What I Am Reading

The latest in a very occasional series...

New:

Before the Dawn by Nicholas Wade

Odalisque by Neal Stephenson

The Egg and Sperm Race by Matthew Cobb (The English title not the American one, a sort of non- fiction version of the Baroque Cycle only for biologists)

Tamerlane by Justin Marozzi

Not so new:

East of the Sun by Benson Bobrick (a history of Siberia)

The Face of Battle by John Keegan

Deer of the World by Valerius Geist

All keepers I'd say.

I have also just finished The Hundredth Meridian by my friend Chilton Williamson-- available here. It is the best book of essays on the American west and its people and places I have read in years, worthy of keeping company with the books of his late friend Ed Abbey. Chilton is the kind of American original that our current simple- minded divisions attempt to deny exists-- a small g "green", a small c "conservative" of the paleo persuasion, a Westerner and a Traditionalist (earning those capitals); not to mention a critic, a novelist, an editor of real ability (only writers know how rare that is), and a guy who once worked on the oil rigs who can both pack an elk out of the back country and discourse on the relative merits of the recordings of Maria Callas. Buy his book!

I may be absent from blogging for a bit-- I have just finished several projects, including one I have been working on for years, and want to devote myself to the outdoors and the new novel. I hope Reid's work load eases, and that he and Matt will be able to take up some slack. I may weigh in soon or later or ?? But NO PROMISES, at least for a while!