A Little More Done, a Little Less to Do
Apr. 20th, 2015 10:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stormdogQuestion for you. When speaking of the varieties of ways in which a group of people tend to commute: would you say something about a variety of "transportation modalities", or is that just a grandiose way of saying transportation "modes" with no additional, worthwhile content?
When would you use modality as opposed to mode? Or is it a case like utilize vs use where, except in some highly specific situations, there isn't really a good reason to use the former?
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I wrote some of a draft paper and want to take a break before bed. I think I'm going to read something before getting sleepy. But I can't decide what. I kind of want to start on Robert Caro's "The Power Broker," which is a biography of Robert Moses concentrating on his role in New York City development. The back jacket has quotes like one from journalist David Halberstam saying "Surely the greatest book ever written about a city." (Makes me wonder whether he's read William Cronon's "Nature's Metropolis," but as a Chicago person, I may be biased.)
But this thing is a doorstop! 1162 pages, not counting end notes! I don't know if I can even hold this thing comfortably in bed! And maybe I'd want a computer running Google Earth next to me to consult while reading.
Maybe I'll go for the comparatively bite-sized "The City in Time and Space" by anthropologist Aidan Southall instead. It's 'only' about 400 pages. And it's a book about cities from pre-history to the present written by someone who's area of expertise is Africa. One can hope that will mean his text isn't euro-centric.
Geez. Maybe I need to look up some academic book reviews before I dig into things like this. And that's probably too much work to just decide on some pleasure reading before bed. I have an Ursula LeGuin paperback over there I haven't read yet....
When would you use modality as opposed to mode? Or is it a case like utilize vs use where, except in some highly specific situations, there isn't really a good reason to use the former?
-----
I wrote some of a draft paper and want to take a break before bed. I think I'm going to read something before getting sleepy. But I can't decide what. I kind of want to start on Robert Caro's "The Power Broker," which is a biography of Robert Moses concentrating on his role in New York City development. The back jacket has quotes like one from journalist David Halberstam saying "Surely the greatest book ever written about a city." (Makes me wonder whether he's read William Cronon's "Nature's Metropolis," but as a Chicago person, I may be biased.)
But this thing is a doorstop! 1162 pages, not counting end notes! I don't know if I can even hold this thing comfortably in bed! And maybe I'd want a computer running Google Earth next to me to consult while reading.
Maybe I'll go for the comparatively bite-sized "The City in Time and Space" by anthropologist Aidan Southall instead. It's 'only' about 400 pages. And it's a book about cities from pre-history to the present written by someone who's area of expertise is Africa. One can hope that will mean his text isn't euro-centric.
Geez. Maybe I need to look up some academic book reviews before I dig into things like this. And that's probably too much work to just decide on some pleasure reading before bed. I have an Ursula LeGuin paperback over there I haven't read yet....
