Reading
Finished reading: Spook Street by Mick Herron 📚
The fourth Slow Horses book was fun. These books follow a formula, yet are so well written. Now I can watch the Apple TV version … ★★★★☆
Finished reading: The Age of Louis XIV by Will Durant
Finished reading: The Age of Louis XIV by Will Durant 📚
My straight-through reading of this mammoth 11-volume history continues. Volume VIII shares a detailed view of Europe in the 17th Century. So much war and bloodshed and atrocity, and yet brilliance too.
From Durant:
Let us agree that in every generation of man’s history, and almost everywhere, we find superstition, hypocrisy, corruption, cruelty, crime, and war: in the balance against them we place the long roster of poets, composers, artists, scientists, philosophers, and saints. That same species upon which poor Swift revenged the frustrations of his flesh wrote the plays of Shakespeare, the music of Bach and Handel, the odes of Keats, the Republic of Plato, the Principia of Newton, and the Ethics of Spinoza; it built the Parthenon and painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel; it conceived and cherished, even if it crucified, Christ. Man did all this; let him never despair.
Finished reading: Table for Two by Amor Towles 📚
I’ll read anything that Amor Towles writes. He’s one of my favorite living writers. This collection of six short stories and a novella hit the mark, though each left me wanting more, to know happens next. A master storyteller. ★★★★★
I was getting tension headaches from too many hours of looking down at a book at night, so I bought this Levo book stand. It holds the book securely and rotates into any position I need, even fully reclined. Expensive, but worth it. Headaches are gone!
For fun, I asked ChatGPT to create a cover image for an essay I wrote. The essay mentions old books and a Kindle: note the hybrid book/eReader lit by candlelight, and how the leather wing chair barricades the door. “Don’t bother me, I’m reading,” it seems to suggest. ❤️❤️❤️
Finished reading: The Public Library by Robert Dawson 📚
Currently reading: The Public Library by Robert Dawson 📚
Currently reading: Table for Two by Amor Towles 📚
Finished reading: The Queen’s Gambit by Walter Tevis 📚
Who knew a book about Chess could be so intense! This was a great, great book. ★★★★★
Finished reading: City of Glass by Paul Auster 📚
A strange meta-detective novel with an unreliable narrator who slowly dissolves into insanity. I followed maybe half of the literary and Biblical allusions. Not at all what I expected, but oddly satisfying.
Currently reading: The Age of Louis XIV by Will Durant 📚
Finished reading: The Age of Reason Begins by Will Durant 📚
My quest to read all eleven volumes of Durant’s Story of Civilization continues. Volume VII has returned to the shelf with hundreds of scribbles and notes and many, many exclamation marks. If you think the world is crazy now, you ought to revisit these darker times of wholesale human butchery, religious wars and inquisitions. This has been an eye-opening and hair-raising experience.
Finished reading: Here is New York by E. B. White
Finished reading: Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver 📚
Finished reading: Move on Down to Mexico by 📚
Finished reading: Real Tigers by Mick Herron 📚
Currently reading: Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver 📚
Currently reading: Real Tigers by Mick Herron 📚
Finished reading: You Like It Darker by Stephen King 📚
This is a wonderful collection of short stories and novellas by our generation’s master storyteller. I enjoyed every piece, but particularly liked Rattlesnakes, a sequel of sorts to Cujo. It’s meditation on the persistent grief of losing a child masquerading as ghost story. I’ve read most of Stephen King’s shorter works. This newest one tops them all.