I read a lot. I sometimes have thoughts when I read things. Sometimes the stuff I read is interesting, other times it’s not.
Would The Commentariat(tm) be interested in periodic book reports? These would be of a semi-random nature, covering more or less whatever I feel inspired to write a report about. So it might be anything from the bletcherously verbose endless stupid fight scene comprising half of a John C. Wright novel, to a book about nuclear de-escalation.
Most of the postings I write here are digested versions of news combined with books I read or, whatever. It’s an interesting process to try to tease apart all the inputs and assign “this came from here” and “this came from there” as I do in my typical posting. For example, I was up late last night skimming two books by Bernard Lewis in order to find a critical passage that was responsible for a certain “ah ha!” moment. By midnight I realized that the actual passage was possibly a hallucination (I often read when I am slightly tipsy; it’s a great delight) or a bit from Martin Van Creveld’s book on the fall of nation states. So guess what I’m skimming tonight?
I think that being able to do a book report would free me up having to research back my citations (some of which, like the one I thought was in the Lewis book, go back decades) and allow me to just quote at length and present my understanding of a single source.
What do you think?
You do realize that in this you run the serious risk of having us proles retaliate in kind?
In favour.
I’d read it. :) I don’t have a lot of time to sit down and pick up book length writings these days, and only keep abreast of the sad state of the world through a few online outlets, so I say go for it.
Just beware of Pierce’s warning…..
Also, you could do the same for movies. I’m dying to see what you think of Pentagon Wars.
I already devour your reports on Voltaire and Meslier. Also in favour.
In favour.
Yes please
OK, I think that’s a pretty solid “yes.”
Thank you all.
Pierce R. Butler@#1:
You do realize that in this you run the serious risk of having us proles retaliate in kind?
I would not be averse to hosting guest book reviews/reports, on a case-by-case basis. In fact, if someone ever wants to do a whole posting explaining why I am an utter blockhead, I’d be happy to host it as long as they explain it.
For the record, I am also very happy to host guest postings regarding arts/crafts, art or music. I think that most of The Commentariat have a pretty good idea by now of the general direction of stderr – anything compatible with that, I’ll almost certainly support. (I would not, for example, host a guest posting about how right Ayn Rand is, unless it defended that point brilliantly)(and anyone who can accomplish that should have their own blog)
Many of cartomancer’s comments ought to be postings. <<<<----- hint, hint.
Yes, I agree with Siobhan. By the way….thanks for posting the Lao Tzu wisdom recently. I’d searched through my Daoist books for that passage last year when Hillary was absolutely giddy about the death Gaddafi. “We came, We Saw, He Died.” Ha Ha Ha