Roughing It

Mark Twain

Sinopsis

My brother had just been appointed Secretary of Nevada Territory—an office of such majesty that it concentrated in itself the duties and dignities of Treasurer, Comptroller, Secretary of State, and Acting Governor in the Governor’s absence. A salary of eighteen hundred dollars a year and the title of “Mr. Secretary,” gave to the great position an air of wild and imposing grandeur. I was young and ignorant, and I envied my brother. I coveted his distinction and his financial splendor, but particularly and especially the long, strange journey he was going to make, and the curious new world he was going to explore. He was going to travel! I never had been away from home, and that word “travel” had a seductive charm for me. Pretty soon he would be hundreds and hundreds of miles away on the great plains and deserts, and among the mountains of the Far West, and would see buffaloes and Indians, and prairie dogs, and antelopes, and have all kinds of adventures, and may be get hanged or scalped, and have ever such a fine time, and write home and tell us all about it, and be a hero. And he would see the gold mines and the silver mines, and maybe go about of an afternoon when his work was done, and pick up two or three pailfuls of shining slugs, and nuggets of gold and silver on the hillside. And by and by he would become very rich, and return home by sea, and be able to talk as calmly about San Francisco and the ocean, and “the isthmus” as if it was nothing of any consequence to have seen those marvels face to face.

Disponible desde: 01/06/2023.

Otros libros que te pueden interesar

Miscellaneous Essays of G K...

G.K. Chesterton

These eleven files are miscellaneous short essays or stories from G.K. Chesterton. They were chosen for not only their brevity but also for being shining exemplars of Chesterton's wit and whimsy. A fun but powerful introduction into the mind of the man that is G.K. Chesterton. (Summary by GK Cleveland)

Ver libro

Travels with Spot - Rome to...

Parker G. Emerson

Missed flights. Wrong connections. A ship that almost sails without them. 
Travels with Spot: Rome to Barcelona begins where most travel books stop pretending. Parker G. Emerson takes readers along on a European journey that refuses to go smoothly and becomes better because of it. 
From Rome to Florence, through small Tuscan towns, along the Mediterranean coast, and into Barcelona, this book captures what travel really feels like when plans change and curiosity takes over. It is filled with quiet observations, unexpected moments, history that makes sense, and the small details guidebooks never mention. 
This is not a how-to or a highlights list. It is a true travel journal for readers who want the story behind the places and the experience between the stops.

Ver libro

Bernini - His Life and His Rome

Franco Mormando

Sculptor, architect, painter, playwright, and scenographer, Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598–1680) was the last of the great universal artistic geniuses of early modern Italy, placed by both contemporaries and posterity in the same exalted company as Leonardo, Raphael, and Michelangelo. And his artistic vision remains palpably present today, through the countless statues, fountains, and buildings that transformed Rome into the Baroque theater that continues to enthrall tourists today.It is perhaps not surprising that this artist who defined the Baroque should have a personal life that itself was, well, baroque. As Franco Mormando’s dazzling biography reveals, Bernini was a man driven by many passions, possessed of an explosive temper and a hearty sex drive, and he lived a life as dramatic as any of his creations. Drawing on archival sources, letters, diaries, and—with a suitable skepticism—a hagiographic account written by Bernini’s son (who portrays his father as a paragon of virtue and piety), Mormando leads us through Bernini’s many feuds and love affairs, scandals and sins. He sets Bernini’s raucous life against a vivid backdrop of Baroque Rome, bustling and wealthy, and peopled by churchmen and bureaucrats, popes and politicians, schemes and secrets.The result is a seductively readable biography, stuffed with stories and teeming with life—as wild and unforgettable as Bernini’s art. No one who has been bewitched by the Baroque should miss it.

Ver libro

Curveballs: How to Keep It...

Emma Markezic

Because sometimes, life is going to suck, and you’re going to have to know how to handle it…

What happens when you step on one of the great Lego pieces of life? When you get blind-sided? Thrown a curveball? When you get divorced? Or someone dies? You're going to need something more than the diarrhoea-like progression of motivational quotes we get fed on Instagram - you're going to need real-world ways to deal with a big, fat let-down.

Because one will come for you, eventually. And when one came for comedian and journalist Emma Markezic in the form of a nasty cancer, despite the fact she found herself bald, broke and living alone, she felt more alive than ever. So she wanted to know why... Why does trauma affect us in such different ways? Why are some people more resilient than others? Why was she handling cancer better than other people handle a paper cut and, more importantly, was it a skill she could teach? When she wrote an article about how learning she might die made her the happiest she'd ever been, it became a media sensation and she knew she was onto something.

With dozens of expert brain morsels and more than a little humour, Curveballs is a memoir-meets-self-help manual for how to keep it together when life tries to tear you a new one. Because you'll want to be more resilient than a tardigrade in outer space when it does*.

*Microscopic eight-legged animals that can withstand 1000 times more radiation than humans, live for 100 years without water and literally just hang out in space like freeloaders at a Vegas buffet. See... you learned something already!

Ver libro

Prepare to Meet Thy Doom - And...

David Kushner

From "Masters of Doom" author, David Kushner, comes "Prepare to Meet Thy Doom”, a compilation of true gaming stories covering many facets of America’s biggest entertainment business: the video game industry.  In addition to more than a dozen fascinating tales of game creation, play, business, and controversy, “Prepare to Meet Thy Doom” follows up on Kushner’s previous bestseller, “Masters of Doom” with a long-awaited update on id Software founders John Romero and John Carmack.

Ver libro

My First Summer in the Sierra

John Muir

The journal of nature-lover John Muir who spent the summer of 1869 walking California’s Sierra Nevada range. From French Bar to Mono Lake and the Yosemite Valley, Muir was awestruck by everything he saw. The antics of the smallest “insect people” amazed him as much as stunted thousand-year old Juniper trees growing with inconceivable tenacity from tiny cracks in the stone. Muir spent the rest of his life working to preserve the high Sierra, believing that “the clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.” John Muir (1838-1914) was born in Dunbar, Scotland and grew up in Wisconsin, USA. This recording commemorates the 140th anniversary of that first summer. (Summary by Adrian Praetzellis)

Ver libro