Category: Reading

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The Shilling of a Sacred Deer: Plutarch’s Sertorius and The White Fawn

I’ve mentioned my current long-term reading project is Plutarch’s Parallel Lives and how enjoyable the passages on Archimedes were. Another favorite sequence is on Quintus Sertorius. If you’ve read Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, then you’ve already got an idea of what kind of guy Sertorius was: a statesman, a member of the nobility, and a general. … Continue reading The Shilling of a Sacred Deer: Plutarch’s Sertorius and The White Fawn

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From the Eunoia Archives: An Interview with Writer Emma Bolden

You can follow Emma on Twitter and at A Century of Nerve, and why not check out her new book House Is an Enigma, as well. It’s fantastic. Originally published at Eunoia Solstice in 2017. It’s been a privilege to read Emma Bolden’s work for a decade now and a pleasure to be continually surprised by it. On … Continue reading From the Eunoia Archives: An Interview with Writer Emma Bolden

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The worms crawl in, the worms crawl out: Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark

Scary Stories Treasury: Alvin Schwartz, illustrated by Stephen GammellI missed this collection of revamped urban legends and folk myths when I was a kid. I went from Godzilla in kindergarten, to the TV edit of Jaws in first grade, to Stephen King books and adaptations by second. I can only guess, but I figure my … Continue reading The worms crawl in, the worms crawl out: Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark

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It isn’t a glamorous thing to do, but you have to do it: Recent Reading

Dead Blondes and Bad Mothers: Monstrosity, Patriarchy, and the Fear of Female Power: Sady Doyle I gulped this down in one sitting, so I’ll have to come back to it in order to write more substantially about it. It hits many of my areas of interest: Gothic literature, monsters, mythology, horror movies (the title is … Continue reading It isn’t a glamorous thing to do, but you have to do it: Recent Reading

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Even if you knew the language you wouldn’t recognize the book: Italo Calvino’s post-compositional diagram for If on a winter’s night a traveler

I wanted to read Italo Calvino, but wasn’t sure where to start. I found out my wife had Invisible Cities, so I jumped in. Cities easily won me over. Soon after, everyone was telling me to read If on a winter’s night a traveler. I checked it out from the library and read about two … Continue reading Even if you knew the language you wouldn’t recognize the book: Italo Calvino’s post-compositional diagram for If on a winter’s night a traveler

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Our Heart Is Restless: St Augustine’s Confessions

I wrote recently about my initial experiences with The Confessions. Finished sometime around 400 AD, it’s an early version of the memoir, particularly the confessional and spiritual quest genres, though it doesn’t look like the ones published today. If I read it again, I’m going to research current or celebrated translations. If you are a … Continue reading Our Heart Is Restless: St Augustine’s Confessions