinity Sign)
“
First, relax. ... And my second helpful hint is that you should not try to memorize anything you read in this book. ... My two words of advice are exemplified in what I call the Russian Novel Phenomenon. Every reader must have experienced that depressing moment about fifty pages into a Russian novel when we realize that we have lost track of all the characters, the variety of names by which they are known, their family relationships and relative ranks in the civil service. At this point we can give in to our anxiety, and start again to read more carefully, trying to memorize all the details on the offchance that some may prove to be important. If such a course is followed, the second reading is almost certain to be more incomprehensible than the first. The probable result: one Russian novel lost forever. But there is another alternative: to read faster, to push ahead, to make sense of what we can and to enjoy whatever we make sense of. And suddenly the book becomes readable, the story makes sense, and we find that we can remember all the important characters and events simply because we know what is important. Any re-reading we then have to do is bound to make sense, because at least we comprehend what is going on and what we are looking for.
”
”
Frank Smith
“
Notebooks. There are dozens of notebooks. I always carry notebooks with me. I scribble in them in a barely readable scrawl. I do not write jokes. I write moments. Thoughts. Fragments that I have to sweat over as if they’re cryptic texts in a lost language when I try to interpret them. That shouldn’t be part of my process—decoding my own writing—but it has been for my entire life. What does that say about me? Why can’t I make it easy? I need to complicate everything to protect myself from success and to remain complicated and overwhelmed.
”
”
Marc Maron (Attempting Normal)
“
If we ignore and repress an emotion, we won’t erase its message—we’ll just shoot the messenger and interfere with an important natural process. The unconscious then has two choices: to increase the intensity of the emotion and present it to us one more time (this is how unresolving moods or escalating emotional suffering may be activated), or to give up on us and stuff the emotional energy deep into our psyches. Now, that instinct will no longer be readable as itself—as fear or anger or despair—but it will still contain all its original intensity and information. Usually, this squelched intensity mutates into something else, like tics, compulsions, psychosomatic illness, addictions, or neuroses. Repressing our emotions is a perilous way to manage them.
”
”
Karla McLaren (The Language of Emotions: What Your Feelings Are Trying to Tell You: Revised and Updated)
“
Looking back through the last page or two, I see that I have made it appear as though my motives in writing were wholly public-spirited. I don’t want to leave that as the final impression. All writers are vain, selfish, and lazy, and at the very bottom of their motives there lies a mystery. Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand. For all one knows that demon is simply the same instinct that makes a baby squall for attention. And yet it is also true that one can write nothing readable unless one constantly struggles to efface one’s own personality. Good prose is like a windowpane. I cannot say with certainty which of my motives are the strongest, but I know which of them deserve to be followed. And looking back through my work, I see that it is invariably where I lacked a POLITICAL purpose that I wrote lifeless books and was betrayed into purple passages, sentences without meaning, decorative adjectives and humbug generally.
”
”
George Orwell (Essays)
“
Do you think a life has any value if one doesn’t leave some mark upon the world?'
Remy’s expression sobers, and he must read the sadness in her voice, because he says, 'I think there are many ways to matter.' He plucks the book from his pocket. 'These are the words of a man—Voltaire. But they are also the hands that set the type. The ink that made it readable, the tree that made the paper. All of them matter, though credit goes only to the name on the cover.'
He has misread her, of course, assumed the question stemmed from a different, more common fear. Still, his words hold weight—though it will be years before Addie discovers just how much.
”
”
Victoria Schwab
“
Few Westerners understand the post-Soviet soul like Lawrence Sheets. Whether it is his hair-raising stories of the region’s myriad armed conflicts or the black humor with which he captures the moral and physical impoverishment of a collapsing empire, Sheets brilliantly condenses twenty tumultuous years into an eminently readable tale.
”
”
Matthew Brzezinski (Red Moon Rising: Sputnik and the Hidden Rivalries that Ignited the Space Age)
“
Years ago in 1959 when Dellinger was already an editor on Liberation (then an anarchist-pacifist magazine, of worthy but not very readable articles in more or less vegetarian prose) Mailer had submitted a piece, after some solicitation, on the contrast between real obscenity in advertising, and alleged obscenity in four-letter words. The piece was no irreplaceable work of prose, and in fact was eventually inserted quietly into his book, Advertisements for Myself, but it created difficulty for the editorial board at Liberation, since there was a four-letter word he had used to make his point, the palpable four-letter word which signifies a woman’s most definitive organ: these editorial anarchists were decorous; they were ready to overthrow society and replace it with a communion of pacifistic men free of all laws, but they were not ready to print cunt.
”
”
Norman Mailer (The Armies of the Night: History as a Novel, the Novel as History)
“
Over the years I have become very good at getting out of things I don’t want to do. And if ever there was something I didn’t want to do, this was surely it: to deal with the mother of a dead novelist and, worst of all, to have to read a manuscript that she said was great, and that, as it turned out, was a badly smeared, scarcely readable carbon.
”
”
John Kennedy Toole (A Confederacy of Dunces)
“
The heart of the wise inclines to the right, but the heart of a fool to the left.
”
”
Anonymous (NRSV Bible: The Bible for Everyone: Trusted, Accurate, Readable)
“
You can see that the law can both discover and condemn sin, but it has no power to control it.
”
”
John Bunyan (The Pilgrim's Progress: A Readable Modern-Day Version of John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress (The Pilgrim's Progress Series Book 1))
“
One who is good at calculating does not use counting chips.
”
”
Lao Tzu (Daodejing: The New, Highly Readable Translation of the Life-Changing Ancient Scripture Formerly Known as the Tao Te Ching)
“
Commercial and compulsively readable yet still exquisitely literary,” I’ve decided, will be mine.
”
”
R.F. Kuang (Yellowface)
“
Code, without tests, is not clean. No matter how elegant it is, no matter how readable and accessible, if it hath not tests, it be unclean. Dave
”
”
Robert C. Martin (Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship)
“
LONG-DISTANCE READING: To determine the readable distance in feet, of words on a billboard, take half the height of one of the letters in inches and multiply by 100.
”
”
Thos. Hodgson
“
And yet it is also true that one can write nothing readable unless one constantly struggles to efface one's own personality.
”
”
George Orwell
“
Wallace, King and Sanders point out in Biology: The Science of Life (that rarest thing: a readable textbook),
”
”
Bill Bryson (A Short History of Nearly Everything)
“
Fluidity, simplicity and an ability to generate empathy make writing readable!
”
”
Amrita Basu
“
the printers who set the books in type still depended on accurate, readable, handwritten transcriptions, often of manuscripts that were illegible to all but a few.
”
”
Stephen Greenblatt (The Swerve: How the World Became Modern)
“
If you don't want to be so readable, school your reactions. Your tells are a sure way to have weaknesses exploited.
”
”
Rina Kent (Reign of a King (Kingdom Duet, #1))
“
These two children represent the men of this world. Patience represents the men who are willing to wait for their inheritance, but Passion represents the men who want their inheritance now, in this present world. He cannot wait until the next year, that is, until eternity.
”
”
John Bunyan (The Pilgrim's Progress: A Readable Modern-Day Version of John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress (The Pilgrim's Progress Series Book 1))
“
...what really makes for readability is not clarity but attitude: the attitude of your prose toward out elusive friend the Reader and the role you invent for that invented being in your invented world.
”
”
Stephen Koch (The Modern Library Writer's Workshop: A Guide to the Craft of Fiction)
“
Lexicon was created specifically for dictionaries. As such, it is optimized for maximum readability in a minimum of space. It achieves this using methods that have become identified with Dutch type design:
”
”
Stephen Coles (The Anatomy of Type: A Graphic Guide to 100 Typefaces)
“
Managers of programming projects aren’t always aware that certain programming
issues are matters of religion. If you’re a manager and you try to require compliance
with certain programming practices, you’re inviting your programmers’ ire. Here’s a
list of religious issues:
■ Programming language
■ Indentation style
■ Placing of braces
■ Choice of IDE
■ Commenting style
■ Efficiency vs. readability tradeoffs
■ Choice of methodology—for example, Scrum vs. Extreme Programming vs. evolutionary
delivery
■ Programming utilities
■ Naming conventions
■ Use of gotos
■ Use of global variables
■ Measurements, especially productivity measures such as lines of code per day
”
”
Steve McConnell (Code Complete: A Practical Handbook of Software Construction)
“
Then she reached for her bag and took out a small book. She explained she had found it at a store near her home, and that it described the nature of your character based on the date of your birth. (...) I thought some of it was true and some of it was not, but the real truth was how such things allowed someone to talk about you, or what you had done or why you did it, in a way that unraveled your character into distinct traits. It made you seem readable to them, or to yourself, which could feel like a revelation.
”
”
Jessica Au (Cold Enough for Snow)
“
The ultimate behaviour of these matter distributions, taking the form of massless radiation (in accordance with CCC’s §3.2 requirements), can then leave its signature on the crossover 3-surface, and then perhaps be readable in subtle irregularities in the CMB.
”
”
Roger Penrose (Cycles of Time: An Extraordinary New View of the Universe)
“
So you aren’t going to tell me what just happened?” I deduced. The fact was clearly readable across his face.
He looked me over again and sighed. “Just be careful in the future,” he said.
“How can I be careful when I have no idea why this just happened? Water grabbed me!” I cried, gesturing with my hands toward the side of the bridge where I once lay. “How is that possible?”
When he didn’t respond to my questions, I probed him further, trying to get him to answer me. “What about you, with the mud and the rock and the crazy out-of-thin-air thing? What was that?” I demanded to know.
“It was saving your life,” he said, a hint of petulance creeping into his tone. “Be careful in the future, Ramsey.”
Then he took off running, and after a few seconds, he was gone from my sight...
”
”
Markelle Grabo (The Elf Girl (Journey into the Realm, #1))
“
Hashing is more secure than encryption, at least in the sense that there exists no private key that can “reverse” a hash back into its original, readable form. Thus, if a machine doesn’t need to know the contents of a dataset, it should be given the hash of the dataset instead.
”
”
Chris Dannen (Introducing Ethereum and Solidity: Foundations of Cryptocurrency and Blockchain Programming for Beginners)
“
And now, what about a Watson? Are we to have a Watson? We are. Death to an author who keeps his unravelling for the last chapter, making all the other chapters but prologue to a five-minute drama. This is no way to write a story. Let us know from chapter to chapter what the detective is thinking. For this he must watsonize or soliloquize; the one is merely a dialogue form of the other, and, by that, more readable. A Watson, then, but not of necessity a fool of a Watson. A little slow, let him be, as so many of us are, but friendly, human, likeable ...
”
”
A.A. Milne (The Red House Mystery)
“
He remembered Amy reading a review of The Organ-Grinder’s Boy which had first acknowledged the book’s pace and readability, and then suggested a certain derivativeness in its plotting. She’d said, “So what? Don’t these people know there are only about five really good stories, and writers just tell them over and over, with different characters?” Mort himself believed there were at least six stories: success; failure; love and loss; revenge; mistaken identity; the search for a higher power, be it God or the devil. He had told the first four over and over, obsessively,
”
”
Stephen King (Four Past Midnight)
“
I think there are many ways to matter.' He plucks the book from his pocket. 'These are the words of a man—Voltaire. But they are also the hands that set the type. The ink that made it readable, the tree that made the paper. All of them matter, though credit goes only to the name on the cover.
”
”
Victoria Schwab
“
I think there are many ways to matter.” He plucks the book from his pocket. “These are the words of a man—Voltaire. But they are also the hands that set the type. The ink that made it readable, the tree that made the paper. All of them matter, though credit goes only to the name on the cover.
