READ.LOOK.THINK. | Natalie Smith

The third guest poster in the READ.LOOK.THINK. summer series is Natalie Smith. I first met her when she worked around the corner from me in Elizabeth Bay; now she’s back in Auckland writing, a partner at Smith & Sumner, and blogging with her customary thoughtful elegance at Magic Surrounds. These are Natalie’s picks.

READ: “You discover truth in your response to the event. Truth is a construction after the event. The example of love is the clearest. It starts with an encounter that’s not calculable but afterwards you realise what it was. The same with science: you discover something unexpected – mountains on the moon, say – and afterwards there is mathematical work to give it sense,” says Alain Badiou on love | All relationships change the brain – the brain on love | Steffie Nelson’s exploration of the L.A. Cosmic | David Byrne collaborates with The Wordless Orchestra.

LOOK: A year of Sunday mornings by 3191 Miles Apart | Sally Singer on her first year at T Magazine | Chic Muppet - Daphne Javitch’s vintage style and great apartment on Tales of Endearment | More home and life inspiration with Ai and Cedric Bihr on Freunde von Freunden | Separate Boite Equal. Fictitious Dishes – images of great literary meals | Candy Chang’s exploration and invigoration of public space | Cecile Deladier’s beautiful pottery | The progress of the seasons on Even Cleveland, an endless repository of interesting tidbits.

THINK: Five ways of finding inspiration by Jessica Comingore | Ray Bradbury on Writing | The never-ending art trip | More on the wonderful Ray Bradbury (RIP) | Ari Marcopolous on This Long Century | James K. Baxter, a New Zealand poet in The Road to Jerusalem | Monroe’s desire to be educated, Trilling suggested, robbed us of a ‘prized illusion’: ‘that enough sexual possibility is enough everything’. Why should a woman with such sexual advantages want anything else? – Jacqueline Rose on Marilyn Monroe . Also, Johnny Cash.