Monthly Archives: August 2010
Poetry: T’ao Ch’ien
I came across an absolutely lovely book, The Selected Poems of T’ao Ch’ien in a rather odd way. I first heard of T’ao Ch’ien in John D’Agata’s essay anthology The Lost Origins of the Essay, which has a short selection … Continue reading
Biographies: Coleridge
In a lot of ways I like the idea of reading biographies more than I like the actual reading of them; it sounds so nice to learn more about authors, find out what their life was like, learn a little … Continue reading
Filed under Books, Nonfiction
TBR challenge: Rosalind Belbin
So Emily’s TBR challenge, where we’re supposed to read 20 books from our TBR piles and post on them? I’m doing awesomely well (as long as I ignore the part of the challenge that says we aren’t supposed to buy … Continue reading
Filed under Books
Then We Came to the End
I finished Joshua Ferris’s 2007 novel Then We Came to the End recently and found it a pleasure to read. A friend recommended it to me because of its portrayal of the workplace and because of its interesting point of … Continue reading
Thus Was Adonis Murdered
I was a little worried when I began Sarah Caudwell’s Thus Was Adonis Murdered for my mystery book group because Hobgoblin had not liked the book at all. We don’t always agree on books, but we agree often enough to … Continue reading
More good books: Manservant and Maidservant
I had hoped to post on Ivy Compton-Burnett’s novel Manservant and Maidservant in time for the Slaves of Golconda group read, but I didn’t get the book read on time and was on vacation anyway. But I wanted to write … Continue reading
Cycling update
Much of the story of my cycling year so far I can tell using just a few numbers: Total yearly mileage 2007 (the first year I have a full record): 4,226 Total yearly mileage 2008: 4,339 Total yearly mileage 2009: … Continue reading
Filed under Cycling
More good books — Stoner
There are a couple more books from this summer that I wanted to mention as being particularly good. First of all, John Williams’s novel Stoner was an excellent read. It’s not at all what you might think based on the … Continue reading
What shall I read next?
I finished up my mystery book group selection a couple nights ago: Sarah Caudwell’s Thus Was Adonis Murdered. We are meeting tomorrow night, so perhaps I will write about that soon. Last night I read a decent-sized chunk of the … Continue reading
And now back to reading
It’s felt like an odd summer as far as my reading goes, largely because while I like to take on a challenge or two in the summer, something long and difficult (Infinite Jest last year for example), it hasn’t happened … Continue reading
What I’ve Been Doing, Part 2
It’s been a remarkably busy summer, and a fun one, and of course it’s not over yet, although I am buckling down to write syllabi and make plans for the fall semester. I kept myself busy in the first part … Continue reading
Filed under Life