”
”
Victoria Schwab (The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue)
“
I think there are many ways to matter.” He plucks the book from his pocket. “These are the words of a man—Voltaire. But they are also the hands that set the type. The ink that made it readable, the tree that made the paper. All of them matter, though credit goes only to the name on the cover.
”
”
V.E. Schwab (The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue)
“
Thomas Cromwell is now a little over forty years old. He is a man of strong build, not tall. Various expressions are available to his face, and one is readable: an expression of stifled amusement. His hair is dark, heavy and waving, and his small eyes, which are of very strong sight, light up in conversation:
”
”
Hilary Mantel (Wolf Hall (Thomas Cromwell, #1))
“
I believe a good story, plotted or plotless, rightly told, is satisfying as such and in itself. But here, with “rightly told,” is my conundrum or mystery. Inept writing lames or cripples good narrative only if it’s truly inept. An irresistibly readable story can be told in the most conventional, banal prose, if the writer has the gift.
”
”
Ursula K. Le Guin (No Time to Spare: Thinking About What Matters)
“
But the shtick that makes Amplitude unique is its prominent triangular nicks that carve out space at stroke junctions. The “ink trap” is normally a functional device, used to compensate for ink gain (see Bell Centennial), but Christian Schwartz makes it an aesthetic device, giving a stylish edge to headlines without sacrificing the type’s readability in
”
”
Stephen Coles (The Anatomy of Type: A Graphic Guide to 100 Typefaces)
Anonymous (NRSV Bible: The Bible for Everyone: Trusted, Accurate, Readable)
“
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
”
”
Anonymous (NRSV Bible: The Bible for Everyone: Trusted, Accurate, Readable)
“
The ancient pages rose among the others, palisaded with strange letters and words, the faint script hardly more readable than the footprints of birds. He read until his eyelids drooped. But as his head dropped, he fancied he caught the sharp savor of sap beneath the chalky dust of the pages, or the heavy perfumes of blossom from the orchards of plums and pears and apples.
”
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Lawrence Norfolk (John Saturnall's Feast)
“
To turn yourself into an image is to expose your daily life, your misfortunes, your desires and your possibilities. It is to have no secrets left. Never to tire of expressing yourself,
speaking, communicating. To be readable at every moment, overexposed to the glare of the information media (like the woman who appears live twenty-four hours a day on the
Internet, showing the tiniest details of her life).
”
”
Jean Baudrillard (The Intelligence of Evil or the Lucidity Pact (Talking Images))
“
What makes one Sumerian city better than another one? A bigger ziggurat? A
better football team?"
"Better me."
"What are me?"
"Rules or principles that control the operation of society, like a code of laws,
but on a more fundamental level."
"I don't get it."
"That is the point. Sumerian myths are not 'readable' or 'enjoyable' in the
same sense that Greek and Hebrew myths are. They reflect a fundamentally
different consciousness from ours.
”
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Neal Stephenson (Snow Crash)
“
The roster of Nobel laureates... is cluttered with mediocre writers who have neither elegance nor depth, readability nor relevance: lauded during their lifetimes, they died, I’m sure, convinced the had substantially advanced their languages. Your Miss Dickinson died equally convinced no one would ever read a word she wrote; and she is one of the most luminous poets your country has produced. An artist simply cannot trust any public emblem of merit.
”
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Samuel R. Delany (Dhalgren)
“
I have been giving the best of my advice to this project since 1975. At first I was extremely hopeful. The original objectives of the language included reliability, readability of programs, formality of language definition, and even simplicity. Gradually these objectives have been sacrificed in favor of power, supposedly achieved by a plethora of features and notational conventions, many of them unnecessary and some of them, like exception handling, even dangerous. ...
It is not too late! I believe that by careful pruning of the ADA language, it is still possible to select a very powerful subset that would be reliable and efficient in implementation and safe and economic in use. The sponsors of the language have declared unequivocally, however, that there shall be no subsets. This is the strangest paradox of the whole strange project. If you want a language with no subsets, you must make it small.
”
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C.A.R. Hoare
“
THOMAS JEFFERSON LEFT POSTERITY an immense correspondence, and I am particularly indebted to The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, published by Princeton University Press and first edited by Julian P. Boyd. I am, moreover, grateful to the incumbent editors of the Papers, especially general editor Barbara B. Oberg, for sharing unpublished transcripts of letters gathered for future volumes. The goal of the Princeton edition was, and continues to be, “to present as accurate a text as possible and to preserve as many of Jefferson’s distinctive mannerisms of writing as can be done.” To provide clarity and readability for a modern audience, however, I have taken the liberty of regularizing much of the quoted language from Jefferson and from his contemporaries. I have, for instance, silently corrected Jefferson’s frequent use of “it’s” for “its” and “recieve” for “receive,” and have, in most cases, expanded contractions and abbreviations and followed generally accepted practices of capitalization.
”
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Jon Meacham (Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power)
“
Literature is the extant body of written art. All novels belong to it.
The value judgement concealed in distinguishing one novel as literature and another as genre vanishes with the distinction.
Every readable novel can give true pleasure. Every novel read by choice is read because it gives true pleasure.
Literature consists of many genres, including mystery, science fiction, fantasy, naturalism, realism, magical realism, graphic, erotic, experimental, psychological, social, political, historical, bildungsroman, romance, western, army life, young adult, thriller, etc., etc…. and the proliferating cross-species and subgenres such as erotic Regency, noir police procedural, or historical thriller with zombies.
Some of these categories are descriptive, some are maintained largely as marketing devices. Some are old, some new, some ephemeral.
Genres exist, forms and types and kinds of fiction exist and need to be understood: but no genre is inherently, categorically superior or inferior.
(Hypothesis on Literature vs. Genre)
”
”
Ursula K. Le Guin
“
In the churchyard in Jaffrey, New Hampshire are two handsome headstones. The slate weathered well and William Farnsworth's chiseling is clearly readable. They say:
Sacred to the memory of Amos Fortune who was born free in Africa a slave in America he purchased liberty professed Christianity lived reputably and died hopefully
Nov. 17, 1801
Aet. 91
Sacred to the memory of Violate by sale the slave of Amos Fortune by marriage his wife by her fidelity his friend and solace she died his widow
Sept. 13 1802
Aet. 73
”
”
Elizabeth Yates (Amos Fortune, Free Man)
“
She sculpted them from all manner of things. At first she worked with snow or smoke or clouds, because their tales were temporary, fleeting. Gone in moments, visible and readable only to those who happened to be present in the time between carving and disintegrating, but the sculptor preferred this. It left no time to fuss over details or imperfections. The stories did not remain to be questioned and criticized and second-guessed, by herself or by others. They were, and then they were not. Many were never read before they ceased to exist, but the story sculptor remembered them.
”
”
Erin Morgenstern (The Starless Sea)
“
Most people will likely encounter Ingeborg’s showy Display variants: the decorative fill and shadow of Block, and the buxom swashes of Fat Italic. These are indeed finely crafted crowd-pleasers, but the typeface’s more important contribution to typography is in the text weights. Michael Hochleitner managed to comfortably combine the neoclassical glamour of Didones, the readability of other Rational typefaces like the Scotch Romans, and the sturdiness of a slab serif. The result is a very original design that is both beautiful and practical. Good for: Books. Magazines. Substance and style.
”
”
Stephen Coles (The Anatomy of Type: A Graphic Guide to 100 Typefaces)
“
Feelings of sudden existential vulnerability now come upon the individual as if from nowhere, in the midst of indifference, in the banal space of work; at the customer service counter, in a warehouse or call centre, as s/he services the remote needs of the globalised professional class in an almost colonial fashion. And this fear also follows the unanchored worker out of the nominal workplace and into the home: it fills gaps in conversations, is readable between the lines of emails, seeps into relationships and crevices of the mind. The precarious worker is then saddled with an additional duty: to hide these feelings.
”
”
Ivor Southwood (Non Stop Inertia)
“
I thought that some of it was true and some of it was not, but the real truth was how such things allowed someone to talk about you, or what you had done or why you did it, in a way that unraveled your character into distinct traits. It made you seem readable to them, or to yourself, which could feel like a revelation. But who’s to say how anyone would act on a given day, not to mention the secret places of the soul, where all manner of things could exist? I wanted to talk more about this, if only to chase the thought further, to pin it down for myself, but I knew too that she needed, and wanted, to believe in such things:
”
”
Jessica Au (Cold Enough for Snow)
“
If you are looking to better understand the nitty-gritty of venture finance, there’s no better book than Venture Deals by Brad Feld, one of the venture world’s more well-respected practitioners, and Jason Mendelson, one of his partners. The book offers a readable primer on everything from the basics of a venture term sheet to negotiating tactics to the specific issues likely to come up at every round of funding. I’ll quote Dick Costello, the former CEO of Twitter, who said in an endorsement of the book that he wished this book had been around in his time to save him from having to learn “all the tricks, traps, and nuances on my own.
”
”
Gary Rivlin (Becoming a Venture Capitalist (Masters at Work))
“
There were so many different ways in which you were required to provide absolute proof of your identity these days that life could easily become extremely tiresome just from that factor alone, never mind the deeper existential problems of trying to function as a coherent consciousness in an epistemologically ambiguous physical universe. Just look at cash point machines, for instance. Queues of people standing around waiting to have their fingerprints read, their retinas scanned, bits of skin scraped from the nape of the neck and undergoing instant (or nearly instant-a good six or seven seconds in tedious reality) genetic analysis, then having to answer trick questions about members of their family they didn't even remember they had, and about their recorded preferences for tablecloth colours. And that was just to get a bit of spare cash for the weekend. If you were trying to raise a loan for a jetcar, sign a missile treaty or pay an entire restaurant bill things could get really trying. Hence the Ident-i-Eeze. This encoded every single piece of information about you, your body and your life into one all-purpose machine-readable card that you could then carry around in your wallet, and therefore represented technology's greatest triumph to date over both itself and plain common sense.
”
”
Douglas Adams (The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #1-5))
“
Hello everyone. I would like to thank all of you for getting me here. This day is a huge milestone for me. I would like to thank all of the people who have supported me from the start till the end. I would like to thank the people who have also given me advice. I would like to thank most my english teacher for making my vocabulary so rich and my language so fluent and readable. I am very grateful for her and my improvements are all because of her. I have published this book on my first anniversary of being an Author. I am happy beyond understanding and feel that I should make my next year of writing a much more successful one than my first year.
”
”
Divyansh Gupta (Diary of a Human Hero 8: Unofficial Minecraft Book)
“
IF THEN there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, 2 make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves.
”
”
Anonymous (NRSV Bible: The Bible for Everyone: Trusted, Accurate, Readable)
“
GENERAL BOOKS ABOUT LANGUAGE Highly readable, witty, and provocative is Roger Brown’s Words and Things. Also readable, magnificent, though sometimes too dogmatic, is Eric H. Lenneberg’s Biological Foundations of Language. The deepest and most beautiful explorations of all are to be found in L. S. Vygotsky’s Thought and Language, originally published in Russian, posthumously, in 1934, and later translated by Eugenia Hanfmann and Gertrude Vahar. Vygotsky has been described—not unjustly—as “the Mozart of psychology.” A personal favorite of mine is Joseph Church’s Language and the Discovery of Reality: A Developmental Psychology of Cognition, a book one goes back to again and again.
”
”
Oliver Sacks (Seeing Voices)
“
Small places make for small lives. And some people are fine with that. They like knowing where to put their feet. But if you only walk in other people's steps, you cannot make your own way. You cannot leave a mark."
Addie's throat tightens.
"Do you think a life has any value if one doesn't leave some mark upon the world?"
