Bible reading update: After the Pentateuch, I have also now finished all the Historical books - Joshua, Judges, Ruth, Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, Ezra-Nehemiah, Esther - all done!
June 19, 2025 at 4:20 PM
Bible reading update: After the Pentateuch, I have also now finished all the Historical books - Joshua, Judges, Ruth, Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, Ezra-Nehemiah, Esther - all done!
I haven't read a lot of fiction this year but the main highlight for me in the first five months was "The Antiquary" by Walter Scott. I also liked "East Lynne" by Ellen Wood.
I didn't particularly enjoy "The Good Soldier" (Ford Madox Ford) but could see why it is considered an important work.
I didn't particularly enjoy "The Good Soldier" (Ford Madox Ford) but could see why it is considered an important work.
Right, #Booksky, used to get 100's of replies to these on Twitter so....
My day job is buying books for 34 libraries, help me and my customers out by telling me the best fiction book(s) you've read in 2025.
Rules: can be any genre and doesn't have to be new, but NOTHING self-published gogogo!
📚
My day job is buying books for 34 libraries, help me and my customers out by telling me the best fiction book(s) you've read in 2025.
Rules: can be any genre and doesn't have to be new, but NOTHING self-published gogogo!
📚
June 19, 2025 at 4:06 PM
I haven't read a lot of fiction this year but the main highlight for me in the first five months was "The Antiquary" by Walter Scott. I also liked "East Lynne" by Ellen Wood.
I didn't particularly enjoy "The Good Soldier" (Ford Madox Ford) but could see why it is considered an important work.
I didn't particularly enjoy "The Good Soldier" (Ford Madox Ford) but could see why it is considered an important work.
This took a lot of time and effort but at the end it was all worth it. I mean the language (at least in translation) wasn't difficult at all but there were just too many characters, and keeping track of their interrelationships and their place in the wider mythology felt like a lot of work.
June 19, 2025 at 3:48 PM
This took a lot of time and effort but at the end it was all worth it. I mean the language (at least in translation) wasn't difficult at all but there were just too many characters, and keeping track of their interrelationships and their place in the wider mythology felt like a lot of work.
On his birthday today a nice brief essay on Thomas Mann by
Morten Høi Jensen (his book on him is also getting out soon) engelsbergideas.com/notebook/tho...
Morten Høi Jensen (his book on him is also getting out soon) engelsbergideas.com/notebook/tho...
Thomas Mann's cathedrals in prose
One of the greatest European writers, Thomas Mann, born 150 years ago, dedicated his life to the pursuit of literary form. He left a monumental legacy.
engelsbergideas.com
June 6, 2025 at 2:21 PM
On his birthday today a nice brief essay on Thomas Mann by
Morten Høi Jensen (his book on him is also getting out soon) engelsbergideas.com/notebook/tho...
Morten Høi Jensen (his book on him is also getting out soon) engelsbergideas.com/notebook/tho...
Robert Fagles doesn't say Lesbians, he says women of Lesbos
June 6, 2025 at 2:05 PM
Robert Fagles doesn't say Lesbians, he says women of Lesbos
Reposted by Alok
RIP, Enzo Staiola.
“The young boy doesn’t say much, but in his expressions you can see what’s going on in his mind, even on a subconscious level.”
Jia Zhangke on Vittorio De Sica’s BICYCLE THIEVES (1948) www.criterion.com/current/post...
“The young boy doesn’t say much, but in his expressions you can see what’s going on in his mind, even on a subconscious level.”
Jia Zhangke on Vittorio De Sica’s BICYCLE THIEVES (1948) www.criterion.com/current/post...
June 6, 2025 at 7:31 AM
RIP, Enzo Staiola.
“The young boy doesn’t say much, but in his expressions you can see what’s going on in his mind, even on a subconscious level.”
Jia Zhangke on Vittorio De Sica’s BICYCLE THIEVES (1948) www.criterion.com/current/post...
“The young boy doesn’t say much, but in his expressions you can see what’s going on in his mind, even on a subconscious level.”
