Eat and Be Satisfied - a study of Jewish food from biblical times to the present day, but alas no recipes.

Water for Elephants - just started it.

History of Anti-Semitism in England - Anthony Julius' magisterial tome.

Masechta Baba Kamma - that part of the Talmud dealing with the civil law of obligations.

Just finished reading Peter Ackroyd's London Under. which is a kind of subterranean 'addendum' to his London: A Biography. A slim volume and light reading. Enjoyable.

About to delve into the 'subterranean' again with Joseph de Maistre's Essay on the Generative Principle of Political Constitutions. which my bro has kindly borrowed from his university library for me.

Paperback for commuting:  The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony (Roberto Calasso).

Hardbacks for at home only:  Letters of Bruce Chatwin; Atlantic and its Enemies (Norman Stone); Sorcerer's Apprentice (John Richardson).

All of the above read in fits and starts with magazines (TLS, New York, NYRB) filling up the gaps.

No clothing relevance whatsoever.

Last edited by Sal (2011-05-11 02:41:20)

Well, there is non-fiction and non-fiction, isn't there?  One of the worst features of what one might call mass-market non-fiction is the terrible journalese in which it is written.  There is often far too much gratuitous personal detail regarding the characters, which suggests that the authors are used to getting paid by the word.   "The tall, slim astrophysicist walked in the room, clearly in a black mood.  Von Leeukekrieg knew that Orville was given to fractious disputes because of his opium addiction, and his crumbling marriage had not improved his disposition much, if at all.  However, Orville's innate genius could not be brushed aside even if his personal life was falling to ruins all about him, and all those in the room held their breath as Orville swept Nottingham's report off the conference table and took a seat across from his despised rival, Wolcott.  The silence fairly rang out, and the younger professors began trembling as they awaited the great man's inevitable out-burst.  Turning his malignant gaze to Von Leeukekrieg, who had remained standing in silence at the blackboard, Orville finally announced, in the stentorian voice that had terrorized colleagues and undergraduates alike for nigh unto 4 decades:  "Can't we get some coffee and something eat in this goddamn place?  I'm starving, for god's sake."  All present breathed a sigh of relief and an eager graduate assistant was immediately dispatched to purchase coffee and pizza for the scientists who were planning to save the free world, or what was left of it . . . "

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