Remy's expression sobers, and he must read the sadness in her voice, because he says, "I think there are many ways to matter." He plucks the book from his pocket. "These are the words of a man - Voltaire. But they are also the hands that set the type. The ink that made it readable, the tree that made the paper. All of them matter, though credit goes only to the name on the cover.
”
”
Victoria Schwab (The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue)
“
Recently I have been attacked in newspapers by two 'fabulist' writers, as far as I can make out for the ordinariness of the worlds I portray. To which the most obvious reply is that it's all very well writing about elves and dragons and goddesses rising out of the ground and the rest of it--who couldn't do that and make it colorful? (Readable, of course, is another matter...) But writing about pubs and struggling singer-songwriters--well, that's hard work. Nothing happens. Nothing happens, and yet, somehow, I have to persuade you that something is happening somewhere in the hearts and minds of my characters, even though they're just standing there drinking beer and making jokes about Peter Frampton.
”
”
Nick Hornby (Songbook)
“
Honestly, I'm relieved. Finally someone's calling Athena out on her bullshit, on her deliberately confusing sentence structures and cultural allusions. Athena likes to make her audience "work for it." On the topic of cultural exposition, she's written that she doesn't "see the need to move the text closer to the reader, when the reader has Google, and is perfectly capable of moving closer to the text." She drops in entire phrases in Chinese without adding any translations—her typewriter doesn't have Chinese characters, so she left spaces and wrote them out by hand. It took me hours of fiddling with an OCR to search them online, and even then I had to strike out about half of them. She refers to family members in Chinese terms instead of English, so you're left wondering if a given character is an uncle or a second cousin. (I've read dozens of guides to the Chinese kinship nomenclature system by now. It makes no goddamn sense.)
She's done this in all her other novels. Her fans praise such tactics as brilliant and authentic—a diaspora writer's necessary intervention against the whiteness of English. But it's not good craft. It makes the prose frustrating and inaccessible. I am convinced it is all in service of making Athena, and her readers, feel smarter than they are.
"Quirky, aloof, and erudite" is Athena's brand. "Commercial and compulsively readable yet still exquisitely literary," I've decided, will be mine.
”
”
R.F. Kuang (Yellowface)
“
Film and television have convinced too many writers that heaps of dialogue make novels more like movies and therefore good. This is an amateur's fantasy, and it has induced some writers to surrender the few advantages they have over cinematic storytelling. The moviemaker is stuck with what the camera can see and the microphone can hear. You have more freedom. You can summarize situations. You can forthrightly give us people's histories. You can concentrate ten years into ten words. You can move anywhere you like outside real time. You can tell us—just tell us—what people are thinking and feeling. Yes, abundant dialogue can lighten a story, make it more readable and sparkle with wonders. But it is pitiably inadequate before what it is not suited to do.
”
”
Stephen Koch (The Modern Library Writer's Workshop: A Guide to the Craft of Fiction (Modern Library Paperbacks))
“
Obstinate was curious and asked, “What are the things you are searching for that can’t be found in this world?” “I’m searching for a joy that does not fade,” replied Christian, “a secure inheritance in Heaven that cannot be corrupted and will be given at the appointed time to those who earnestly search for it.” He held out the book in his hand. “Don’t take my word for it. Read it in my book.”11
”
”
John Bunyan (The Pilgrim's Progress: A Readable Modern-Day Version of John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress (The Pilgrim's Progress Series Book 1))
“
Woolrich had a genius for creating types of story perfectly consonant with his world: the noir cop story, the clock race story, the waking nightmare, the oscillation thriller, the headlong through the night story, the annihilation story, the last hours story. These situations, and variations on them, and others like them, are paradigms of our position in the world as Woolrich sees it. His mastery of suspense, his genius (like that of his spiritual brother Alfred Hitchcock) for keeping us on the edge of our seats and gasping with fright, stems not only from the nightmarish situations he conjured up but from his prose, which is compulsively readable, cinematically vivid, high-strung almost to the point of hysteria, forcing us into the skins of the hunted and doomed where we live their agonies and die with them a thousand small deaths.
”
”
Francis M. Nevins Jr. (Night and Fear: A Centenary Collection of Stories by Cornell Woolrich (Otto Penzler Book))
“
Sara, who snatched her lessons at all sorts of untimely hours from tattered and discarded books, and who had a hungry craving for everything readable, was often severe upon them in her small mind. They had books they never read; she had no books at all. If she had always had something to read, she would not have been so lonely. She liked romances and history and poetry; she would read anything. There was a sentimental housemaid in the establishment who bought the weekly penny papers, and subscribed to a circulating library, from which she got greasy volumes containing stories of marquises and dukes who invariably fell in love with orange-girls and gypsies and servant-maids, and made them the proud brides of coronets; and Sara often did parts of this maid's work so that she might earn the privilege of reading these romantic histories.
”
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Frances Hodgson Burnett (Sara Crewe or, What Happened at Miss Minchin's)
“
Remy nods thoughtfully. "Small places make for small lives. And some people are fine with that. They like knowing where to put their feet. But if you only walk in other people's steps, you cannot make your own way. You cannot leave a mark."
Addie's throat tightens.
"Do you think a life has bay value if one doesn't leave some mark upon the world?"
Remy's expression sobers, and he must read the sadness in her voice, because he says, "I think there are many ways to matter." He plucks the book from his pocket. "These are the words of a man - Voltaire. But they are also the hands that set the type. The ink that made it readable, the tree that made the paper. All of them matter, though credit goes only to the name on the cover."
He has misread her, of course, assumed the question stemmed from a different, more common fear. Still, his words hold weight -- though it will be years before Addie discovers just how much.
”
”
Victoria Schwab (The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue)
“
Recently, a judge of the prestigious 2014 British Forward Prize for Poetry was moved to observe that “there is an awful lot of very powerful, lyrical, and readable poetry being written today,” but we need education, because “we have lost the sense that poetry sits halfway between prose and music—that you can’t expect to read it like a novel.”
A few years ago, the New York Times published an op-ed of mine, about learning poetry by heart. The response to it confirmed that people of all ages think about poetry as a kind of inspired music, embodying beauty and insight. On one hand, poetry has always flowed from music, as rap and hip-hop remind us big-time. Rappers know how poetry walks and talks. So we have music, or deeply felt recitations of poems that belong to collective memory. On the other hand, we have overly instructive prose poems, as well as the experiments of certain critical ideologies, or conceptual performance art. These aspects seem to represent the public, Janus face of poetry.
”
”
Carol Muske-Dukes
“
The business is a simple one. Hiro gets information. It may be gossip,
videotape, audiotape, a fragment of a computer disk, a xerox of a document. It
can even be a joke based on the latest highly publicized disaster.
He uploads it to the CIC database -- the Library, formerly the Library of
Congress, but no one calls it that anymore. Most people are not entirely clear
on what the word "congress" means.
And even the word "library" is getting hazy. It used to be a place full of
books, mostly old ones. Then they began to include videotapes, records, and
magazines. Then all of the information got converted into machine-readable
form, which is to say, ones and zeroes. And as the number of media grew, the
material became more up to date, and the methods for searching the Library
became more and more sophisticated, it approached the point where there was no
substantive difference between the Library of Congress and the Central
Intelligence Agency. Fortuitously, this happened just as the government was
falling apart anyway. So they merged and kicked out a big fat stock offering.
”
”
Neal Stephenson (Snow Crash)
“
Emma, calm down. I had to know-"
I point my finger in his face, almost touching his eyeball. "It's one thing for me to give your permission to look into it. But I'm pretty sure looking into it without my consent is illegal. In fact, I'm pretty sure everything that woman does is illegal. Do you even know what the Mafia is, Galen?"
His eyebrows lift in surprise. "She told you who she is? I mean, who she used to be?"
I nod. "While you were checking in with Grom. Once in the Mob, always in the Mob, if you ask me. How else would she get all her money? But I guess you wouldn't care about that, since she buys you houses and cars and fake IDs." I snatch my wrist away and turn back toward our hotel. At least, I hope it's our hotel.
Galen laughs. "Emma, it's not Rachel's money; it's mine."
I whirl on him. "You are a fish. You don't have a job. And I don't think Syrena currency has any of our presidents on it." Now "our" means I'm human again. I wish I could make up my mind.
He crosses his arms. "I earn it another way. Walk to the Gulfarium with me, and I'll tell you how."
The temptation divides me like a cleaver. I'm one part hissy fit and one part swoon. I have a right to be mad, to press charges, to cut Rachel's hair while she's sleeping. But do I really want to risk the chance that she keeps a gun under her pillow? Do I want to miss the opportunity to scrunch my toes in the sand and listen to Galen's rich voice tell me how a fish came to be wealthy? Nope, I don't.
Taking care to ram my shoulder into him, I march past him and hopefully in the right direction. When he catches up to me, his grin threatens the rest of my hissy fit side, so I turn away, fixing my glare on the waves.
"I sell stuff to humans," he says.
I glance at him. He's looking at me, his expression every bit as expectant as I feel. I hate this little game of ours. Maybe because I'm no good at it. He won't tell me more unless I ask. Curiosity is one of my most incurable flaws-and Galen knows it.
Still, I already gave up a perfectly good tantrum for him, so I feel like he owes me. Never mind that he saved my life today. That was so two hours ago. I lift my chin.
"Rachel says I'm a millionaire," he says, his little knowing smirk scrubbing my nerves like a Brillo pad. "But for me, it's not about the money. Like you, I have a soft spot for history."
Crap, crap, crap. How can he already know me this well? I must be as readable as the alphabet. What's the use? He's going to win, every time.
”
”
Anna Banks (Of Poseidon (The Syrena Legacy, #1))
“
A true work of grace in the heart is easily recognized by the person that has it or by others that are observing him. For the person that has it, he finds himself under conviction for his sin, especially concerning the defilement of his own body. He’s also convicted for the sin of unbelief, for which he is sure to be damned unless he finds mercy at God’s hand through faith in Jesus Christ. The knowledge of sin and his inward convictions cause him to feel sorrow and shame.116 “But then he finds Jesus Christ as his Savior and the absolute necessity of living for and with Him for the rest of his life. And when he does, he experiences a hunger and thirst for Him based on the promise, ‘blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness and they will be filled.
”
”
John Bunyan (The Pilgrim's Progress: A Readable Modern-Day Version of John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress (The Pilgrim's Progress Series Book 1))
“
BOOKS RECOMMENDED BY KATHLEEN MCGOWAN The Brother of Jesus and the Lost Teachings of Christianity, Jeffrey J. Butz Excellent account of early Christianity and its factions. Rev. Jeff’s understanding of Greek translations was a revelation for me. A rare scholarly work that is entirely readable and entertaining. The Woman with the Alabaster Jar, Margaret Starbird A pioneering book in Magdalene research, Starbird was one of the first to assert the theory of Magdalene as bride. Mary Magdalen, Myth and Metaphor, Susan Haskins The definitive Magdalene reference book. Massacre at Montsegur, Zoé Oldenbourg Classic, scholarly account of the final days of the Cathars. The Perfect Heresy, by Stephen O’Shea A very readable book on Cathar history. Chasing the Heretics, Rion Klawinski A history-filled memoir of traveling through Cathar country. Key to the Sacred Pattern, Henry Lincoln Fascinating theories on the sacred geometry of Rennes-le-Château and the Languedoc by one of the authors of Holy Blood, Holy Grail. Relics of Repentance, James F. Forcucci Contains the letters of Claudia Procula, the wife of Pontius Pilate. The Church of Mary Magdalene, Jean Markale Poet and philosopher Jean Markale’s quest for the sacred feminine in Rennes-le-Château. The Gospel of Mary Magdalene and The Gospel of Philip, Jean-Yves Leloup Highly readable French scholarly analyses of important Gnostic material. Nostradamus and the Lost Templar Legacy, Rudy Cambier Professor Cambier explores the prophecies of the Expected One from another angle. Who Wrote the Gospels?, Randel McCraw Helms Fascinating theories from a noted scholar on the authorship of the Gospels. Jesus and the Lost Goddess, Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy Well-researched alternative theories, also provides excellent resource list. Botticelli, Frank Zollner The ultimate coffee table book, with gorgeous reproductions of the art and great analysis of Sandro’s life and career.