Jia Zhangke on Vittorio De Sica’s BICYCLE THIEVES (1948) www.criterion.com/current/post...
this description of hip-joint in the Iliad will probably get past the approval of modern orthopaedic surgeons
(lot of really graphic descriptions of wounds)
(lot of really graphic descriptions of wounds)
June 5, 2025 at 12:15 PM
this description of hip-joint in the Iliad will probably get past the approval of modern orthopaedic surgeons
(lot of really graphic descriptions of wounds)
(lot of really graphic descriptions of wounds)
Reposted by Alok
Nora was one of the great French intellectual impresarios of the postwar period and truly representative of his generation - in all its imagination and dogmatism. www.lemonde.fr/disparitions...
L’historien Pierre Nora est mort
Historien, maître d’œuvre des « Lieux de mémoire », publiés en sept volumes à partir de 1984, le créateur de la revue « Le Débat » est mort le 2 juin, à l’âge de 93 ans.
www.lemonde.fr
June 2, 2025 at 10:32 PM
Nora was one of the great French intellectual impresarios of the postwar period and truly representative of his generation - in all its imagination and dogmatism. www.lemonde.fr/disparitions...
Can't find any English obituary yet, but I first came across the name of the French historian, publisher, editor, Pierre Nora, who has just died, in this review-essay by Tony Judt (also collected in his "Reappraisals")
archive.is/CNC96
archive.is/CNC96
archive.is
June 3, 2025 at 11:31 AM
Can't find any English obituary yet, but I first came across the name of the French historian, publisher, editor, Pierre Nora, who has just died, in this review-essay by Tony Judt (also collected in his "Reappraisals")
archive.is/CNC96
archive.is/CNC96
A very handy list of epithets or metrical formulas used in Homer en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epithet...
Epithets in Homer - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
June 3, 2025 at 10:50 AM
A very handy list of epithets or metrical formulas used in Homer en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epithet...
Reposted by Alok
Read both of these. As I said earlier, Cline's book is mostly about archaeological evidence for the Trojan war, and indeed the city of Troy as depicted in Homer's work and and the Epic cycle. He is not a sceptic, there is evidence, but it is quite complicated, not so straightforward.
June 1, 2025 at 4:44 PM
Read both of these. As I said earlier, Cline's book is mostly about archaeological evidence for the Trojan war, and indeed the city of Troy as depicted in Homer's work and and the Epic cycle. He is not a sceptic, there is evidence, but it is quite complicated, not so straightforward.
"the lies that Odysseus told all of us"
- Homer, A Very Short Introduction, Barbara Graziosi
- Homer, A Very Short Introduction, Barbara Graziosi
June 1, 2025 at 4:39 PM
"the lies that Odysseus told all of us"
- Homer, A Very Short Introduction, Barbara Graziosi
- Homer, A Very Short Introduction, Barbara Graziosi
My learning so far from reading the Hebrew Bible is that you don't mess with Yahweh and you don't mess with his prophets either. (this is prophet Elisha, from 2 Kings)
June 1, 2025 at 3:17 PM
My learning so far from reading the Hebrew Bible is that you don't mess with Yahweh and you don't mess with his prophets either. (this is prophet Elisha, from 2 Kings)
This is a nice introduction to the "Homeric question" by Adam Kirsch. (Review of a book about American scholar Milman Parry)
The Classicist Who Killed Homer
How Milman Parry proved that the Iliad and the Odyssey were not written by a lone genius.
archive.is/vHFpf
The Classicist Who Killed Homer
How Milman Parry proved that the Iliad and the Odyssey were not written by a lone genius.
archive.is/vHFpf
archive.is
May 31, 2025 at 8:19 AM
This is a nice introduction to the "Homeric question" by Adam Kirsch. (Review of a book about American scholar Milman Parry)
The Classicist Who Killed Homer
How Milman Parry proved that the Iliad and the Odyssey were not written by a lone genius.
archive.is/vHFpf
The Classicist Who Killed Homer
How Milman Parry proved that the Iliad and the Odyssey were not written by a lone genius.
archive.is/vHFpf
Prep work for the next reading project.
May 30, 2025 at 4:22 AM
Prep work for the next reading project.
Initially I groaned at how contrived and implausible was the description of the central event on which the whole narrative rests, but boy, did she make up for it in the second half! She takes the reader through a wringer.
