Table of Contents for Jokes, Articles, Poems, Book Reviews, Genealogy, and Stories by Richard Seltzer — over 600 postings

Richard Seltzer
12 min readOct 16, 2021
Buy the book Grandad Jokes at Amazon

Book Reviews, Table of Contents

Genealogy, Table of Contents (including Extraordinary Women)

Poetry, Table of Contents

Grandad Jokes, Table of Contents

Writing Advice, Table of Contents

Essays from the book Why Knot? Table of Contents

Other Essays, Table of Contents

Fiction, Table of Contents

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Book Reviews, Table of Contents

The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry

Young Jane Young

Levitation: Five Stories

Molloy

KGB Banker

Fundamentals: Ten Keys to Reality

The Long View: Essays, Poems, Stories by Susan Ford Wiltshire

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabreille Zevin

Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass by Bruno Schulz

Or What You Will by Jo Walton

The Golden Calf by Ilf and Petrov

The Authoress of the Odyssey by Samuel Butler

Mathilda: Empress, Queen, Warrior by Catherine Hanley

Hallowed Be Thy Name: The Name-Glorifying Dispute in the Russian Orthodox Church and on Mt. Athos by Tom Dykstra

The World of Yesterday by Stefan Zweig

Genesis by Robert Alter

Eleanor of Aquitaine: a Biography by Marion Mead

Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarzcuk

Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? by Frans de Waal

The Bird King by C. Willow Wilson

Flights by Olga Tokarzcuk

Wakers by Orson Scott Card

Bewilderment by Richard Powers

Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr

Fear Itself by Bette Bono

The Women of Troy by Pat Barker

The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki

Coulrophobia and Fata Morgana by Jacob M. Appel

The Genius of Paul: a Study in History by Samuel Sandmel

Prison Sex by Gay Walley

Diary of a Russian Lieutenant in the Russo-Chinese War by A. K. Zinevich

Termination Shock by Neal Stephenson

Penelope Returning by Susan Ford Wiltshire

Artscapes by Lee Woodman

Some Remarks by Neal Stephenson

Empire Falls by Richard Russo

The Last Shadow by Orson Scott Card

Why Homer Matters by Adam Nicholson

The Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys

To Gether Tales by Richard Seltzer (me)

Shakespeare’s Twin Sister by Richard Seltzer (me)

Nevermind by Richard Seltzer (me)

Breeze by Richard Seltzer (me)

Beyond the 4th Door by Richard Seltzer (me)

Parallel Lives by Richard Seltzer (me)

Gould’s Book of Fish by Richard Flanagan

Love’s Journey Home by Gabi Coatsworth

Voss by Patrick White

In the Garden of the Fugitives by Ceridwen Dovey

Early Human History Rewritten, Review of The Horse, the Wheel and Language by David Anthony

The Meaning of Life, the Universe and Everything Isn’t 42, Review of The Beginning of Infinity by David Deutsch (2012)

The Myth of the Bicameral Mind, A review of The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind by Julian Jaynes (1976 and 1990)

The History by Herodotus

Book Lovers by Emily Henry

The Last Shadow by Orson Scott Card

Some Remarks, a collection of essays by Neal Stephenson

Artscapes, Poetry Collection by Lee Woodman

Penelope Returning, Poetry Collection by Susan Ford Wilshire

Termination Shock by Neal Stephenson

Diary of a Russian Lieutenant in the Russo-Chinese War by A. K. Zinevich

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

History of the Church by Eusebius

Mark, Canonizer of Paul by Tom Dykstra

The Messiah of Stockholm

Reality Is Not What It Seems: The Journey to Quantum Gravity

Tamerlane by Poe: Inspiration for Young Writers

Austerlitz

Lifescapes

Helgoland

Elsewhere

Tao Te Ching

Until the End of Time: Mind, Matter, and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe

Lifelode

Neighbors and Other Stories

Among Others

The Tragedy of Arthur

Soumission

Thessaly: The Just City

The Music Shop

Thessaly: The Philosopher Kings

First Buddhist Women: Poems and Stories of Awakening

Klara and the Sun

The Origins and Development of Classical Hinduism

The Penelopiad

Ramayana

Hinduism

Miss Benson’s Beetle

Jana Bibi’s Excellent Adventures (Jana Bibi Adventures #1)

Love Potion Number 10 (Jana Bibi Adventures #2)

Emeralds Included: Jana Bibi Adventures #3

Isaac Newton

Fall, or Dodge in Hell

Honey and Salt

To Sleep in a Sea of Stars

Lives of Girls and Women

Who Do You Think You Are?