”
”
Kathleen McGowan (The Expected One (Magdalene Line Trilogy, #1))
“
Take the famous slogan on the atheist bus in London … “There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.” … The word that offends against realism here is “enjoy.” I’m sorry—enjoy your life? Enjoy your life? I’m not making some kind of neo-puritan objection to enjoyment. Enjoyment is lovely. Enjoyment is great. The more enjoyment the better. But enjoyment is one emotion … Only sometimes, when you’re being lucky, will you stand in a relationship to what’s happening to you where you’ll gaze at it with warm, approving satisfaction. The rest of the time, you’ll be busy feeling hope, boredom, curiosity, anxiety, irritation, fear, joy, bewilderment, hate, tenderness, despair, relief, exhaustion … This really is a bizarre category error.
But not necessarily an innocent one … The implication of the bus slogan is that enjoyment would be your natural state if you weren’t being “worried” by us believer … Take away the malignant threat of God-talk, and you would revert to continuous pleasure, under cloudless skies. What’s so wrong with this, apart from it being total bollocks?
… Suppose, as the atheist bus goes by, that you are the fifty-something woman with the Tesco bags, trudging home to find out whether your dementing lover has smeared the walls of the flat with her own shit again. Yesterday when she did it, you hit her, and she mewled till her face was a mess of tears and mucus which you also had to clean up. The only thing that would ease the weight on your heart would be to tell the funniest, sharpest-tongued person you know about it: but that person no longer inhabits the creature who will meet you when you unlock the door. Respite care would help, but nothing will restore your sweetheart, your true love, your darling, your joy. Or suppose you’re that boy in the wheelchair, the one with the spasming corkscrew limbs and the funny-looking head. You’ve never been able to talk, but one of your hands has been enough under your control to tap out messages. Now the electrical storm in your nervous system is spreading there too, and your fingers tap more errors than readable words. Soon your narrow channel to the world will close altogether, and you’ll be left all alone in the hulk of your body. Research into the genetics of your disease may abolish it altogether in later generations, but it won’t rescue you. Or suppose you’re that skanky-looking woman in the doorway, the one with the rat’s nest of dreadlocks. Two days ago you skedaddled from rehab. The first couple of hits were great: your tolerance had gone right down, over two weeks of abstinence and square meals, and the rush of bliss was the way it used to be when you began. But now you’re back in the grind, and the news is trickling through you that you’ve fucked up big time. Always before you’ve had this story you tell yourself about getting clean, but now you see it isn’t true, now you know you haven’t the strength. Social services will be keeping your little boy. And in about half an hour you’ll be giving someone a blowjob for a fiver behind the bus station. Better drugs policy might help, but it won’t ease the need, and the shame over the need, and the need to wipe away the shame.
So when the atheist bus comes by, and tells you that there’s probably no God so you should stop worrying and enjoy your life, the slogan is not just bitterly inappropriate in mood. What it means, if it’s true, is that anyone who isn’t enjoying themselves is entirely on their own. The three of you are, for instance; you’re all three locked in your unshareable situations, banged up for good in cells no other human being can enter. What the atheist bus says is: there’s no help coming … But let’s be clear about the emotional logic of the bus’s message. It amounts to a denial of hope or consolation, on any but the most chirpy, squeaky, bubble-gummy reading of the human situation. St Augustine called this kind of thing “cruel optimism” fifteen hundred years ago, and it’s still cruel.
”
”
Francis Spufford
“
Absorbingly articulate and infinitely intelligent . . . There is nothing pop about Kahneman's psychology, no formulaic story arc, no beating you over the head with an artificial, buzzword -encrusted Big Idea. It's just the wisdom that comes from five decades of honest, rigorous scientific work, delivered humbly yet brilliantly, in a way that will forever change the way you think about thinking:' -MARIA POPOVA, The Atlantic "Kahneman's primer adds to recent challenges to economic orthodoxies about rational actors and efficient markets; more than that, it's a lucid, mar- velously readable guide to spotting-and correcting-our biased misunder- standings of the world:' -Publishers Weekly (starred review) "The ramifications of Kahneman's work are wide, extending into education, business, marketing, politics ... and even happiness research. Call his field 'psychonomics: the hidden reasoning behind our choices. Thinking, Fast and Slow is essential reading for anyone with a mind:' -KYLE SMITH,NewYorkPost "A stellar accomplishment, a book for everyone who likes to think and wants to do it better." - E. JAMES LIEBERMAN ,Libraryfournal "Daniel Kahneman demonstrates forcefully in his new book, Thinking, Fast and Slow, how easy it is for humans to swerve away from rationality:' -CHRISTOPHER SHEA , The Washington Post "A tour de force .. . Kahneman's book is a must-read for anyone interested in either human behavior or investing. He clearly shows that while we like to think of ourselves as rational in our decision making, the truth is we are subject to many biases. At least being aware of them will give you a better chance of avoiding them, or at least making fewer of them:' -LARRY SWEDROE, CBS News "Brilliant .. . It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of Daniel Kahne- man's contribution to the understanding of the way we think and choose. He stands among the giants, a weaver of the threads of Charles Darwin, Adam Smith and Sigmund Freud. Arguably the most important psycholo- gist in history, Kahneman has reshaped cognitive psychology, the analysis of rationality and reason, the understanding of risk and the study of hap pi- ness and well-being ... A magisterial work, stunning in its ambition, infused
”
”
Daniel Kahneman
“
Russell’s Teapot (Celestial Teapot Analogy)
We cannot equate Russell’s teapot idea with the idea of God.
Although this idea is humorous, it isn't very sensible. If anybody without scientific credentials stated thoughtfully that the teapot is circling the Sun, the majority of people would think that a person saying that is either bipolar, schizophrenic, or suffers from some other mental illness. This kind of comparison is absurd. Comic and absurdist comparisons of this kind only muddy the waters. Proof or disproof of such a thing is unnecessary because almost everybody knows the teapot can't orbit the Sun as freely as planets on a microcosmic or macro level. Regardless of Russel being aware that his example is nonsense, he still used it (and he states that). The point was not to prove anything but to make a funny remark to diminish the subject of the attack, God. It is a logical fallacy whenever we use such tactics or tricks because we use witty comments for lacking something more potent. If we make fun of some ideas, it does not mean they have no value. We cannot destroy an idea that has existed for millennia by witty but silly arguments.
Carl Sagan made an even sillier argument about the undetectable dragon in his garage. To compare the idea of God to the teapot or a dragon in a garage is a useless way to refute an idea or argument with an “argument” (example) in the form of funny irony.
I admire Bertrand Russell and Carl Sagan for their ingenuity and insights. I also admire Bertrand Russell’s writing style because he could express complicated ideas and concepts in very readable and clear prose.
There can be no comparison between the idea of God and a teapot floating around the Sun or between God and an unidentifiable dragon in the garage. We cannot base our arguments on the value of their wit because regardless of how witty the statement is, it has to stand the test of truth, not the test of wit. We can easily exclude the idea of a teapot floating in orbit around the Sun as ridiculous. The same applies to the argument about the dragon in a garage. But can we exclude the idea of God from religious and theological thoughts and serious philosophical inquiries interested in discovering the truth about the world and God? We can easily refuse to accept a teapot or dragon in the garage as serious arguments. However, we cannot a priori deny the legitimacy of the idea about God, at least not the deist one (or pantheistic).
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Dejan Stojanovic (ABSOLUTE (THE WORLD IN NOWHERENESS))
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Somewhere I have heard that eyes touch your soul. I have seen so many eyes in this journey but these are different. You have speaking eyes. You usually don’t speak much, only smiles & go. I was really idiot who was trying to find the reasons behind that smile with lot of questions. I don’t know from where you have learnt this language, may be by your own, by observing this world. God knows? Simple person who has simple life (may not be) …. Naah…. you made it simple but still impactful. Simple views with exclusive vision. Simple dressing with different style. Simple face with readable expressions. Of course, you don’t need language, attitude suits you.
I am fond of article writing & poetry in Marathi. In my educational life, my teachers always praised me for my writing. I never expected that I’ll write something for somebody. I found PERFECT BOSS, JUST PERFECT. Never think that I am trying to impress you, flirting with you. I am showing you that see what you have done with my eyes.
Heart? Most mysterious organ of human body, more than brain. See the size of it? What it does with the people? From the upper floor, brain shouts that what the sick things you are doing? but this heart has to beat fast, automatic. It has an own power to rule you according to it. I heard that blooded people can think by heart, I hope I'll give justice to this writing with purity.
You must be surprised by these sides, it’s obvious. My family & some close friends can know me, but not fully, only incomplete. This part is the most precious & secret. Some turns are dangerous, thrilling, satisfying, emptying your mind, but risky for future. You can fight & win anything apart from your own heart. It has that power to detect the vibes of emotion. You know? how I'll win this game? When you will finish this game, till that day this one side blocking has no meaning. It becoming more & more open. I’m damn sure, you must be enjoying it. You are killer, teaser.
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Somi
“
What's the book about?" "I must admit I haven't read it. It's over five hundred pages long, which is a mistake — any defamatory work ought to be readable in half an hour.
=
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Umberto Eco (The Prague Cemetery)
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Nowadays writers are more than readers. Now tell me how can we increase readability? Sometimes I feel that is everyone is reading complete books ?
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Pranita P. Deshpande (Quotations & Stories: Thoughts)
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Write a blog post on [topic] that is structured and easy to read. Begin with a clear and concise introduction that sets the tone and provides context for the topic. Use headings, subheadings, and clear paragraphs to organize and illustrate the content, making sure that the final product is organized and easy to follow. In the body of the post, make sure that each section is clearly defined and contributes to the overall message of the post. Consider the readability of the final product by using clear and concise language, while avoiding jargon or overly complex terminology. Finally, include a clear and concise conclusion that summarizes your main points and reinforces the importance of your argument. Repurposing a Blog Post for Different Audiences Description: This prompt will guide you in repurposing a blog post on the topic of your choice for a different target audience.
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Aurimas Butvilauskas (The ChatGPT Prompt Library: Third Edition (Artificial Intelligence Guides Book 6))
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Well, this is very disturbing! I pray that God will make me more aware of the traps that led to this man’s misery if it should ever come my way.
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John Bunyan (The Pilgrim's Progress: A Readable Modern-Day Version of John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress (The Pilgrim's Progress Series Book 1))
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This first edition of A Tome of Idioms has been published as a comprehensive, concise, compact, and efficient guide to the meanings and origins of Idioms, Proverbs, and Sayings. Each inclusion is written in a clear and uncomplicated style.
First published in 2019 this book contains over 900 easily readable entries in systematic order augmented by an extensive Bibliography.
This book will be of general interest to everyone who has a curious, inquisitive, questioning, or enquiring intellect.
Sometimes, without knowing, we quote idiomatical expressions in our everyday conversations.
An idiom is used to communicate something that other words do not convey as clearly or as meaningfully.
Idioms tend to be colloquial and are more effective when used in spoken rather than written English.
The origins of idioms are sometimes difficult to trace which means that finding a precise date a particular idiom came into existence is never easy.
