Virtually Home

I had several reading goals at the beginning of 2020. I wanted to read at least 40 books, but when the pandemic hit I did a lot of reading, mostly to avoid being online and reading horrifying news all the time. I kept increasing my reading goal by 5 books at a time, until I settled at a new goal of 60 books. Historically, books I read tend to be biased toward white male authors, so this year I made a special effort to diversify my reading list and read more women, BIPOC, and LGBTQ authors. I think I did especially well on gender, reading more women than men for probably the first year in my life (56.5% women, 38.7% men, 4.84% non-binary). I was disappointed to learn I  had misgendered Aldous Huxley my entire life. Apologies to Mr. Huxley – I’m not sure why I thought you were a woman and also I feel bad about how much less excited I was to read Brave New World when I found out you were a man. Another goal was to read more books by and about Australians (I managed 8.3% Australian au...

Jacob next to a giant tree Perth is the most isolated city of more than 1 million people on the planet and Western Australia is enormous, with a land mass 71% larger than that of Alaska. With the pandemic restrictions, we haven't been allowed to leave the state in some time, though the interstate borders are beginning to open. There aren't very many populated areas we could visit even if we wanted to. But a few hours south of Perth, there are a number of small towns that attract quite a few tourists, mainly for the wine region, the cooler southern weather, the dramatic south coast, and the forest ecosystem.  Jacob in a burned out red tingle The trees in the southern forests are enormous. Some areas are dominated by karri trees, a species of eucalypt endemic to southwestern WA that numbers among the tallest tree species in the world. They reach 85 meters (279 feet) in height.  Graham-crackerless s'mores We drove down to the Pemberton region on Friday morning after Thanksgivi...