Runaway

A Single Rose

Mindscapes

The Writer’s Cats

The Pushcart Prize XLV: Best of the Small Presses 2021

The Love of a Good Woman

1066 And All That

Mrs. Craddock

Dance of the Happy Shades

Homescapes

One Good Turn

Circe

Case Histories

When Will There Be Good News?

Les Indes Noires

Hamnet

Started Early, Took My Dog

Big Sky

The Overstory

Open AI Review of Why Knot?

A Beginner’s Guide to Starting Over by Gabi Coatsworth

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Genealogy

Extraordinary Women

1 — Syagria and Papianilla — Most Splendid Women

2 — Basina, A Woman Who Knew What She Wanted and Got It

3 — Ludmilla, Grandmother of Good King Wenceslaus and His Murderer

4 — Saint Olga — The Vengeful Beauty Who Converted Russia to Christianity

5 — Gormflaith, Legendary for Her Beauty and Her Wickedness

6 — Edith “the Gentle Swan” and Her Love Bites

7 — Empress-Mother Anna Dalassene

8 — Margaret, Matilda, Eleanor, and Joan

9 — The White Witch and the Chess Player

10 — The Price of Being a King’s Daughter

Ancestor Surfing

The Abraham Effect: The Future of Humanity Depends on You

Poetry

Dark Woods

Brief Reprieve

Sole Mate

Spare Change

Hemingway and e. e. cummings

The Way of the Web

Silence

Mist that Rises

Say “it” again with meaning

The View from Beacon Hill

Language Lessons

On Hearing Voznesenski

Saturday Night

Things Are War or Less the Same

On the Invasion of Cambodia

The Return of Odysseus

Ensemble

Our Language

Tree Trip

A Bucket Needs Water

The View from Beacon Hill

Rosetta Stone

To Mary and Her Sister from Southampton

Human Race

To a Teacher from Tournai Met in Lille

Toi

How to Ride a Cow and Milk a Horse

The Creation of Language

Your Story

Sign Me Up

The Third Tortoise

Journey to Fatherland

Change of a Lifetime

Homeric Riddle

If-aca

Punch line

To Beach, His or Her Own

Alternate Reality

Sonnets for Helen III by Ronsard

To Russian, With Love

Saving Time

Turning

Human Being

How many I’s am I?

Reader Four

Grandad Jokes

Buy the book Grandad Jokes at Amazon

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Buy the book Grandad Jokes at Amazon

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Essays from If Not, Why Not? Thoughts to Open Your Mind

The Five Dimensions of Ordinary Life

Pep Talk to Myself as I Get Older, and Time Goes Faster

Our Time

The Abraham Effect: The Future of Humanity Depends on You

Highly Unlikely

Listening to Life with a Tin Ear

Where There’s a Will

One Beautiful Moment

Creation Story for the 21st Century

Getting Personal

There Is Everything That We Can Do

Foreword from the book Lenses

Our Time

Time Dilation

Never-Ending Now

The Time Between Time

Hemingway and e. e. cummings

Is Reality Discontinuous?

Moving Beyond the Limits of Science

An Ultimate Unit of Space and the Need for a New Calculus

Does Dark Matter?

A Vintage Look at the Future of the Internet

Does Light Matter?

Dialogue in Games, Art, and Life

Defining Action

The Endgame Generation Seeks Meaning

The Stages of Humanity

Truth and Consequences

Scared to Life

Why Do You Pray?

The Procrastination Index

Exemplary People: the Machinist and the Postal Clerk

Memory and Paths of Association

Names and Naming

In the Beginning Was the Need to Eat and Drink

Evolutionary Quirks

Language Lessons

Bird Color

The Future of War

Million-Dollar Opportunities

Is Entropy an Illusion?

Maui

Memory and Sex

Random Thoughts About Thought

Anti-Reason

What’s the It?

Multiplicity of Animal Languages

Word Substitution

Exploring the Preconscious

Philosophic Insight from the Blind

William James and Laura Bridgman

The Niche Theory of Evolution

Worm

Promised Land

Slavery and Industrialization

Context, Meaning, and Language

How to Save the Bahamas and Maybe the World as Well

Perhaps The Iliad and The Odyssey Commemorate a Loss Rather than a Victory.

The Day After the Day After Tomorrow

Why Didn’t God Make Little Green Mammals?

Rolling Boycott — a blueprint for turning public outrage into effective action

Did Large Dinosaurs Have Two Brains?

Alternate ‘War of the Worlds’ Plots

A PRISM Solution

Long-Overdue Constitutional Amendment

How to fix Congress? Eliminate Seniority

How to Fix Congress? Limit the Powers of the Leaders

An Outsider’s View of Distance Education

Delay, Rumination, and Compromise in Government

The Role of Vice President

Tax Credits for National Service?