A number of idioms, proverbs, and sayings originate in well-known literature and Holy texts such as, William Shakespeare (60 entries), the Bible (47 entries), John Heywood (27 entries), Aesop (15 entries), and Geoffrey Chaucer (12 entries), to name but a few. Some of these have evolved in many different forms over several years into the expressions we use today.
Extract from @A Tome of Idioms
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B.H. McKechnie
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First published in 2020 this book contains over 560 easily readable compact entries in systematic order augmented by an extensive bibliography, an alphabetical list of countries and locations of individuals final resting places (where known) and a day and month list in consecutive order of when an individual died.
It details the deaths of individuals, who died too early and often in tragic circumstances, from film, literature, music, theatre, and television, and the achievements they left behind. In addition, some ordinary people who died in bizarre, freak, or strange circumstances are also included.
It does not matter if they were famous or just celebrated by a few individuals, all the people in this book left behind family, friends and in some instances devotees who idolised them. Our heartfelt thoughts and sympathies go out to all those affected by each persons death.
Whether you are concerned about yourself, a loved one, a friend, or a work colleague there are many helplines and support groups that offer confidential non-judgemental help, guidance and advice on mental health problems (such as anxiety, bereavement, depression, despair, distress, stress, substance abuse, suicidal feelings, and trauma). Support can be by phone, email, face-to-face counselling, courses, and self-help groups. Details can be found online or at your local health care organisation.
There are many conspiracy theories, rumours, cover-ups, allegations, sensationalism, and myths about the cause of some individual’s deaths. Only the facts known at the time of writing are included in this book.
Some important information is deliberately kept secret or undisclosed. Sometimes not until 20 or even 30 years later are full details of an accident or incident released or in some cases found during extensive research. Similarly, unsolved murders can be reinvestigated years later if new information becomes known. In some cases, 50 years on there are those who continue to investigate what they consider are alleged cover-ups.
The first name in an entry is that by which a person was generally known. Where relevant their real name is included in brackets.
Date of Death | In the entry detailing the date an individual died their age at the time of their death is recorded in brackets.
Final Resting Place | Where known details of a persons final resting place are included.
“Unknown” | Used when there is insufficient evidence available to the authorities to establish whether an individuals’ death was due to suicide, accident or caused by another.
Statistics
The following statistics are derived from the 579 individual “cause of death” entries included in this publication.
The top five causes of death are,
Heart attack/failure 88 (15.2%)
Cancer 55 (9.5%)
Fatal injuries (plane crash) 43 (7.4%)
Fatal injuries (vehicle crash/collision) 39 (6.7%)
Asphyxiation (Suicide) 23 (4%).
extract from 'Untimely and Tragic Deaths of the Renowned, The Celebrated, The Iconic
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B.H. McKechnie
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Behind them, the door burst open.
The girl looked like crashing waves at sunset as she poured into the room, unstoppable beauty. And though shorter, what she lacked in height she made up for in the curves and sway of her hips as her creamy peach dress bubbled up like agitgated froth with each of her steps. Whether she liked it or not, her moods were always readable through her movements an effect of her hypnotic gift of dance.
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E.J. Mellow (Song of the Forever Rains (Mousai, #1))
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Kenwood finished the sentence. “And readable.” “That’s right. And with all those exabytes of data, how many secrets do you think the government could be hiding? Some that they’re not even aware of?
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Michael C. Grumley (Mosaic (Breakthrough, #5))
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Duplication and transfer from other genetic sources are examples of nature’s ability to co-opt existing tools: evolution the tinkerer. Evolution also creates from scratch. We call these de novo mutations, and they arise when a seemingly nonsensical run of DNA mutates and changes into a readable sentence.
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Adam Rutherford (The Book of Humans: A Brief History of Culture, Sex, War and the Evolution of Us)
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When teaching vocabulary, teachers have to provide the counterparts that L2 complex words have in pupils’ L1. Presenting the counterparts that L2 complex words have in pupils’ L1 assists L2 learners in transferring the decomposition capability of L1 complex words to L2 complex words. Morphological Translation Equivalence that pair complex words share with each other assist L2 learners in transferring the information of the L1 complex word to its counterpart in pupils’ L2 (e. g., transitive verbs read, lees plus suffix –able/-baar resulting in adjectives readable leesbaar).
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Endri Shqerra (Acquisition of Word Formation Devices in First & Second Languages: Morphological Cross-linguistic Influence)
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London’s Tube map, for instance, makes a particular virtue of ignoring distance in the interest of readability: two stations abutting each other on the map might actually be a mile apart. And most transit maps do not tell riders how long it will take to reach their destinations. The length of lines between stations is usually not to scale. Transit maps forgo depicting distance in favor of readability.
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Kenneth Cukier (Framers: Human Advantage in an Age of Technology and Turmoil)
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Horseman is the haunting sequel to the 1820 novel The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving and takes place two decades after the events that unfolded in the original. We are introduced to 14-year-old trans boy Bente “Ben” Van Brunt, who has been raised by his idiosyncratic grandparents - lively Brom “Bones” Van Brunt and prim Kristina Van Tassel - in the small town of Sleepy Hollow, New York, where gossip and rumour run rife and people are exceedingly closed-minded. He has lived with them on their farm ever since he was orphaned when his parents, Bendix and Fenna, died in suspicious and enigmatic circumstances. Ben and his only friend, Sander, head into the woodland one Autumn day to play a game known as Sleepy Hollow Boys, but they are both a little startled when they witness a group of men they recognise from the village discussing the headless, handless body of a local boy that has just been found. But this isn't the end; it is only the beginning. From that moment on, Ben feels an otherworldly presence following him wherever he ventures, and one day while scanning his grandfather’s fields he catches a fleeting glimpse of a weird creature seemingly sucking blood from a victim.
An evil of an altogether different nature. But Ben knows this is not the elusive Horseman who has been the primary focus of folkloric tales in the area for many years because he can both feel and hear his presence. However, unlike others who fear the Headless Horseman, Ben can hear whispers in the woods at the end of a forbidden path, and he has visions of the Horseman who says he is there to protect him. Ben soon discovers connections between the recent murders and the death of his parents and realises he has been shaded from the truth about them his whole life. Thus begins a journey to unravel the mystery and establish his identity in the process. This is an enthralling and compulsively readable piece of horror fiction building on Irvings’ solid ground. Evoking such feelings as horror, terror, dread and claustrophobic oppressiveness, this tale invites you to immerse yourself in its sinister, creepy and disturbing narrative. The staggering beauty of the remote village location is juxtaposed with the darkness of the demons and devilish spirits that lurk there, and the village residents aren't exactly welcoming to outsiders or accepting of anyone different from their norm.
What I love the most is that it is subtle and full of nuance, instead of the usual cheap thrills with which the genre is often pervaded, meaning the feeling of sheer panic creeps up on you when you least expect, and you come to the sudden realisation that the story has managed to get under your skin, into your psyche and even into your dreams (or should that be nightmares?) Published at a time when the nights are closing in and the light diminishes ever more rapidly, not to mention with Halloween around the corner, this is the perfect autumnal read for the spooky season full of both supernatural and real-world horrors. It begins innocuously enough to lull you into a false sense of security but soon becomes bleak and hauntingly atmospheric as well as frightening before descending into true nightmare-inducing territory. A chilling and eerie romp, and a story full of superstition, secrets, folklore and old wives’ tales and with messages about love, loss, belonging, family, grief, being unapologetically you and becoming more accepting and tolerant of those who are different. Highly recommended.
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The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect
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See that you do not refuse godly advice just like the nation of Israel did. For if God’s own people did not escape judgment and suffered for it, how much more will you suffer if you turn away from Him who warns you from heaven. And what’s more, He tells us that if we are His, we will live by faith, but if we turn our backs on Him, our souls will suffer without Him.25
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John Bunyan (The Pilgrim's Progress: A Readable Modern-Day Version of John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress (The Pilgrim's Progress Series Book 1))
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But Evangelist caught him by the right hand and said, “Men will be forgiven for their sins and indiscretions. Don’t be like someone with no faith—you need to start believing!
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John Bunyan (The Pilgrim's Progress: A Readable Modern-Day Version of John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress (The Pilgrim's Progress Series Book 1))
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There are three things in the man’s advice that you must absolutely hate: first, his cunning ability to turn you away from the true path; secondly, his work in displaying the cross as unpleasant and repulsive; and finally, that he points you in a direction that ultimately leads to death.
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John Bunyan (The Pilgrim's Progress: A Readable Modern-Day Version of John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress (The Pilgrim's Progress Series Book 1))
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King of Glory has said that if you wish to save your life, you must be willing to lose it. And if you follow Him but do not hate your father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, and even your own life, you cannot be His disciple. Think about it like this: Worldly Wiseman wants to convince you that God’s way will lead to suffering and death, but the truth is that you cannot have eternal life without following God’s way. Therefore, you must strongly reject Worldly Wiseman’s teachings.29
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John Bunyan (The Pilgrim's Progress: A Readable Modern-Day Version of John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress (The Pilgrim's Progress Series Book 1))
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We will be met by angels and tens of thousands of all the saints in robes so bright that our eyes will dazzle just to look at them! There will be those that have gone before us in this world and have stood for the faith and suffered greatly, including being burned on the stake, thrown to wild beasts, and drowned in the seas—all because of their love for the Lord. They will not harm us but will greet us with love because they walk with God.”18
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John Bunyan (The Pilgrim's Progress: A Readable Modern-Day Version of John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress (The Pilgrim's Progress Series Book 1))
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As he ran to the top of what seemed like a small hill, he saw a cross and, below it, a tomb. Just as he approached the cross, his burden fell off his back and tumbled down the hill until it rolled into the opening of the tomb and was never seen again.
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John Bunyan (The Pilgrim's Progress: A Readable Modern-Day Version of John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress (The Pilgrim's Progress Series Book 1))
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true worship of God, a divine faith is required, but there can be no divine faith without a divine revelation of the will of God. Therefore, anything added to the worship of God that’s not in agreement with divine revelation is nothing but human faith, which will not result in eternal life.
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John Bunyan (The Pilgrim's Progress: A Readable Modern-Day Version of John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress (The Pilgrim's Progress Series Book 1))
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He had made many pilgrims into princes, who by their own very nature were born repulsive beggars.73
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John Bunyan (The Pilgrim's Progress: A Readable Modern-Day Version of John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress (The Pilgrim's Progress Series Book 1))
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Even someone new to the faith could answer ten thousand such questions,” Christian said without hesitation. “According to John 6:26, it’s unlawful to follow Christ for what you think you will get out of it. How much more detestable is it then to use Him for temporary advantage in order to obtain and enjoy the world! The only ones who believe this are heathens, hypocrites, devils, and sorcerers.
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John Bunyan (The Pilgrim's Progress: A Readable Modern-Day Version of John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress (The Pilgrim's Progress Series Book 1))
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I see that words and actions are two different things, and from now on, I will better observe this difference.” “They really are two separate things. In fact, they are as different as the body is from the spirit,” said Christian. “Perhaps it would help if you thought about it like this: The body without the spirit is dead, so the same can be said about words without action. The spirit of true faith is a transformed life. It’s written that ‘Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.’”107
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John Bunyan (The Pilgrim's Progress: A Readable Modern-Day Version of John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress (The Pilgrim's Progress Series Book 1))
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talking alone is not enough to prove that fruit is indeed part of the heart and life. We can be sure that on the Day of Judgment, men will be judged according to their fruit.108 No one will say then, ‘Did you believe?’ but rather, ‘Were you doers or talkers only?’ and they will be judged accordingly. The end of the world is compared to our earthly harvest,109 and you know that men at harvest want nothing but fruit and grain. But know that nothing will be accepted that’s not faith.
