Guus Bosman

As the author states in the introduction, Primo Levi is a both a chemical engineer and writer/poet. This book is just beautiful. It has Mr. Levi's observations of the world around him, and topics range from chemistry to the house where he lives.

When he first starts a computer ('word processor') in 1984: "The computer was delivered to me accompanied by a profusion of manuals; I tried to study them before touching the keys, and I felt lost. It seemed to me that although they were apparently written Italian, they were in an unknown language; indeed, a mocking and misleading language in which well-known words like 'open', 'close' and 'quit' are used in unusual ways".