Today is either Sam Pepys day, or else the day I finish reading my Oxford history of Early Modern Europe. Actually, it may be both. Or I might just fall asleep on the couch all afternoon, wake up too groggy to read, and get nothing accomplished at all ( Read more... )

I've opted not to go anywhere or do anything today, though I was tempted to go to the bookstore/cafe, my old haunt. I am supplied with plenty of books already. Then too, it seemed a bad idea to go out and immerse myself in the tempting, even disturbing, realms of consumption ( Read more... )

I'm about 3/4 of the way through the third of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin novels, H.M.S. Surprise, and like the first two it is delightful. O'Brian is the kind of writer who grows in my esteem the more I read him. It is safe to say that after a 1000 pages or more, I am thoroughly hooked ( Read more... )