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John Bunyan (The Pilgrim's Progress: A Readable Modern-Day Version of John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress (The Pilgrim's Progress Series Book 1))
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Someone can cry out against sin in principle but cannot hate sin unless they have a profound godly aversion to it. I’ve heard many cry out against sin from the pulpit who do not live it out in their heart, home, and lifestyle. Take, for example, Potiphar’s wife. She cried out loudly as if she were godly and virtuous but would have committed adultery with Joseph in a heartbeat!113 Some cry out against sin while condoning it in their own lives. It’s like a mother who scolds the child in her lap when it’s behaving badly but then immediately begins to hug and embrace the same child.
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John Bunyan (The Pilgrim's Progress: A Readable Modern-Day Version of John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress (The Pilgrim's Progress Series Book 1))
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Everything that you leave behind will not even compare to the smallest portion of what I’m seeking to enjoy. If you come with me and persevere, you’ll find more than enough. I’m telling you the truth. Come with me and see!
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John Bunyan (The Pilgrim's Progress: A Readable Modern-Day Version of John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress (The Pilgrim's Progress Series Book 1))
“
also thought about the Day of Judgment. We will not be designated to life or death according to the standards of this world but according to the wisdom and law of the most High God. “Therefore, I thought, what God says is best is indeed best, though all the men in the world are against it.
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John Bunyan (The Pilgrim's Progress: A Readable Modern-Day Version of John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress (The Pilgrim's Progress Series Book 1))
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show how the law, instead of cleansing the heart from sin, revives sin, giving it strength to grow and develop in the soul.38 You can see that the law can both discover and condemn sin, but it has no power to control it.
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John Bunyan (The Pilgrim's Progress: A Readable Modern-Day Version of John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress (The Pilgrim's Progress Series Book 1))
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This is Christ, who, with the oil of grace, continually maintains the work already begun in the heart.42 The grace He supplies ignites the soul of His people like a roaring fire that, despite the devil’s best efforts, will never be extinguished. This is a difficult concept for man to understand—that even when we are tempted, Christ is doing all the work by supplying the grace we need to stand firm.
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John Bunyan (The Pilgrim's Progress: A Readable Modern-Day Version of John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress (The Pilgrim's Progress Series Book 1))
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Moses said he would prefer dying where he stood rather than to go one more step without his God.”165
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John Bunyan (The Pilgrim's Progress: A Readable Modern-Day Version of John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress (The Pilgrim's Progress Series Book 1))
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As tears filled my eyes, I asked further, ‘But, Lord, may such a great sinner as I am actually be accepted and saved by you?’ “And I heard Him say, ‘Whoever comes to me I will never cast away.’195 “Then I responded, ‘But, Lord, what is the appropriate way for me to come so that my faith is properly placed on you?’ “Then He said, ‘Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners.196 He is the end of the law for righteousness to all who believe.197 He died for our sins and rose again for our justification.198 He loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood.199 He is the mediator between God and us.200 He lives to make intercession for us.’201 “It was from all of this that I understood I must look for righteousness in the person of Jesus Christ and for satisfaction for my sins by His blood.
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John Bunyan (The Pilgrim's Progress: A Readable Modern-Day Version of John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress (The Pilgrim's Progress Series Book 1))
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Yes, I believed without a doubt that if I had a thousand gallons of blood in my body, I would willingly spill it all for the sake of the Lord Jesus!
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John Bunyan (The Pilgrim's Progress: A Readable Modern-Day Version of John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress (The Pilgrim's Progress Series Book 1))
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The one who’s heart honestly desires the salvation of Christ is the one who truly believes in Christ.
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John Bunyan (The Pilgrim's Progress: A Readable Modern-Day Version of John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress (The Pilgrim's Progress Series Book 1))
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From an electrical engineering perspective, the messy stuff in between one and zero does travel down wires, through chips, and in packets. Computer switches are actually not either on or off. Both physically and electrically, computer switches, transistors, or logic circuits just have different levels of voltage to which engineers have assigned the values one or zero. Further up the chain of abstraction to software, one then starts to mean “true” and zero means “false.” But without human beings writing and interpreting software code, the computer itself is merely moving electrically charged ions around. The computer programs that are encoded as ones and zeros and “interpreted” by the circuits and logic gates on the chips do not actually mean anything to the computer. These machine instructions control how electricity moves on the circuits. On the other hand, machine instructions would mean nothing to a human because these are typically what has been termed “machine-readable.” The key is that the compilers, operating systems, memory, and fundamental circuitry of computers can translate human-readable words, software code, and numbers into machine instructions.
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Andrew Smart (Beyond Zero and One: Machines, Psychedelics, and Consciousness)
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LIEUTENANT COLONEL HORACE PORTER Grant’s most trustworthy and efficient staff officer remains in the army after the war, is promoted to Brigadier General. He resigns in 1873, returns to Pennsylvania to become an executive for the railroad. He is a frequent contributor to magazines whose audiences hunger for the “real” stories of the war, and in 1897 he writes his own memoirs, considered one of the most accurate and readable accounts of life with General Grant. He survives until 1921.
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Jeff Shaara (The Last Full Measure)
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People have lost sight of the original intention of COBOL’s designers. To quote one of them, Jean Sammet: The users for whom COBOL was designed were actually two subclasses of those people concerned with business data processing problems. One is the relatively inexperienced programmer for whom the naturalness of COBOL would be an asset, while the other type of user would be essentially anybody who had not written the program initially. In other words, the readability of COBOL programs would provide documentation to all who might wish to examine the programs, including the supervisory or management personnel. Little attempt was made to cater to professional programmers…
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Gerald M. Weinberg (The Psychology of Computer Programming)
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So here you are now, ready to attack the first lines of the first page. You prepare to recognize the unmistakable tone of the author. No. You don't recognize it at all. But now that you think about it, who ever said this author had an unmistakable tone? On the contrary, he is known as an author who changes greatly from one book to the next. And in these very changes you recognize him as himself. Here, however, he seems to have absolutely no connection with all the rest he has written, at least as far as you can recall. Are you disappointed? Let’s see. Perhaps at first you feel a bit lost, as when a person appears who, from the name, you identified with a certain face, and you try to make the features you are seeing tally with those you had in mind, and it won’t work. But you go on and you realize that the book is readable nevertheless, independently of what you expected of the author, it’s the book itself that arouses your curiosity, in fact, on sober reflection, you prefer it this way, confronting something and not quite knowing yet what it is.
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Italo Calvino (If on a Winter's Night a Traveler)
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readable little book by Jonathan Regenstein (Regenstein, 2018) called Reproducible Finance with R.
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Ernest P. Chan (Quantitative Trading: How to Build Your Own Algorithmic Trading Business (Wiley Trading))
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Thus we can roughly define what we mean by the art of reading as follows: the process whereby a mind, with nothing to operate on but the symbols of the readable matter, and with no help from outside,I elevates itself by the power of its own operations. The mind passes from understanding less to understanding more. The skilled operations that cause this to happen are the various acts that constitute the art of reading.
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Mortimer J. Adler (How to Read a Book: the classic guide to intelligent reading)
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Pierce was thinking about the New York fair around the same time that a modest display of Bell Labs innovations was being demonstrated at Seattle’s Century 21 Exposition, which was being marked by the construction of a huge “space needle” on the city’s fairgrounds. At the Seattle fair visitors could ride a monorail to a Bell exhibit intimating a future of startling convenience: phones with speedy touch-tone buttons (which would soon replace dials), direct long-distance calling (which would soon replace operators), and rapid electronic switching (which would soon be powered by transistors). A visitor could also try something called a portable “pager,” a big, blocky device that could alert doctors and other busy professionals when they received urgent calls.2 New York’s fair would dwarf Seattle’s. The crowds were expected to be immense—probably somewhere around 50 or 60 million people in total. Pierce and David’s 1961 memo recommended a number of exhibits: “personal hand-carried telephones,” “business letters in machine-readable form, transmitted by wire,” “information retrieval from a distant computer-automated library,” and “satellite and space communications.” By the time the fair opened in April 1964, though, the Bell System exhibits, housed in a huge white cantilevered building nicknamed the “floating wing,” described a more conservative future than the one Pierce and David had envisioned.
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Jon Gertner (The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation)
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I do not find you attractive.” His eyes are fixed on mine, blazing like black fire, fierce yet unknowable, only the intensity readable
“No?” I arch an eyebrow. “The way you look at me says otherwise.”
He swallows hard. His jaw grinds audibly. “Attractive? No, Corinna.” His fingertip traces my jawline from earlobe to chin. “I am consumed by you.”
His touch is exquisitely gentle. Yet, it sends a line of fire trickling over my skin, makes me shiver down to my toes.
“Could have fooled me,” I whisper.
“Am I fooling you, Corinna?” Instead of his finger on my jaw, he now touches the pad of his thumb to my lips. “Can you not read the obsession in my eyes?”
“I can’t read a damn thing in your eyes.” I have to pause, suck in a breath; his nearness, the intensity of his eyes and the wild ferocity of his presence, the molten heat of his touch on my lips—my breath is scorched away. It’s terrifying. “Why would you be…consumed by me?”
“It was a miscalculation,” he murmurs. “I thought I could use you. I thought I could hold you hostage and use you for leverage against your parents.”
“What was the miscalculation?”
“You.” He’s too close. I can feel his breath on my cheek. “Everything that you are.
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Jasinda Wilder (Sigma (Alpha, #10))
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Avoid PowerPoint and slide presentations. This is a maxim that Steve Jobs also followed. Bezos’s belief in the power of storytelling means that he thinks that his colleagues should be able to create a readable narrative when they pitch an idea. “We don’t do PowerPoint (or any other slide-oriented) presentations at Amazon,” he wrote in a recent shareholder letter. “Instead, we write narratively structured six-page memos. We silently read one at the beginning of each meeting in a kind of study hall.” The memos, which are limited to six pages, are supposed to be written with clarity, which Bezos believes (correctly) forces a clarity of thinking. They are often collaborative efforts, but they can have a personal style. Sometimes they incorporate proposed press releases. “Even in the example of writing a six-page memo, that’s teamwork,” he says. “Someone on the team needs to have the skill.
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Jeff Bezos (Invent and Wander: The Collected Writings of Jeff Bezos)
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Reminiscences of yet a young life's battles and hard struggles came surging into the mind in quick succession: events of boyhood, of youth, and manhood; perils, travels, scenes, joys, and sorrows; loves and hates; friendships and indifferences. My mind followed the various and rapid transition of my life's passages; it drew the lengthy, erratic, sinuous lines of travel my footsteps had passed over. If I had drawn them on the sandy floor, what enigmatical problems they had been to those around me, and what plain, readable, intelligent histories they had been to me! The loveliest feature of all to me was the form of a noble, and true man, who called me son. Of my life in the great pine forests of Arkansas, and in Missouri, I retained the most vivid impressions. The dreaming days I passed under the sighing pines on the Ouachita's shores; the new clearing, the block-house, our faithful black servant, the forest deer, and the exuberant life I led, were all well remembered. And I remembered how one day, after we had come to live near the Mississipi, I floated down, down, hundreds of miles, with a wild fraternity of knurly giants, the boatmen of the Mississipi, and how a dear old man welcomed me back, as if from the grave. I remembered also my travels on foot through sunny Spain, and France, with numberless adventures in Asia Minor, among Kurdish nomads. I remembered the battle-fields of America and the stormy scenes of rampant war. I remembered gold mines, and broad prairies, Indian councils, and much experience in the new western lands. I remembered the shock it gave me to hear after my return from a barbarous country of the calamity that had overtaken the fond man whom I called father, and the hot fitful life that followed it. Stop!
