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Print’s Moment, Best Book Covers, Police State Glossary

Dear Reader, Last night on our walk home from the kid’s preschool we stopped and talked to our next door neighbor. We talked about rude delivery drivers, favorite towns in northern California, our love for this neighborhood that he’s lived in for forty years and we’ve lived in for six. As we talked, the kid jumped around on the sidewalk. At one moment he pointed up at the sky and said to me, “Look, the moon is broken.” It took me a minute to pick out the thin crescent from amidst the sunset clouds. I explained quietly that the moon… Read More »Print’s Moment, Best Book Covers, Police State Glossary

Felt Cinema, LLM Prose, Palmistry, Mango Popsicles

Dear Reader, Greetings from the heatwave! I write to you through the haze of a hot apartment, a kid who keeps waking up from bad dreams, the hammering of the roofers (gotta love a surprise re-roof!), the jackhammering of the workers across the street… and that’s not even to mention current affairs. Still, but, and, nevertheless, here we are. Thanks as always for reading. I wish you well in these crazy days. – Jasper This archived Lightplay was sent on 20 March 2026. Lightplay is a free newsletter about making books, cooking, and more. If you’re not on the list… Read More »Felt Cinema, LLM Prose, Palmistry, Mango Popsicles

Remembering Joe Smith, Goodbye Pear, Big Numbers, Amaryllis

Dear Reader, Here in the middle of March—I looked it up, the Ides aren’t till tomorrow—it’s hard to know what to say. So much is happening, and so much of it so bad! To start, let me say that I hope you and yours are safe. I’ve got a big Lightplay today, starting off with the return of my podcast You Know What’s Good, followed by some diverse motes. I hope you enjoy it. And thanks, as always, for reading. – Jasper This archived Lightplay was sent on 14 March 2026. Lightplay is a free newsletter about making books and… Read More »Remembering Joe Smith, Goodbye Pear, Big Numbers, Amaryllis

Flâneur of the Supermarket

Dear Reader, Last Thursday, as sunset tailed into night, the kid and I sat on the couch by the window and looked out at a thin crescent moon, low in the sky. Just under it hung the planet Mercury. (I took out my phone to look this up.) We got out the binoculars and looked more closely. How nice it is when the world hits you over the head with its wonders. We were all varying degrees of sick—head colds, nasty ones. That’s why there was no Lightplay last week. For five days, I just didn’t have any energy. And… Read More »Flâneur of the Supermarket

Joshua Tree Abstract

Dear Reader, A friend recently confessed to me about his apocalyptic coping strategy: amidst the grim daily news and swirling catastrophes, he takes solace in knowing that someday our species will be extinct, and, regardless of what we do in the meantime, the universe will still be suffused with beauty. In the long run, he reminds himself, it will all be okay. Out in the desert, this lesson surrounds you. Geological time presses itself onto all surfaces. If you think about it too much, you can start to feel like a fruitfly at the Parthenon—a flitting phenomenon, not much more… Read More »Joshua Tree Abstract

Exuberant Moshing, Community in the Comments, Mass Protagonism, Vinegar

Dear Reader, At the end of a recent car ride, the kid started to get loopy. Soon he was asking about dreams. What are they? Why do we dream? I took the occasion to tell him about Zhuangzi’s famous dream of the butterfly: is Zhaungzi dreaming the butterfly, or does the butterfly dream of Zhuangzi? Isn’t that crazy to think about? He thought about it for a second, then gave his inevitable next question. Why do butterflies dream? The “why” game—play it long enough and earnestly enough, and you’ll end up in some weird territory. Why do butterflies dream, indeed?… Read More »Exuberant Moshing, Community in the Comments, Mass Protagonism, Vinegar

Ruins of a Russian Count’s Castle

Dear Reader, This weekend I fulfilled my end of a bargain. My kid had gone a whole month without a potty training accident. So I baked a cake. You’ve got to celebrate the wins, right? And with a kid—probably with all of us—having something to look forward to can make all manner of frustration somewhat more bearable. As January progressed, accident-free, I penciled in Saturday, January 24 as the perfect day to bake our celebratory cake. So I got up early with the kid. Soon, though, I saw the news: another protester dead in Minneapolis. The morning progressed, and a… Read More »Ruins of a Russian Count’s Castle

The Zen of Tiny Books

Over winter break I trimmed, folded, and bound 15 extremely tiny books. Just as soon as I finished binding one, my child would insist that I read it to him. Once we were done, he would have me read it aloud one more time, for good measure. Then he would place it on the tiny bookshelf included in the kit. The 8.5×11” sheets of paper kept turning into tiny but still real and readable books, and we found ourselves enchanted. I don’t think it’s coincidence that the texts selected by the creators of this kit are mostly fairy tales. Fairy… Read More »The Zen of Tiny Books

In Praise of Reading a Big Winter Book 

When blustery, dark winter falls across the land, we naturally favor cozy things: steaming cups of tea, brightly colored sweaters, house-decoration rituals, gatherings with friends, hot baths, candlelight, soups, blankets, cream-based cocktails, movies from childhood, cookies, going to bed early. To this list I propose an addition: a big winter book. A big winter book is, well, just what it sounds like. It’s a book long enough that for all but the most devoted readers it will take at least a few weeks or maybe even a month or two to finish. Likely a novel or a work of history,… Read More »In Praise of Reading a Big Winter Book 

Eleven Short Notes on Blogging

— — — — — — This archived Lightplay was sent on 21 December 2025. Lightplay is a free newsletter about making books and cooking food. If you’re not on the list yet, you can sign up here: — — — — — — —