Reading
Currently reading: Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke. Revisiting in preparation for class. Still can’t easily believe that I get to teach something so delightful. 📚
Finished reading: Charles Ives by Jan Swafford. A superb biography of one of the most peculiar composers: an ordinary man in almost every respect who simply heard, and couldn’t stop hearing, music that no one else could make sense of. 📚
Currently reading: Charles Ives: A Life with Music by Jan Swafford 📚
Finished reading: Murray Talks Music: Albert Murray on Jazz and Blues by Albert Murray. I read this over a period of months, [ausing to listen to the music Murray talks about. It’s a feast. 📚
Finished reading: The Earthsea Quartet by Ursula K. Le Guin. What a joy to revisit these glorious books. 📚
Finished reading: Chalk: The Art and Erasure of Cy Twombly by Joshua Rivkin. Rivkin is very clear up front that this is not a straightforward biography; but as I read I often found myself longing for a straightforward biography. 📚
Currently reading: Chalk: The Art and Erasure of Cy Twombly by Joshua Rivkin 📚
I’m still reading Reporting World War II: The 75th Anniversary Edition: A Library of America Boxed Set – what an extraordinary anthology of journalism, including photojournalism. The books feature a good chronology of the war and a series of useful maps. It’s a strangely immersive experience. 📚
Currently reading: The Earthsea Quartet by Ursula K. Le Guin 📚
Finished reading: The New Biographical Dictionary of Film: Sixth Edition by David Thomson. This too I did not read every word of – it’s considerably longer than War and Peace – but it is an invaluable resource and you can find something delightful on almost every page. Thomson has the great gift of often being fascinatingly wrong. 📚
Finished reading: Paul and the Faithfulness of God by N.T. Wright. Didn’t read it all, but read most of it – all that I need. (Most of the rest involves disputes among New Testament critics that this amateur does not need to know about.) 📚
Currently reading: Reporting World War II: Library of America 📚
Finished reading: The Lord of the Rings: 50th Anniversary, One Vol. Edition by J.R.R. Tolkien. I’m wondering how many times I’ve read this book straight through – maybe twelve? Fifteen? Every reading is different. This time I was especially moved by Eowyn’s story. 📚
Currently reading: The New Biographical Dictionary of Film: Sixth Edition by David Thomson. This is another one of those that I won’t be finishing any time soon – and won’t ever “finish” in any strict sense. 📚
Finished reading: Analogia: The Emergence of Technology Beyond Programmable Control by George Dyson. A fascinating, frustrating, and in the end I think incoherent book. 📚
Currently reading: Analogia: The Emergence of Technology Beyond Programmable Control by George Dyson 📚
Finished reading: Essays: Moral, Political, and Literary by David Hume. The moral and literary essays remain vibrant, but the political ones — numerically dominant — are largely of historical interest. 📚
Currently reading: Essays: Moral, Political, and Literary by David Hume 📚
Finished reading: The Virginian by Owen Wister. Not a good book, but a fascinating one – and massively influential. 📚
Currently reading: The Virginian by Owen Wister 📚