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Henry Morton Stanley (How I Found Livingstone: Enriched edition. Travels, adventures, and discoveres in Central Africa, including an account of four months' residence with Dr. Livingstone, by Henry M. Stanley)
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Christian had not gone far from his own home when his wife and children came out running, pleading and begging him to come back home, but he put his hands to his ears and ran on, crying, “Life! Life! Eternal life!
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John Bunyan (The Pilgrim's Progress: A Readable Modern-Day Version of John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress (The Pilgrim's Progress Series Book 1))
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Mary’s suicide note. That’s what it said. ‘I’m sorry. I’m not the person you thought I was.’ Found neatly folded in the pocket of her uniform. The paper sustained heavy water damage, but it was still readable. Now, give me one reason not to hang up right now.
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Riley Sager (The Only One Left)
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Readability makes information easier to process and understand. Simple sentence structures and familiar terms reduce cognitive load, improving comprehension and retention. This is particularly helpful for learners with cognitive impairments or learning disabilities like dyslexia.
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Britne Jenke (Making Online Learning Accessible: A Making Work Accessible Handbook)
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when coupled with data-binding constructs, makes for code that is much more readable, maintainable, and testable.
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Premanand Chandrasekaran (Domain-Driven Design with Java - A Practitioner's Guide: Create simple, elegant, and valuable software solutions for complex business problems)
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A young poetess suddenly attacked a senior poet saying that the elders had all become backdated and their poems were no more readable. My mother resented this arrogance. She told me later, "Won't this young lady herself ever get old? Does a poem lose its value simply because it was written in the past?
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Maitreyi Devi (It Does Not Die)
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But then you go on and you realize that the book is readable nevertheless, independently of what you expected of the author, it’s the book in itself that arouses your curiosity; in fact, on sober reflection, you prefer it this way, confronting something and not quite knowing yet what it is.
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Italo Calvino (If on a Winter's Night a Traveler)
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Happiness has a cascading effect. Happy programmers do the right thing. They write simple, readable code. They take clean, expressive, readable, elegant approaches. They have fun
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Anonymous
“
Printed books are dirt cheap, never run out of power and survive drops, spills and being run over. And their file format will still be readable 200 years from now.
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David Pogue
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above all I feel an obligation as a researcher who has seen the original to relay it in readable form.
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Richard Lloyd Anderson (Investigating the Book of Mormon Witnesses)
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Readers who are already familiar with the basic notions of graph theory should be able to skip this section: for those who want more, there are some very readable introductions such as Bollobás (1998) and Chartrand (1985).
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Dominic Widdows (Geometry and Meaning (Lecture Notes Book 172))
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Code should be written to minimize the time it would take for someone else to understand it.
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Dustin Boswell (The Art of Readable Code: Simple and Practical Techniques for Writing Better Code)
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In the kitchen Anna was quietly plotting to get rid of him. A brief talk, then she would contact the publisher and ask for someone more suitable. When she bore her best china cautiously back into the room she found him on his feet, examining things.
'Here we are,' she said, speaking drily, trying to call him back to his place.
'Who's this guy?' Dick asked, staring at a happy, rounded man having his photograph taken on a boat with a huge fish at his feet.
'That is my Uncle Max,' Anna said impatiently. 'Here is your coffee.'
'Great. I need a cup. Strong and black.' Dick was feeling his reckless self coming out: so what is she thinks I'm a scruff? Push some buttons and see what the old cow's made of.
Anna regretted that he must place his stained body upon her newly-cleaned velvet. She was grateful for having no sense of smell.
'Tell me what you have written, Mr Michaels?' He noticed the challenge.
'All sorts of rubbish,' he said unhelpfully, wishing to add the word 'rubbish', but showing admirable restraint. 'I write anything that's required.' As he spoke he noticed an unrealised pride in his humble craft. 'I turn things into readable English so people will be interested. You see, not everyone who has had an interesting life knows how to make it sound good; that's my job.' He could see her expression soften. Something simian amid the fine features? 'I make a great effort not to change the original intention, of course...'
'You call that a ghost, I think?'
'Yeah. The ghost brings people's lives to life.
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Steven Swift
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When used to best advantage, exceptions can improve a program’s readability, reliability, and maintainability. When used improperly, they can have the opposite effect.
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Joshua Bloch (Effective Java : Programming Language Guide)
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The room was large and airy. Shelves lined the walls on three sides, shelves that stretched way above his head, bending under the weight of the hundreds of books stored there. The fourth wall was covered in old newspaper, yellowed and faded but still readable. The room had become a shrine of sorts, he supposed. The books he had saved before the last days. He ran his finger along the spines: Shakespeare, Dickens, Keats, the ancients, all there alongside books from the last century. Nothing wasted, nothing lost. His private collection. He would find it difficult to let them go when the time came, but he would let them go. He couldn’t risk them being found at a later date. There were few incidents where people managed to decode words after Nicene, very few. Nonetheless, he wouldn’t take that chance. They would be destroyed along with everything the wordsmith had managed to salvage. For a second, images of the wordsmith filled his head, but he pushed them away. He turned his back on the books and walked across to the wall of newsprint. Here was a potted history of the past hundred years. The warnings. The signs. Global warming. Water levels rising. It was incomprehensible even now that man had just ignored it all. Young people talked about the Melting as if it were a single event, but it hadn’t been like that. The earth had been heating up for years. His finger touched one of the news sheets. Scientists were warning of an alarming acceleration in the melting of the polar ice caps. They predicted a dramatic rise in sea levels. That was back in the twenty-first century! He shook his head. He chose another article from around the same time. The writer was warning about the disappearing ice caps. “Until recently, the Arctic ice cap covered two percent of the earth’s surface. Enormous amounts of solar energy are bounced back into space from those luminous white ice fields. Replacing that mass of ice with dark open ocean will induce a catastrophic tipping point in the balance of planetary energy.” Torrents of words had followed. Words from politicians assuring people there was no such thing as global warming. Words from industrialists who justified their emissions of CO2 into the atmosphere. Words to hide behind. Words to deceive. Useless, dangerous, destructive words… He drew back his hand and punched the wall, hurting his knuckles and leaving a trail of blood on the yellowing paper.
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Patricia Forde (The List)
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The place was a wreck, and Nancy insisted that the first thing we had to do was tear up the rotting linoleum in the kitchen. One layer yielded to another, until finally I came to a bunch of newspapers that had been laid over the warped wooden floor to make it level. They were issues of the New York Daily News and Daily Mirror from 1936. The papers, nearly thirty years old, were smelly and yellow with age, but otherwise readable. The giant black headlines concerned a child custody trial in Los Angeles. The News banner for August 1 screamed ASTOR’S BABY TO BE JUDGE. Next came ASTOR’S SENSATIONS SCARE FILM MOGULS. And by August 8 it was ASTOR DIARY “ECSTACY” (sic), with the subhead G. S. KAUFMAN TRYST BARED. I began piecing the pages together chronologically.
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Edward Sorel (Mary Astor's Purple Diary: The Great American Sex Scandal of 1936)
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as fast, efficiently, deeply and cost-effectively as possible. Because we have spent so many pages exploring some of the weaknesses of renewable energy sources, one might think that we are somehow opposed to these energy sources. As we wrote in the introduction, this is not the case. Even though readability prevents us from stating this at every juncture, we wish to categorically state that we support (within environmental limits) all truly low-carbon energy sources and nearly all the energy efficiency proposals we've seen so far. Both of us have even invested our own hard-earned money in renewable energy generation. We will most certainly need a lot more renewable energy, and we are certain that they are being built. The question whether or not renewable energy sources could play a major role in our energy system has already been answered: we know that they will be important sources of energy in the future. The only question is how important. We, of course, hope for the best and are excited about the potential and various benefits of renewable energy, and believe that solar and wind energy are amongst the most important tools for successful climate change mitigation.
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Rauli Partanen (Climate Gamble: Is Anti-Nuclear Activism Endangering Our Future? (2017 edition))
“
Designing for readability
Some exhibiting institutions recommend in their guidelines that all texts should be readable by an average twelve-year-old. Studies show that even competent readers are less able to see and understand text in the often confusing environment of an exhibition, and reading ages are effectively lower for exhibition texts than for reading in less demanding surroundings, such as the classroom or home.
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Philip Hughes (Exhibition Design)
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6. Graphic design skills
• Look at the models, drawings and sketches of a proposed scheme to understand the placement of graphics.
• Work out the space of 3-D drawings so that graphics can be reproduced at the appropriate size.
• Print out graphics at full size and look at them from what will be the visitor's viewpoint in the exhibition environment; adjust the size of text or images as necessary.
• Discuss readability issues with your client and avoid long passages of text.
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Philip Hughes (Exhibition Design)
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7. Lighting
• Carry out a site survey whenever possible to assess the conditions in which an exhibition will take place, and familiarize yourself with any existing lighting infrastructure and daylight parameters.
• Examine existing electrical installations and determine whether they are adequate to support new lighting. Considering the routing of cables carefully.
• Plan the lighting early on. It is easier to add it at the beginning of the the design process than at the end.
• Create a lighting scheme that supports the exhibition structure and helps the convey the show's concept.
• Ensure that all graphical information that is intended to be read and adequately illuminated, and check the readability of the information.
• Consider the amount of heat the lighting will generate. Hot lamps may harm the exhibits and if the heat build-up is too great, additional air-conditioning may be needed.
• Make your collaborators aware of the lighting solutions you intend to provide by circulating your lighting plans to all relevant parties.
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Philip Hughes (Exhibition Design)
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I am not aware of a language in which you can do the same thing with built-in features as compact and as readable as in Python (except for functional programming languages).
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Anonymous
“
Optimize for readability first. What slows down developers when reading code
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Anonymous
“
people, and pets. Always include a caption. Screen Tints — Use screen tints to draw attention to specific areas of copy. This gives the appearance of more than one color when doing one-color printing. Use light backgrounds for maximum readability. Short Words, Sentences, and Paragraphs — Short. Delivers. Punch. Short grabs attention, helps keep the reader reading, and effectively breaks up long copy. Sidebars — Sidebars help hold together — and differentiate — blocks of copy. They are excellent for case studies, testimonials, and product highlights. Simulated Hand-Drawn Doodles — A.k.a. CopyDoodles®. Simulated hand-drawn doodles help draw the reader's eyes to important areas of your copy, add variety and interest to the eye and brain, and create a more personal reading experience. Simulated Handwritten Margin Notes — These
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Dan S. Kennedy (The Ultimate Sales Letter: Attract New Customers. Boost your Sales.)
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Writers write; editors make it readable.
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Val Edward Simone
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files are displayed by using the horrid — and I hesitate to mention this subject — hex dump format. If this topic pleases you (or impresses your friends), cool. Otherwise, press Esc and hunt down more readable files.
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John Wiley & Sons (A Little Bit of Everything For Dummies)
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Religion and revolution reverberated through northern Mexico like the thunder and lightning of its wild and fierce storms. This book reveals the motivation behind the madness and the role religion played in the very struggle for the soul of Mexico. During the revolution, many lived and died; lost in a thousand fields and unnamed pueblos, meaningless except to the few who knew and loved them, and who would never see them again. Whatever their cause, in the words of Philippians 2:8, they were faithful . . . even unto death.
This book is for those who love Mexico and who want a research-based, yet highly readable account of the role religion played in the conflict. Often lost among the myths were the millions driven by forces they couldn’t comprehend. They were knights, bishops, castles, and yes, pawns – in the revolutionary chess matches that nearly resulted in the checkmate of Mexican civilization.
It took Phil Stover three years to write this book, but La Llorona has been crying for her children for centuries. She sobs for all those who have been lost in Mexico’s turbulent past and present. Listen carefully, dear reader. Perhaps in the pages of this book you too will hear her cries!
