Category Archives: books

  Slouching Towards Bethlehem is a collection of essays by Joan Didion. They are split up into three parts; essays about California, memoir-ish personal essays, and essays about other places. The Californian section has both the best essays (the title … Continue reading →

Middlemarch, by George Eliot, is a sprawling portrait of a number of persons of varying degrees of wealthiness, set in a fictional 1830s British town not very far outside of London. It’s a wonderful book of rich characters, broadly concerned … Continue reading →

“Even here in the north, the Children of Yisrael pass tales from mouth to ear. Pilgrims come bearing them. Some years ago, one came to my ears. I have heard the tale of how the angel known as Pride was … Continue reading →

I recently read Patrick Rothfuss’ The Slow Regard of Silent Things. Rothfuss is a fantasy author, who has also written some other well-received novels. I liked them well enough, although I find his pacing sometimes interminable. The worlds are interesting … Continue reading →

I read The Fountainhead. I read it out of a desire to be able to more articulately hate Ayn Rand. I think that one should engage seriously in a good faith effort to understand the things one disagrees with. I … Continue reading →

Today we are continuing an ancient tradition that almost certainly zero of my current readers are aware of. I recently finished Infinite Jest (It took me about 2 months — holy shit). It was awesome and interesting and whatever. This … Continue reading →