As this year draws to a close, I’ve been thinking about how I spent my time. Some of it was spent well, some of it not. Can’t help that now. But as part of this reflection, I’ve been thinking about all the things I’ve read and watched this year that I’ve enjoyed, and I figure […]
Category Archives: Culture Quest
Why is Batman part of my CultureQuest?
You’ll be seeing some articles about Batman and his world in the near future, and before it’s asked, I want to answer: “Why am I including the Batman in my quest to become more cultured?” The Goal of Culture quest Part of the answer lies in the mission statement of CultureQuest. It’s not my goal […]
Culture-Re-Quest: The Origin of Space Whales
A bounty was offered by my brother to write an article on the history of the space whale, a staple of Sci-fauna. But when did it become so commonplace?
Culture Quest: American Wolf by Nate Blakeslee
This is an odd book to write about, as this wasn’t on the Big List. For school, I wrote a paper on the reintroduction to wolves in Colorado, and I saw a reference to this book. Recently infatuated with my local library (See: Culture Quest) I placed an order without learning anything else about it. […]
Culture Quest: The Martian
I was watching a panel with some cool people when I realized I hadn’t actually read (or watched) the Martian. I vaguely recall buying it, but never sat down and read it. So I turned to my local library, realized it was closed, so I bought a new copy of the book online. I read […]
Pendragon Appendix N: Works that inspire me towards Arthurian Roleplay
The Pendragon RPG contains its own list of references, but I’m not quite cultured enough to recognize all of these actual historic references. So instead of that, I’m making up a list of everything I thought of as something to read or watch as I was reading the RPG.
Culture Quest: The Great Gatsby
This may shock some people, but I’ve never read the Great Gatsby. It’s just never come up. I’ve heard people mention it’s good, and the fact that it appears on a lot of “best classic book” lists, well, means I should have read it. But I never have. This probably won’t be the first such […]
Culture Quest: On the Essays of Montaigne
When I got my first set of books from the library, the Complete Essays of Michel de Montaigne caught my eye, mainly because if it had any more pages, it’d be classified as a ball, not a book. This thing is huge. So I started reading a bit every night, thinking to just jump on […]
Culture Quest: Dealing with Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede
I found a quote by C. S. Lewis that I’m going to misuse. He said “It is a good rule after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between.” Now, my misuse of this quote will be in the definition of “new” and […]
Mad Matt’s CultureQuest Ep 1: Regeneration, by Pat Barker
It’s probably a good omen that my first foray into this grand endeavor is one of success. I probably wouldn’t have predicted it, but I really enjoyed this book, and I can see why it was double recommended to my lists.