Selling Money — An Alternative to Taxes

Make It Easy to Make Charitable Contributions at Tax Time

Certification for Panhandlers

Cultural citizenship — an alternative form of government made possible by the Internet

How to Deal with Dictators

How to Make the US Postal Service Competitive

Longevity and Governance

Why Do We Read/Write/Watch Stories?

Binge Reading Shakespeare

Reinterpreting Greek Myth

Reading and the Zerg

The Western Canon of Literature

Literary Periods and Man’s Changing Image of Himself

The Importance of Taking the Easier Path

The Curse of Moore’s Law

Homer and the Myth of the Author

Odysseus and the Centaurs

Neverending Story

Infocard — a business idea for the taking

Time for Reflection

Wild Speculation — Multiple Edens and Hominin Marsupials

Why didn’t the walls come tumbling down?

Trust your instinct when faced with a pressing moral dilemma

The Internet and The Human Spirit

Trigonometry and American Independence

Thoughts on the Significance of Ebooks

Timeless Scams

World War II Legacy

Decisive Moment

Yes-terday

Grandmother Bear

Engineering Question — Windmills and Walls

Do-It-Yourself Alphabet Book

Pee Pill

The Myth of Future Shock

Why Not Save a Hair?

Tangible Goods vs. Experiences

Intelligence Test Wish List

Lube Means Love

How to fight procrastination

Advice for Rental Car Companies

Customer Service 101

Programmable Mattresses

How to Expand Time

The Energy Cycle

Taking a fresh look at Will and Ariel Durant’s Story of Civilization

Fiction’s Honor Role

The Roots of Iconoclasm

How to Expand Time

Free-Style Time Management: Done List Instead of To-Do List

Creative Procrastination

Cigarettes — why not put a filter on the other end?

How to Cope With Reduced Weight on the Moon

Independent Agencies for Bank Business?

How to Facilitate Car Recalls

Pain Simulator

Outdated School Reunions

The Importance of Pissing Contests

Print Obituaries in Large Type

Predictable and Disastrous Belief in Magic

The History by Herodotus

The Slavery that Was Rome, in Plautus, Terence, and Petronius

Coffee and a Rose in the Morning, Delivered, by Subscription

Football, Basketball and Our Perception of Time

Living Eulogies

Euripides’ Lost Play: Suitors in Hell

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Other Essays

Adventures in Self-Publishing: The Lizard of Oz

A Hero of Ukraine and of Ethiopia

The Bugle Boy

The Nostalgia of Tomorrowland

Why Bother to Save Halloween?

Writing “Shakespeare’s Twin Sister”

Synopsis of my latest novel, We Met in Ithaca

Notes for a Workshop on Writing and Publishing

My Favorite Contemporary Books

Ancestor Surfing

Should You Publish Your Book on Medium?

Did You Watch Rome Season One?

A Vintage Look at the Future of the Internet

History Lessons

Suggestion Regarding Abortion and the Supreme Court

Guilt and Responsibility in The Odyssey

Living Eulogies

Euripides’ Lost Play: Suitors in Hell

Coffee and a Rose in the Morning, Delivered, by Subscription

Hero of Ukraine, Ethiopia, Manchuria, and Mount Athos

Football, Basketball and Our Perception of Time

To Beach, His or Her Own

Play Chess with the Dead

Need for Rear-View Mirror

Revisiting a Ukrainian Hero After Forty Years

My Thoughts on the Overturning of Roe v. Wade

Rainbow Generator

Testicle Warmer as Prophylactic?

Quantum Meditation

Connectedness: Another Way of Looking at Life and Death

Invisible Leash for Toddlers and Dogs

Fearful Symmetry

Rape Recorder

The Importance of Pissing Contests

Party Line — a Business Idea

Rebirth of Middle Names

Nothing is Everything

Alternate Statement of Quantum Theory

The Liberal Score Card

Fluff the Pillow — a Game Idea

The Brotherhood/Sisterhood of Us All

Observations on the Meaning of Meaning from Practicing the Piano

The Silence of the Cars

Would You Like a Huggle?

Stopping at a Stoplight in the Middle of Nowhere

What’s My Online?

How many I’s am I?

The Decoy and the Scarecrow

The Unwritten Contract Between Novelists and Readers

Don’t Forget the You You Were as a Caterpillar

Science?

