Biography
My name is Aaron. I am currently a student of Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. I'm interested in lots of topics in the natural sciences, especially as they relate to my ecological context here in the Midwest of the United States. I'm also interested in history, political economy, critical theory, and philosophy. I originally developed this simple webpage to host resources for a hopeful summer reading group, which has come and gone. I continue to maintain the site because I enjoy documenting these interests and my thoughts, and find it convenient and fun to share the page with new and old friends. My other interests are varied and include:
- Grappling sports and weight training: I did judo a few years back and am currently training in BJJ. I love grappling sports and am persuing weightlifting ancillary to that interest. I think it is very beautiful, enormously fun, and endlessly interesting.
- Language learning: Although I'm a pseud and a flake, I've had the good fortune to take some classes in standard Arabic and in Russian. I'm currently familiarizing myself with the basics of Chinese. I would love to become fluent in Spanish sometime.
- Literature and film: I try to read and watch widely.
If you don't yet have my contact information, you can find it below. Please feel free to contact me about anything you encounter on this site that you'd like to dicsuss.
adivsin "at" protonmail "dot" com
To-Read Lists
Biology, Evolution, Ecology, and other Natural Sciences
- Introductory Plant Biology - Stern
- Evolution - Zimmer
- Guide to Flowering Plant Families - Zomlefer
- Botany in a Day - Elpel
- Plant Systematics - Campbell
- On the Origin of Species - Darwin
- Annals of the Former World - McPhee
History and Politics
- Nature's Metropolis - Cronon
- People of the Ecotone - Morrisey
- Late Victorian Holocausts - Davis
- Ecological Imperialism - Crosby
- Every Farm a Factory - Fitzgerald
- Hammer and Hoe - Kelley
- Fanshen - Hinton
- Rice in the Time of Sugar - Perez
- Empire of Cotton - Beckert
- Carbon Technocracy - Seow
- Red Revolution, Green Revolution - Schmaltzer
- Capitalism in the Web of Life - Moore
- Sweetness and Power - Sidney Mintz
Theory, Criticism, and Philospohy
- Capital - Marx
- Science of Logic - Hegel
- Hegel's Concept of Life - Ng
- Letters and Writings of Zhang Xuecheng - Yu
Literature and Film
- Wizard of the Crow - Ngugi wa Thiongo
- The Idiot - Elif Bautman
- Petersberg - Andrei Bely
- Native Son - Richard Wright
- Paradiso - Jose Lezama Lima
- Collected Poetry - Derek Walcott
- The Passion According to G.H. - Clarice Lispector
- The English Understand Wool - Helen DeWitt
- Stoner - John Williams
- The Red and the Black - Stendhal
- The Carnival Trilogy - Wilson Harris
- Gargantua and Pantagruel - Rabelais
- Poems - Elizabeth Bishop
- Crab Ship Cannery - Takiji Kobayashi
- Three Streets - Yoko Tawada
- Water Margin - Shi Nai'an
For 2024's entries
Read/Watched Log, 2025
- 5-Jan-2025: Film: All For The Winner (1990)
A spectacular comedy with great slapstick. Instantaneous recommendation from the very first scene. (100 minutes)
- 9-Jan-2025: Fiction: Journey to the West, vol. 1 (2012) Wu Cheng'en
translator Anthony Yu. What a fantastic story. I love the comedic bits between Eight Rules and Sun Wukong. I'm looking forward to finishing this, although I don't anticipate being able to do so soon. I'm also interested in reading Water Margin and The Plum in the Golden Vase. (379 pages)
- 12-Jan-2025: Film: Sound of Metal (2020)
A pretty good film. At times it accomplishes some really interesting effects with the sound design - I think of scenes where it is ambiguous whether it is simply a silent environment, or we are "hearing" Stone's deaf perspective. And the sonic congruence between the final party scene, when the experience of total social alienation overwhelms him, matching the total dissonance of the roaring distorted metal songs, is really striking. Underwritten and formulaic in many of its early beats. Lukewarm recommendation. (80 minutes)
- 14-Jan-2025: Fiction: The Idiot (2017) Elif Batuman
A really superb novel. Truly a feat that something so boring could be so quick-witted, so funny, and so intense and crushing. A definite recommendation. (423 pages)
- 14-Jan-2025: Comic: Dykes To Watch Out For (1986) Alison Bechdel
Spectacular. (77 pages)
Music Collection
These are all albums I have on CD. I started a little collection from some old, scratched up discs my mom gave to me and have been adding to it slowly. Hopefully, I'll add a little radio station or music player here soon.
Cannonball Adderley - Somethin' Else - 1958
Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers - The Big Beat - 1960
Clifford Brown - Memorial Album - 1956
Le Mystere Des Voix Bulgares, The Bulgarian State Television Female Vocal Choir - Ritual - 1994
Chakra - Chakra - 1980
Chakra - Satekoso - 1981
Chakra - Nanyo De Yoisho - 1983
John Coltrane - A Love Supreme - 1965
Copland - Symphony No. 3, Danzon cubano, El Salon Mexicano - 1986
Miles Davis - Miles Ahead - 1957
Dvorak - Prague Festival Orchestra, Hungarian State Orchestra - 1988
Glenn Gould - The Glenn Gould Edition: The Well-Tempered Clavier II - 1994
Schonberg - Pierrot Lunaire Op. 21, Op. 29 - 1991
Mishio Ogawa - Mishio Ogawa - Mishio Ogawa - 1984
Nina Simone - The Blues - 1991
Smashing Pumpkins - Gish - 1991
Smashing Pumpkins - Pisces Iscariot - 1994
Visiting Discs: I checked these albums out from the library and listened to them at home.
Amy Winehouse - Frank - 2003
Robert Ashley - Automatic Writing