Karavansara

East of Constantinople, West of Shanghai


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Karavansara University

Here is a good proposition for the coming year: expand Karavansara’s offer of topics and ideas, while remaining within the scope and theme of this blog. Keep talking about adventures, and history, and books, about fantasy and genre fiction, about the East and the pulps, but adding a little something you guys might like.

And you all know how much I love online courses and MOOCs, and how wonderful I think it is the opportunity of learning from home, and for free, about any topic.

So here is what I am planning to do – I’ll do a post, once per month, presenting a curated selection of online courses you might find interesting. Courses about history and literature, maybe writing, possibly languages. Archaelogy and art, and the topics you expect to find covered here on Karavansara. 
No more than four or five courses, all of them free.
No strings attached – just a way to promote learning and, most importantly, curiosity.
I will call it…

KARAVANSARA UNIVERSITY

(because we have to stay humble)

I hope to have the first selection up between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, with courses for the early months of 2019.

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Shirley Jackson’s birthday

Today is Shirley Jackson’s birthday, and you know that we are big fans of Jackson’s work hereabouts.

And so, why not remember Jackson’s life and work by recommending you to read her book – starting with the classic The Haunting of Hill House.

And you are in luck, because you can read it for free, and it’s a lot better than the TV series.

You can download legally a copy from this link.


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The Tao of Seneca

This post started as something completely different. It started with me trying to put together a list of gift suggestions you guys might like. This led to my decision to send a book as a gift to a friend (let’s hope she likes it), and then through circuitous ways to a book I think I mentioned before, and finally to the author of The 4-Hours Workweek, and finally to Seneca.

Isn’t this world wide web thing a blast?

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Houdini & Doyle

A TV series canceled by Fox after a brief first season of ten episodes. Hadn’t we just left this party?

I have come to discover Houdini & Doyle, the 2016 series killed by Fox after ten episodes, through a circuitous way: I am currently watching, and enjoying, the 1920s whodonnit series Frankie Drake Mysteries, and I was trawling the web in search of details about the series leads.
I am particularly fond of the Mary Shaw character, as portrayed by Rebecca Liddiard, and through her IMDB profile I found a few series that looked promising.

Because after all, an intriguing premise and a star I like are enough for me to give a series a try.

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Tea-time with Frankie Drake

I’m sticking to my idea of dropping out of Facebook between 5 and 6.30 PM, and my levels of stress are dropping fast. Just give a wide berth to the socials as people get out of work and pour their frustration online, that’s the trick.

During these 90 minutes of freedom, I’m checking my mail, listening to some music, and maybe watching some TV show. I went through YouTube’s Origin in a week, and right now I’ve found another thing that keeps me happy while I detox from the socials: it’s called Frankie Drake Mysteries, and it’s just my cup of tea.

Which is quite fitting, considering I’m watching it at tea-time, or thereabouts.

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