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Philip Stover
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Richard Rhodes’s exceptionally readable The Making of the Atomic Bomb is the place to start. This sweeping chronicle of the difficult and sobering history of the endeavor called the Manhattan Project is marked by Rhodes’s insightful studies of the complicated people who were most involved in the creation of the bomb, from Niels Bohr to Robert Oppenheimer. Rhodes followed this book with Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb.
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Nancy Pearl (Book Lust: Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment, and Reason)
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Highly readable, compelling analysis of America’s current political crises
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Craig Barnes
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women were considered instinctual nurses in this generation—the field had received exciting publicity during the Spanish-American War when an Army Nursing Corps had served overseas in the Philippines. Clara Weeks-Shaw, the author of a popular textbook on nursing, promoted the field as “a new activity for women—congenial, honorable and remunerative and with permanent value to them in the common experience of domestic life.”3 In readable language, Weeks-Shaw presented nursing as an artful balance between self-reliance and submission. Overall its practices were an extension of maternity, requiring the classic female behaviors of cheerfulness (to the patients) and obedience (to the doctors). “Never leave a doctor alone with a gynecology patient except at his request,” went one injunction.
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Jean H. Baker (Margaret Sanger: A Life of Passion)
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**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971**
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U.S. Government (United States Bill of Rights)
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Take a quick look at Google's search engine results. You will see a very large portion of web sites in the top-10 have clean and readable URLs like the above example. And by a very large portion… I mean the vast majority. Most website content management systems have search engine friendly URLs built into the website. It often is simply a matter of enabling
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Adam Clarke (SEO 2014: Learn Search Engine Optimization with Smart Internet Marketing Strategies)
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READABLE BY ANY CITIZEN This exhaustive textual analysis of the Second Amendment would never have been necessary in the nearly first two hundred years of the republic. It was only beginning in the second half of the twentieth century that the Orwellian view gained currency that “the people” means the states or state-conscripted militia, that “right” means governmental power, that “keep” does not mean to possess, that “bear” does not mean carry, that “arms” do not include ordinary handguns and rifles, and that “infringe” does not include prohibition. But the Founders intended to, and did, word the Second Amendment in an easy to understand manner. Individuals have a right to have arms in their houses and to carry them, and the government may not violate that right. Recognition of the right promotes a militia composed of the body of the people, which is necessary for a free society. The Bill of Rights was intended to inform the ordinary citizen of his or her rights. Its meaning is not a monopoly of the governmental entities whose powers it was intended to limit. St. George Tucker said it best in his 1803 treatise, the first ever published on the Constitution, as follows: A bill of rights may be considered, not only as intended to give law, and assign limits to a government about to be established, but as giving information to the people. By reducing speculative truths to fundamental laws, every man of the meanest capacity and understanding may learn his own rights, and know when they are violated ....47 By knowing when one’s rights are violated, the citizen may signify his or her displeasure through mechanisms such as the ballot box and the jury box, and may resort to speech, the press, assembly, and petition to denounce the evil. As the experiences of the American Revolution proved, the right to keep and bear arms serves as the ultimate check that the Founders hoped would dissuade persons at the helm of state from seeking to establish tyranny. In hindsight, it would be difficult to quarrel with the success of the Founders’ vision.
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Stephen P. Halbrook (The Founders' Second Amendment: Origins of the Right to Bear Arms (Independent Studies in Political Economy))
“
Key to their deeper understanding is the coinage. When some numismatists look at the coins circulating in Britain in the middle of the first century BC, they spot a clean break. After the Roman invasion of 54 BC the old Celtic coins disappear and are replaced with new – suggesting one hierarchy had been replaced by another. In his wonderfully readable Britannia: The Creation of a Roman Province, John Creighton identifies three ways in which the new coins differ from the old. Firstly there is an abrupt change in the familiar depictions of a human head on one side and a horse on the other. After Caesar’s time in Britain, the imagery suddenly mimics that of coins minted in Gaul. The second change is in the amount of gold in gold coins: where once the gold content was highly variable, suddenly it became carefully regulated and consistent. Thirdly, says Creighton, hoards featuring both old and new coinages are rare – making it likely that the old coins were withdrawn and replaced wholesale by the new version. ‘The combination of these three changes in the gold coinage, all happening at the same time, suggests a radical restructuring of the political arrangement of south-east Britain at this date, even though otherwise in the archaeology we see little alteration,’ he wrote. ‘A recoinage across all of south-east Britain required the mobilisation of a significant degree of power or authority.’ Creighton infers the ‘radical restructuring of the political arrangement’ went further than just issuing new coins. He believes the Romans also installed two Gallic aristocrats as kings of two new territories, one south of the Thames and one in the east.
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Weidenfeld & Nicolson (A History of Ancient Britain)
“
test3 defines the sin function as a keyword argument, with its default value being a reference to the sin function within the math module. While we still do need to find a reference to this function within the module, this is only necessary when the test3 function is first defined. After this, the reference to the sin function is stored within the function definition as a local variable in the form of a default keyword argument. As mentioned previously, local variables do not need a dictionary lookup to be found; they are stored in a very slim array that has very fast lookup times. Because of this, finding the function is quite fast! While these effects are an interesting result of the way namespaces in Python are managed, test3 is definitely not “Pythonic.” Luckily, these extra dictionary lookups only start to degrade performance when they are called a lot (i.e., in the innermost block of a very fast loop, such as in the Julia set example). With this in mind, a more readable solution would be to set a local variable with the global reference before the loop is started. We’ll still have to do the global lookup once whenever the function is called, but all the calls to that function in the loop will be made faster. This speaks to the fact that even minute slowdowns in code can be amplified if that code is being run millions of times. Even though a dictionary lookup may only take several hundred nanoseconds, if we are looping millions of times over this lookup it can quickly add up. In fact, looking at Example 4-10 we see a 9.4% speedup simply by making the sin function local to the tight loop that calls it.
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Micha Gorelick (High Performance Python: Practical Performant Programming for Humans)
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They set the kindling afire to consume the body of a man who had but one goal—to make the Bible readable for everyone.
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Scot McKnight (The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible)
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The abbot’s stony expression spoke volumes. It quite clearly said, "I’m listening, Novice Stephen, but if this is a stupid or infuriating idea it will be your bones that are sold on the black market." The expression was so clearly readable that it had punctuation and everything.
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Heide Goody (Pigeonwings (Clovenhoof, #2))
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The idea is to have a wonderfully responsive list of people who opted in to your list, and then to send them a brief e-mail with a hyperlink to your Web site. That e-mail must be readable on one screen with no scrolling.
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Jay Conrad Levinson (Guerrilla Marketing: Easy and Inexpensive Strategies for Making Big Profits from Your SmallBusiness)
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Although many books define the purpose of typography as enhancing the readability of the written word, one of design's most humane functions is in actuality, to help readers avoid reading.
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Ellen Lupton
“
I thought if you had anything you wanted to say to me, I’d give you a chance to do that while Brie’s occupied with other things.” “Yeah,” Jack said. “Yeah, I have something to say. We’ve been over this, but just let me say this once more, so you know where I’m coming from. She’s real special to me and I’ve seen her hurt. Jesus, worse than hurt. You know what I’m talking about.” Mike gave a nod. “I know.” “This thing that’s going on with you and my sister, I fought it. It really scared me, got under my skin….” “I know,” Mike said again. “I under—” “Because I’m a fool,” Jack said, cutting him off. He shook his head in frustration. “Christ almighty, Valenzuela—you’ve had my back how many times? You’d fight beside me in a heartbeat, put yourself in harm’s way to protect me or any member of our squad. I don’t know why I got my back up like I did. When a woman in your family gets hurt like that—you just want to put her in a padded box with a lock on it so no one can ever get to her and hurt her again, even if that’s the worst thing you could do.” He shook his head again and now his expression was readable. He was open. “I apologize, man. I thought of you as my brother before you even glanced at Brie. I know she’s safe with you.” Mike found himself chuckling. “Man,” he said. “Mel must have held you down and beat you over the head.” Now the expression got surly. “I’d just like to know why Mel always gets the fucking credit when I start to make sense. What makes you think I didn’t just think it through and—” “Never mind,” Mike said, sticking out a hand. “I appreciate it.” Jack took the hand and Mike’s smile vanished. The look on his face became earnest. “Jack, I give you my word. I plan to do everything in my power to make your sister happy. I’ll protect her with my life.” “You’d better,” Jack said sternly. “Or so help me—” Mike couldn’t help but smile. “And we were doing so good there for a minute.” “Yeah, well…” “You won’t be disappointed in me,” Mike said. Jack was quiet a moment, then said, “Thanks. I knew that. It just took me a while. Guys like us…” “Yeah.” Mike laughed. “Guys like us. Who’d ever have thought?” Jack rubbed a hand across the back of his sweaty neck and said, “Yeah, well, look out. You bite the dust like I did and all of a sudden you’re breeding up a ball team.” “I’ll be on the lookout for that,” Mike said.
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Robyn Carr (Whispering Rock (Virgin River, #3))
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It’s hard to write clearly. In fact, it’s hard to find someone who can teach you how to write clearly. Schools tend to spend more time teaching pupils how to sound smart, or how to analyze Shakespearian prose, than how to be understood. Students are more likely to be told to memorize poetry than to carry out a readability test. This is a disservice. Poetry can be life-enriching, but the purpose of almost all writing is to communicate information.
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Karl Blanks (Making Websites Win: Apply the Customer-Centric Methodology That Has Doubled the Sales of Many Leading Websites)
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The inner-actions between human beings are determined by the configurations of the vibrational energies that their emotions are radiating into space. The energy of the vibration, and the thought form with which it is associated, create a readable record.
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David R. Hawkins (Letting Go: The Pathway of Surrender (Power vs. Force, #9))
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Some standards started to emerge after the Court of Chancery, the court that handled contracts, trusts, and land disputes, switched to English in about 1430. A large number of official government documents were created in London over the next few decades. This loose, emerging standard came to be known as Chancery English, and though it doesn’t use all of our modern spelling conventions, it’s readable to us today.
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Arika Okrent (Highly Irregular: Why Tough, Through, and Dough Don't Rhyme—And Other Oddities of the English Language)
“
Overall, I would argue that readability must be determined by readers, not writers. If you write code with short variable names and the people who read it find it easy to understand, then that’s fine. If you start getting complaints that your code is cryptic, then you should consider using longer names
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John Ousterhout (A Philosophy of Software Design)
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The best and most readable on the list is The Drama of the Gifted Child, by Alice Miller.
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Joan Z. Rough (Scattering Ashes: A Memoir of Letting Go)
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Consider the following statements from two hypothetical technical writers: "In my professional opinion, the content is clear, concise, correct, and complete. The language is professional, conforms to our style guide, and projects a strong brand. Some of the tables were too wide for print, so we now enforce a two-column limit on all tables. Overall, I'm happy with the quality of the documentation." "The application logs show that the product only has 1,300 users, yet the documentation received 2,400 page views last month. In that same timespan, readers reported six inaccuracies, all of which I resolved within 72 hours. The five most popular search terms return the pages I would expect, and the design team recently helped me optimize the header margins for readability. Overall, I'm happy with the quality of the documentation." I sincerely hope that you find the second argument more compelling. In any field, opinions become more credible when you attach quantitative metrics to them. Documentation is no different.
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Andrew Etter (Modern Technical Writing: An Introduction to Software Documentation)
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The war had deprived people of free will. They must do what they were told.
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Olivia Manning (The Levant Trilogy: 'Fantastically tart and readable' Sarah Waters (W&N Essentials))