by Richard Subber | Jan 22, 2026 | Book reviews, Books, Human Nature
think “victims”
Book review:
The Anxious Generation
by Jonathan Haidt (b1963)
New York: Penguin Press, 2024
385 pages
Haidt’s book is subtitled How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness. If you think he’s talking about the internet, and cell phones, and computers, and television, and social media, you’re right on the money.
“Screen time” and all of the accompanying behaviors are making our kids sick.
It seems a bit strange to me that Haidt did not use the word “victims” in The Anxious Generation. All those folks didn’t ask for smart phones and devices when they were born.
Haidt makes compelling arguments that too much “screen time” is devastating too many young people, and old people too. Among his suggested pathways to remedy:
Just say “no.”
Don’t use social media today.
Use crayons with your young grandchildren.
You probably didn’t have a phone with you when you were a school student.
Your kids don’t need one.
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Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
A quote from General Custer
Hint: something to do with Indians…
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In other words: Poems for your eyes and ears with 64 free verse and haiku poems,
and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)
and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”
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by Richard Subber | Jan 20, 2026 | My poetry, Other, Poetry
clouds sound off…
cloud talk
I guess that clouds may skirr,
they are so far away,
they do stir
and frolic in the sky,
they may whir,
who hears the sound of clouds?
betimes they clap!
withal, they may purr…
October 1, 2025
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My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
The poetic art of Grace Butcher
Poetry for reading out loud…
it’s that good
Book review: Child, House, World
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Writing Rainbows: Poems for Grown-Ups with 59 free verse and haiku poems,
and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)
and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”
Your comments are welcome—tell me what you’re thinking.
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by Richard Subber | Jan 18, 2026 | Book reviews, Books
enticements to reverie…
Book review:
Twice-Told Tales
by Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864)
London: J. M. Dent & Sons, Ltd.
First published in 1837 (first series) and 1842 (second series)
This edition first printed 1911, reprinted 1964.
357 pages.
We preserve the remnants of our youth in chambers of the brain that often are, for good or ill, inaccessible to our conscious minds.
The baubles of memory in Twice-Told Tales are potent sparks that guide us to the once-remembered moments, the enticements to lingering reverie that fills new moments with newly imagined memories that rescue us from once-remembered despair, and fill the blank spaces with second chances.
Hawthorne collected such moments of youth, such bauble treasure, in “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment,” in the fertile and fervid desperations of four venerable friends who eagerly swallow an elixir that boosts them to a capering re-enactment of their youth—but oh, so brief, so immaterial, so ephemeral that the long glass in the room can only reflect their withered miens, and none of the hot young beauty that they see again, for precious moments, in the emboldened gazes that they share.
Hawthorne’s Twice-Told Tales include “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment” and 38 other short stories (originally published in 1837 and 1842) showing off his evocative prose, embracing a wide range of human emotions.
You’ll be able to find something you like.
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Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
Book review: Lord of the Flies
Never more relevant…
by William Golding
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As with another eye: Poems of exactitude with 55 free verse and haiku poems,
and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)
and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”
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by Richard Subber | Jan 15, 2026 | Human Nature, Tidbits
different realities…
“I have striven not to laugh at human actions,
not to weep at them, not to hate them,
but to understand them.”
Baruch Spinoza (Benedict de Spinoza) (1632-1677)
from Spinoza’s Tractatus Politicus, 1676
I accept the reality that some other people
don’t see reality the same way I see it.
I don’t like it, but I accept it.
I keep my candle burning in the darkness.
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Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
Book review: Shantung Compound
They didn’t care much
about each other…
by Langdon Gilkey
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many waters: more poems with 53 free verse poems,
and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)
and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”
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by Richard Subber | Jan 13, 2026 | My poetry, Poetry
we made our time…
our time
Remembering,
the good time,
the quiet time that lasts so long,
we had our time,
we made our time,
we pushed our time
to be the days and nights,
we filled our time together,
and now I give such time
as two could share,
I make more time for you.
November 2, 2025
for my dearest one
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My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
Book review: Lafayette by Harlow Unger
He was a great man. Also rich and lucky.
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As with another eye: Poems of exactitude with 55 free verse and haiku poems,
and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)
and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”
Your comments are welcome—tell me what you’re thinking.
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