Reading
I do have some sympathy with James’s hatred of ‘thought’ – by which he meant expansive theorising and philosophy – as I know from experience that speculative reasoning can sometimes be the enemy of determined attention to detail in antiquarian pursuits.
A very good review by Dr Francis Young of the new M.R. James biography.
But M. R. James was first and foremost an antiquarian; the last of the great antiquarians. The eclecticism was the point, and the ghost stories were part of that eclecticism.
Finished reading: The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles. Another remarkable novel from Towles; it’s the inverse in many ways of Gentleman but equally tender-hearted and wise. 📚
Finished reading: Axe in Blossom: Last Poems & Fragments by Franz Wright 📚
Currently reading: The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles 📚
I recently found & ordered a nice used copy of Auden’s For the Time Being: A Christmas Oratorio.
It arrived today; I was delighted to discover that it came from the library of the Anglican writer & priest Fleming Rutledge. 📚
Rise at dawn, and read something that matters as soon as you can.
~Take Arms against a Sea of Troubles by Harold Bloom
Challenge accepted, Professor Bloom. 📚
Currently reading: Take Arms against a Sea of Troubles by Harold Bloom 📚
Finished reading: Gilgamesh by Simon Armitage. I’ll have more to say about this remarkable translation. 📚
Currently reading: Axe in Blossom: Last Poems & Fragments by Franz Wright 📚
Finished reading: Bells in Winter by Czesław Miłosz 📚
Currently reading: Bells in Winter by Czesław Miłosz, at Zippel Bay State Park up on Lake of the Woods, far northern Minnesota. 📚
Finished reading: Against the Machine by Paul Kingsnorth 📚
Finished reading: In the Dark Places of Wisdom by Peter Kingsley. The pre-Socratics as you’ve never seen them before. (Plato & Aristotle are the villains.) 📚
Finished reading: Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis. A much stranger & more interesting book than I remembered! 📚
Currently reading: Against the Machine by Paul Kingsnorth 📚
Between the bookstore, Bandcamp, & the good ol’ USPS, Christmas came early for me today! 🎶📚
Currently reading: Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow 📚