Ecce Sigum

Immanentize the Empathy

Tag: Umberto Eco

September 2026 Books and Reading Notes

John Winkelman

September was a good month both for reading and acquisitions. The acquisitions were helped by three events – a book launch for two new titles from the Grand River Poetry Collective, the 2026 Kultura Celebration put on by the Kultura Education Center, and the grand re-opening of local indie bookstore Books and Mortar.

The first three books in the reading list are books I read while returning from Orlando, Florida to home. Stormy weather in Orlando caused a delay in the first leg of my flight, so I missed my connection in Charlotte and spent the night in the airport, where there was nothing to do except read.

Acquisitions

Books acquired in September 2026.
Books acquired in September 2026.
  1. Lamont Arrington, The My Heart Blues: Love and Blues Poems (Grand River Poetry Press) [2026.09.10] – Purchased from the publisher at the launch event for this book.
  2. GF Korreck, The Pope’s Astronomer (Grand River Poetry Press) [2026.09.10] – Purchased from the publisher at the launch event for this book.
  3. Nellie DeVries, Japanese Garden: Four Seasons of Poems (Wipf and Stock Publishers) [2026.09.10] – Purchased at the Grand River Poetry Press book launch event.
  4. William “Endlesswill” Davis, Jr., Searching for the Write Words: A Haiku and Word Search Experience [2026.09.12] – Purchased from the author at the 2026 Kultura celebration.
  5. William “Endlesswill” Davis, Jr., Lost Poems [2026.09.12] – Purchased from the author at the 2026 Kultura celebration.
  6. William “Endlesswill” Davis, Jr., QWERTY: A Vintage Typewriter Coloring Book [2026.09.12] – Purchased from the author at the 2026 Kultura celebration.
  7. R. F. Kuang, Taipei Story [2026.09.19] – Purchased from Books & Mortar at their grand re-opening celebration.
  8. Salvage #16 [2026.09.24]
  9. Louise Glück, Poems 1962 – 2012 [2026.09.24] – Purchased from Schuler Books.
  10. Diane Seuss, Frank: Sonnets (Graywolf Press) [2026.09.24] – Purchased from Schuler Books.
  11. China Miéville, The Rouse [2026.09.26] – Purchased from Books & Mortar.

Reading List

Books

Books read in September 2026.
Books read in September 2026.
  1. Terry Pratchett, Interesting Times [2026.09.05]
  2. John Scalzi, The Kaiju Preservation Society [2026.09.05]
  3. John Scalzi, Starter Villain [2026.09.07]
  4. Donella H. Meadows, Thinking in Systems [2026.09.22]
  5. William “Endlesswill” Davis, Jr., Searching for the Write Words [2026.09.23]
  6. Nellie DeVries, Japanese Garden: Four Seasons of Poems [2026.09.23]
  7. Umberto Eco, How to Travel With a Salmon & Other Essays [2026.09.24]
  8. Lamont Arrington, The My Heart Blues: Love and Blues Poems [2026.09.30]

Short Prose

  1. Kameron Hurley, “Hungry Like the Boar” [2026.09.07]
  2. Kameron Hurley, “The Tintabulation” [2026.09.07]

Weekly Round-up, November 29, 2025

John Winkelman
Milkweed pods in the snow.

I spent the evening before Thanksgiving sitting in the living room under a blanket and therefore also under two cats, drowsily reading Invisible Work: Borges and Translation. Eventually my brain couldn’t take more of this, so I looked up which streaming service offered Name of the Rose. It was Apple TV, one of the many channels which have replaced cable, which replaced channels.

I typed Name of the Rose into the search bar in the app, and the movie came up as expected. Next to it was a documentary, Umberto Eco – A Library of the World. Since my head was already in that space from reading about Borges and translation, I selected the documentary instead of the movie.

And that was very much the right choice to make.

One of my favorite moments was Eco’s comment in an interview that while the Pope in Rome and the Patriarch in Constantinople will never stop arguing about the filioque clause, they must both agree that Clark Kent is Superman.

Reading

After almost two months of working away at it, I finished reading Efraín Kristal’s excellent Invisible Work: Borges and Translation. I will be thinking about this book for a long time to come, and will certainly revisit it from time to time.

Now I am reading the recently published There is Room in a Horse for the Whole Boy, a collection of poems by Barbara Saunier. This book was one of the first few published by the Grand River Poetry Collective, of which I am a part.

Writing

Nothing of note. Life, as usual, happened.

Weekly Writing Prompt

Subject: Spiritual Beings, Aliens
Setting: Lost City
Genre: Cyberpunk

Listening

PROJECT Trio, “Sweet Pea,” from their 2012 compilation album Random Roads Collection.

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