Keep the tissues handy if you plan to read it.
Keep the tissues handy if you plan to read it.
Haven't been reading much fiction lately. Now getting back to the Victorian sensation novel. Will it be as good as "Lady Audley's Secret," let's see!
May 30, 2025 at 4:07 AM
Initially I groaned at how contrived and implausible was the description of the central event on which the whole narrative rests, but boy, did she make up for it in the second half! She takes the reader through a wringer.
Keep the tissues handy if you plan to read it.
Keep the tissues handy if you plan to read it.
The scholar introducing the book of "Samuel" in Oxford Bible says that in detailing David's character, the text "protests too much," that is, it is too plainly apologetic and thus provokes one to read between the lines and go beyond the surface ideology.
Here's another example from "Kings"
Here's another example from "Kings"
May 28, 2025 at 11:53 AM
The scholar introducing the book of "Samuel" in Oxford Bible says that in detailing David's character, the text "protests too much," that is, it is too plainly apologetic and thus provokes one to read between the lines and go beyond the surface ideology.
Here's another example from "Kings"
Here's another example from "Kings"
Last week, I also read this book about the early Jewish history, covering the period when Israelite religion turned into what we now know as Judaism, or at least its precursor.
I still prefer the account in Martin Goodman's History of Judaism, even thought it is in a much more condensed form there
I still prefer the account in Martin Goodman's History of Judaism, even thought it is in a much more condensed form there
May 28, 2025 at 4:26 AM
Last week, I also read this book about the early Jewish history, covering the period when Israelite religion turned into what we now know as Judaism, or at least its precursor.
I still prefer the account in Martin Goodman's History of Judaism, even thought it is in a much more condensed form there
I still prefer the account in Martin Goodman's History of Judaism, even thought it is in a much more condensed form there
My Bible reading is getting along. I am in the middle of historical books ("Deuteronomistic history") right now. Have finished Joshua, Judges, Ruth, and Samuel and started Kings.
In the meanwhile I read this introduction to Hebrew Bible - an introductory college level textbook, very good to read.
In the meanwhile I read this introduction to Hebrew Bible - an introductory college level textbook, very good to read.
May 28, 2025 at 4:14 AM
My Bible reading is getting along. I am in the middle of historical books ("Deuteronomistic history") right now. Have finished Joshua, Judges, Ruth, and Samuel and started Kings.
In the meanwhile I read this introduction to Hebrew Bible - an introductory college level textbook, very good to read.
In the meanwhile I read this introduction to Hebrew Bible - an introductory college level textbook, very good to read.
Haven't been reading much fiction lately. Now getting back to the Victorian sensation novel. Will it be as good as "Lady Audley's Secret," let's see!
May 17, 2025 at 3:55 AM
Haven't been reading much fiction lately. Now getting back to the Victorian sensation novel. Will it be as good as "Lady Audley's Secret," let's see!
Have been keeping away from social media recently for various reasons. It also helps that bluesky is not addiction forming like the good old twitter.
My Bible read is still going along. Done with the Pentateuch, the five books of Moses, along with some commentaries. Taking a break now.
My Bible read is still going along. Done with the Pentateuch, the five books of Moses, along with some commentaries. Taking a break now.
May 17, 2025 at 3:52 AM
Have been keeping away from social media recently for various reasons. It also helps that bluesky is not addiction forming like the good old twitter.
My Bible read is still going along. Done with the Pentateuch, the five books of Moses, along with some commentaries. Taking a break now.
My Bible read is still going along. Done with the Pentateuch, the five books of Moses, along with some commentaries. Taking a break now.
the priestly writer(s) of Leviticus must surely have loved the smell of burnt flesh. it's almost like a poetic refrain throughout.
May 3, 2025 at 3:55 PM
the priestly writer(s) of Leviticus must surely have loved the smell of burnt flesh. it's almost like a poetic refrain throughout.
Biblical Oath-taking! And it is not even your own thigh, it is the other person's.
(Genesis 24:2)
(Genesis 24:2)
May 1, 2025 at 5:09 PM
Biblical Oath-taking! And it is not even your own thigh, it is the other person's.
(Genesis 24:2)
(Genesis 24:2)