iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Karen Carlson @sloopie72.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

A little side-reading from Pushcart... La Bella Lingua: My Love Affair with Italian, the World's Most Enchanting Language by Dianne Hales, found via a Pushcart poem ref'ing the book, emphasizing how Dante's Comedia was the common thread of Italians from all strata of society.

Book covers for La Bella Lingua by Dianne Hales, and A Study in Scarlet by ACDoyle

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Karen Carlson @sloopie72.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Added CluesBySam to my daily lineup. If I keep this up, all I'll do every day is games: Duolingo, WebBoggle, Tightrope, Wordle, MapTap, Strands, Connections, Loop, Worldle, Categories, ThursGeo, Clues by Sam.

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Karen Carlson @sloopie72.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

No cheating. Share the last photo of the sky on your camera roll. This wasn't intentionally of sky, that's just where the bird was. Bird? What bird, you say? I can't take pictures for crap.

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Karen Carlson @sloopie72.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

Stop scrolling and post two characters who bring you happiness (I can't decide...)

George C. Scott & Joanne Woodward from They Might Be Giants (the film, not the band); or Art Carney and Tonto from Harry and Tonto

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Karen Carlson @sloopie72.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

If you see this, we IMPLORE you to post a picture from whatever device you're using without explanation.

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Karen Carlson @sloopie72.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

Say what you want about Dr. Wilson's critique, but I've never seen 2/3 of my top posts be about Ancient Greek literature before. (Too bad Sinon didn't get the Aeneid into the mix)

From blog:
HOT TOPICS:
Greek Mythology, Part I: The Epic Cycle (IBR2026)
George Saunders - "Victory Lap" from The New
Yorker I0/05/2009
The Greek Hero in 24 Hours mooc
Homer's Odyssey and Xenophon's Anabasis of Cyrus
via The Catherine Project
Homer: The Iliad (Emily Wilson, translator) via the
Catherine Project
BASS 2025: Julian Robles, "Third Room" from The
Drift #I2

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Karen Carlson @sloopie72.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

gee, thanks - 'cause what I really need right now is another game to play when I can't sleep (which turns into not sleeping because I have another game to play...)

Browser icons for: Cerego, Duolingo, Webboggle, MWTightrope, Wordle, MapTap, NYTStrands, NYTConnections, MWLoop, NYTCatalogs, MWTagline, Worldle, ThursdayThirtyGeography

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Karen Carlson @sloopie72.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

Share someone who looks stylish wearing a hat.

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Karen Carlson @sloopie72.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

blog.metmuseum.org/alexandermcq...

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Karen Carlson @sloopie72.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

Sorry to be late - first day in a while I haven't been melting into a puddle on the floor. Just beginning Pushcart 2026 L - the 50th year! And maybe it'll help me finally remember which Roman numeral L is!

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Karen Carlson @sloopie72.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

It is fun! And you can really tell the days when I didn't cheat...

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Karen Carlson @sloopie72.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

Senaa Ahmad, 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘈𝘨𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘊𝘢𝘭𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘦𝘴. Story collection, she describes it as "Alternate histories with a bit of horror, humor, anger, and absurdity." Loved "Let's Play Dead" from last year's Pushcart. Canadian author, which is always nice to see.

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Karen Carlson @sloopie72.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

Plato's Alcibiades dialogs - I'm obsessed w/Alcibiades! But this is the last of ancient Greece for this year. I have a couple more things I want to read, but they'll have to wait. Next week I'll be doing novels, transitioning to Pushcart in July.

Book Cover - Socrates and Alcibiades: Plato, Alcibiades I; Plato, Alcibiades II; Plato: Symposium excerpt; Aeschines of Sphettus, Alcibiades.

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Karen Carlson @sloopie72.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

I think there's been a mistake... but there is no Neurotic Hermit

Results - YOUR CLOSEST COUNTERPART
The Mathematical Mystic
C. 1596-1630 . THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE . COSMOS AS DIVINE GEOMETRY
Kepler, the Harmonice Mundi
You hunt for the hidden mathematics behind appearances and feel awe when it resolves. You think the universe is a coded message from a geometer-God, and your calling is to crack it and read it back to Him.
REPRESENTATIVE FIGURES Johannes Kepler
Primary: Kepler, Harmonices Mundi (1619)
Secondary: J. V. Field, Kepler's Geometrical Cosmology (1988)
HOW THE FIELD FALLS
The Mathematical Mystic cosmos as divine geometry 100%
The Hermetic Magus natural magician 87%
The Humanist Christian humanist 80%
The Civic Republican commonwealth-man 76%
The Antiquary republic of letters 75%
The Cambridge Platonist rational religion 69%
The Pansophic Reformer universal reform 68%
The Natural-Law Jurist law of nations 68%
The Virtuoso experimental philosopher 64%