Life in Different Scales of Size and Time

Thoughts on Space, Matter, Energy, and Time

The Gift of Unending Discovery

Having Fun with Open AI

AI Reflecting on the Purpose of AI

Family Music

Wakeup Punch

A Coded Message from Beyond

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Fiction

for children:

The Little Oops Named Ker Plop

Julie’s Book: The Little Princess

Now and Then

Tigers in the Intercom

Hundreds and Hundreds of Gerbils

Sign Me Up

How to Ride a Cow and Milk a Horse

The Lizard of Oz (one chapter at a time)

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for anyone:

The Lizard of Oz (one chapter at a time)

Hands

Chiang Ti Tales

Creation Story

Heel, Hitler, a 10-minute play

The Choice

The Gentle Inquisitor

The Mirror

Yanni

Finnegan Died

Revolution

Size Matters

The Barracks

The Fifth Floor

The Gift of Uncertainty

Penelope’s Story

Retreat! Retweet! Retreat!

Good Judgment

The Third Tortoise

Australian Dream

Double the Romance, Double the Fun

Mazepa! Layers of Legend

Writing Advice

Suggested Steps for Writing a Novel

Aphorisms about Reading, Writing, and Rewriting by Richard Seltzer

Why I Write

Advice to a Memoirist

Immediacy in Fiction

The Usefulness of Contractions

Time Travel and Religion

Other Essays

Adventures in Self-Publishing: The Lizard of Oz

From Russia and Ethiopia to the Internet

The Bugle Boy

The Nostalgia of Tomorrowland

Why Bother to Save Halloween?

Writing “Shakespeare’s Twin Sister”

Synopsis of my latest novel, We Met in Ithaca

Notes for a Workshop on Writing and Publishing

My Favorite Contemporary Books

Ancestor Surfing

Should You Publish Your Book on Medium?

Did You Watch Rome Season One?

A Vintage Look at the Future of the Internet

History Lessons

Suggestion Regarding Abortion and the Supreme Court

Guilt and Responsibility in The Odyssey

Coffee and a Rose in the Morning, Delivered, by Subscription

Hero of Ukraine, Ethiopia, Manchuria, and Mount Athos

Football, Basketball and Our Perception of Time

Living Eulogies

Euripides’ Lost Play: Suitors in Hell

To Beach, His or Her Own

Play Chess with the Dead

Need for Rear-View Mirror

Revisiting a Ukrainian Hero After Forty Years

My Thoughts on the Overturning of Roe v. Wade

Rainbow Generator

Testicle Warmer as Prophylactic?

Rape Recorder

Quantum Meditation

Connectedness: Another Way of Looking at Life and Death

Invisible Leash for Toddlers and Dogs

Fearful Symmetry

Rape Recorder

The Brotherhood/Sisterhood of Us All

Fluff the Pillow — a Game Idea

The Liberal Score Card

Alternate Statement of Quantum Theory

Nothing is Everything

Rebirth of Middle Names

Party Line — a Business Idea

Photographic Memory

Connectedness: Another Way of Looking at Life and Death

Stopping at a Stoplight in the Middle of Nowhere

What’s My Online?

How many I’s am I?

The Decoy and the Scarecrow

The Unwritten Contract Between Novelists and Readers

Don’t Forget the You You Were as a Caterpillar

Science?

Life in Different Scales of Size and Time

Fiction

for children:

The Little Oops Named Ker Plop

Julie’s Book: The Little Princess

Now and Then

Tigers in the Intercom

Hundreds and Hundreds of Gerbils

Now and Then

Sign Me Up

How to Ride a Cow and Milk a Horse

The Lizard of Oz (one chapter at a time)

___________________________________________

For Anyone:

The Lizard of Oz (one chapter at a time)

Hands

Chiang Ti Tales

Creation Story

Heel, Hitler, a 10-minute play

Tigers in the Intercom

The Choice

The Gentle Inquisitor

The Mirror

Yanni

Finnegan Died

Revolution

Size Matters

The Barracks

Hundreds and Hundreds of Gerbils

The Fifth Floor

The Gift of Uncertainty

Penelope’s Story

The Princess Tango

What Price Knowledge?

The Third Tortoise

Australian Dream

Double the Romance, Double the Fun

Cancer to the Question

State of the Union

The Second Son of Odysseus

Class of 1831

Quantum Meditation

How to Tutor a Ghost

Rachel and the Wizard of Oz

Good Judgment

Retreat! Retweet! Retreat!

Mazepa! Layers of Legend

Photographic Memory

Going Up

Senator Warren of Massachusetts, the First Woman President, in 1808

Chagall and Prints CharmingChagall and Prints Charming

The Value of Not Knowing

Loving Layers of Lies

Calypso’s Story

Nobody Is My Name

The Blind Bard

Eve’s Jealousy

The First Sin

The Eleventh Commandment

From Abraham and Isaac to Golgotha

The Duchess of Duke Street, Season 3

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Richard Seltzer

His recent books include Echoes from the Attic, Grandad Jokes, Lizard of Oz, Shakespeare'sTwin Sister, To Gether Tales. and Parallel Lives, seltzerbooks.com