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Karen Carlson @sloopie72.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

Tell me how it goes! I'm already considering buying a version turned into a children's picture book, just to find out how they made Ahab 'weird-but-lovable'

book cover - Ahab and the White Whale, by Manuel Marsol

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Karen Carlson @sloopie72.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

I decided not to sign up, but just read the book on my own (see paragraph below from post). It looks like they added several sections, probably due to high demand. Did you apply?

paragraph from blog post on Moby Dick: "A few weeks ago, a Catherine Project group leader I studied with last year announced he would be leading a Reading Group on Moby Dick this summer. I was very tempted. Even though I was deep in Ancient Greece at the time, Melville certainly counted as a Big Book (my reading theme for this year) and I’ve always felt like my English degree was fraudulent because I’d never read it. Yet I’ve always found it too intimidating to read it by myself. I decided against signing up for the group for a variety of reasons, but decided to go ahead with the book, because that is the most important lesson the Catherine Project has helped me learn: I can – and may – read any book I want, both in terms of capability and permission."

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Karen Carlson @sloopie72.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

Yes! - he bounced around, Sparta to Persia, then was recalled by the Athenians on Samians. The Athenians wanted to battle... someone, I don't remember who, but he stopped them. Thucydides has a back-handed compliment:

clip of text from document: The Athenian troops on Samos, a kind of democratic government in exile, recall Alcibiades and make him a general so Tissaphernes will be their friend. 8.81
411 BCE: Thucydides says: “Now it was that Alcibiades for the first time did the state service, and one of the most outstanding kind. For when the Athenians at Samos were bent upon sailing against their countrymen, in which case Ionia and the Hellespont would most certainly at once have passed into possession of the enemy, Alcibiades it was who prevented them. At that moment, when no other man would have been able to hold back the multitude, he put a stop to the intended expedition. 8.86

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Karen Carlson @sloopie72.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

I hear ya... and this doesn't include my abandoned Amazon wishlist, or my physical TBR shelf and table (because the shelf was collapsing)...

Goodreads Want To Read list - 577 entries

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Karen Carlson @sloopie72.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

Not as old – bought in the 80s for a bargain $25 Use rarely these days (still have the magnifying glass though), used a lot in college (English major, linguistics concentration)

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Karen Carlson @sloopie72.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

Looks pretty old to me… 1934. Use as my first-line print dictionary (for checking word history, etc.)

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Karen Carlson @sloopie72.bsky.social · 09/05/2026

Moby Dick, and, for transit reading, The Persians.

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Karen Carlson @sloopie72.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

But thou art fair, and at thy birth, dear boy, Nature and Fortune join’d to make thee great.

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Karen Carlson @sloopie72.bsky.social · 18/04/2026

I just started book 6 of Thucydides - progress! And I also started a new transit book - When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamín Labatut, translated from the original Spanish by Adrian Nathan West. Sort of a fictionalization of the Great Equations book, very interesting!

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Karen Carlson @sloopie72.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

Oh - I can't find it, but the thing where you're touching the shadow of your phone to the shadow of the tree - said Michelangelo to me!

detail of michelangelo's creation of adam

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Karen Carlson @sloopie72.bsky.social · 05/04/2026

But I'm also reading David Rubin's 𝘑𝘶𝘯𝘬 𝘉𝘪𝘳𝘥𝘴 as a transit book: fascinating little stories of strange things.

Book Cover: Junk Birds by David m. Rubin

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Karen Carlson @sloopie72.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

Oh, the Landmarks are wonderful! Maps every 3 or 4 pages, specific to the text. Footnotes pointing to the best maps for the text. Huge appendices. So helpful for first-time readers like me.

Sample pages from Landmark Thucydides showing notations, footnotes, and maps.

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Karen Carlson @sloopie72.bsky.social · 17/03/2026

I'm amazed and delighted that German has a word for 'crocheted vegetables'.

Google Translate page: Häkelgemüse = Crocheted vegetables

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Karen Carlson @sloopie72.bsky.social · 15/03/2026

you could say that - though I'm not sure how 'wild' the TBR table in my living room would be considered. ;)

image of my living room - book table with Junk Birds on it

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Karen Carlson @sloopie72.bsky.social · 14/03/2026

You mean this one? (Tell your harried marketing department I'll let them know, but it's going to take a while)

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Karen Carlson @sloopie72.bsky.social · 02/03/2026

Prove this place is good for culture and post a good book cover.

Cover - Richard Powers' The Time of our Singing

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Karen Carlson @sloopie72.bsky.social · 01/03/2026

I follow a lot of art/lit bots - Vah Gogh, the guggenheim, Emily Dickinson Museum, Walt Whitman, Moby Dick at Sea, etc, to balance things out. and sometimes even Munch surprises me.

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Karen Carlson @sloopie72.bsky.social · 28/02/2026

Post a pic you took, no context, to bring some zen to the feed

people at an outdoor art festival in summer

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Karen Carlson @sloopie72.bsky.social · 28/02/2026

I hope you heal soon (and don't skip physical therapy!)

sketch of bouquet of flowers with 'get well soon' banner

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Karen Carlson @sloopie72.bsky.social · 25/02/2026

Oh my, Duo is getting into it.

Duolingo (Spanish) lesson screen:
A continuación, mostrarán una entrevista con el presidente.
¡No entiendo cómo alguien votó por este hombre!
Meaning:
Up next, they will show an interview with the president.
I don't understand how anyone voted for this man!

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Karen Carlson @sloopie72.bsky.social · 21/02/2026

So in the meantime I can do some recreational reading (aka transit reading, but in winter, transit time is cut short in honor of snowy sidewalks). Right now, Color Scheme by Edith Young, a quirky book about art, heard about from @ezbrooks.bsky.social .

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Karen Carlson @sloopie72.bsky.social · 21/02/2026

I've finally started Helen DeWitt's 𝘠𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘕𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘏𝘦𝘳𝘦; only 25 pages in, I'm very excited about it: Arabic! Calvino! Second person! Philip K. Dick! A third self-referential book! It's going to take some time.

book cover laid over article art from The Nation

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Karen Carlson @sloopie72.bsky.social · 19/02/2026

Took me a while to figure out what this message from Goodreads meant.

"Psst... Did Not Finish Shelf is Coming Soon (Action May Be Required)

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Karen Carlson @sloopie72.bsky.social · 17/02/2026

Let’s see your profile pic in its full-size glory. Maastricht Hours, Liege, 1310-1320; stowe_ms_17_f185r, The British Library, www.imagesonline.bl.uk/asset/7129/

"Snailcat" Maastricht Hours, Liege, 1310-1320; stowe_ms_17_f185r, The British Library, https://www.imagesonline.bl.uk/asset/7129/

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Karen Carlson @sloopie72.bsky.social · 10/01/2026

So I'm back in reading-too-many-things-at-once mode! But focus: right now I'm reading the Cypria, part of the Epic Cycle; I'm listening to a bunch of online stuff about Greek mythology and drama; and I'm sneaking in my buddy Jake Weber's comic novel The Prince of Zendia

two book covers: The Prince of Zendia, and The Cypria

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Karen Carlson @sloopie72.bsky.social · 10/01/2026

Look what came in the mail today....😀

Book: Heavens to Betsy by Robert Long Foreman

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Karen Carlson @sloopie72.bsky.social · 01/01/2026

Picture of the staff who operate my account.

old-fashioned cartoon drawing of cat choir with owl director

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Karen Carlson @sloopie72.bsky.social · 26/12/2025

O, let my books be then the eloquence and dumb presages of my speaking breast.

Painting: Old Woman Reading, 1959, by Boris Ivanovich Kopylov

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Karen Carlson @sloopie72.bsky.social · 20/12/2025

"I am nowhere near running out of road." Thoughts on reading Justin Taylor's short story, "What About This," from #BestAmericanShortStories2025 sloopie72.wordpress.com/2025/12/20/b...

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Karen Carlson @sloopie72.bsky.social · 24/11/2025

It was one of my favorite reads of the year!

Text from my blog post: You know that excited feeling you get when it seems like a book was written just for you? How you want to grab your friends, total strangers on the street, and tell them they have to read this?

All that aside, however: It's a book about a lot more than cooking and autopsies. It's about fame: what it feels like on the way up, and on the way down. It's about seeking approval and making
amends. It's about, against all odds, becoming the person you always wanted to be.

One of the crucial elements of The Novel As Literature is the record of how characters change over the course of the book, or, occasionally, how they resist change. Both August and Maya not only change, but they change because of each other. The closing scene is radiant with the possibility that we can all not only become more like the people we always wanted to be, but we can, just maybe, have the relationships we always wanted to have.

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Karen Carlson @sloopie72.bsky.social · 22/11/2025

I'm almost embarrassed to admit I'm STILL on the same 2 books - Best American Short Stories 2025, & Herodotus - but now I've added a third: Sinykin/Winant's Close Reading for the 21st Century. Just on the introduction, it's great, will help a lot with blogging stories and books going forward!

Book Cover Close Reading for the Twenty-First Century, edited by Dan Sinykin and Johanna Winant

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Karen Carlson @sloopie72.bsky.social · 20/11/2025

Name a non-English film. Le Maître de musique Belgian (in French)

poster, scene w/Jose Van Dam and Anne Roussel

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