As the rain outside begins to turn to snow, my mind seems to be slowing down and coming up empty this evening. So I send you elsewhere:
- An entertaining essay at Aeon about why English is such a weird language. If you are offended by Scandinavians being called “Scandies” do not read it, though they get high praise for contributing to the weirdness as do the Celts and the Normans.
- Rebecca Solnit’s response to the Esquire Magazine list of 80 books every man should read. In a nutshell: “I looked at that list and all unbidden the thought arose, no wonder there are so many mass murders.”
Enjoy!
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Hope the weather and you are both feeling better! I loved Sonlit’s reponse!
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cirtnecce, the snow ended up not materializing! It didn’t make it past sleet stage, though they are promising snow again today. I like snow, I think I am just using it as an excuse to be lazy 🙂 Isn’t Solnit’s response great?
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We have a bit of snow to come which is better than endless rain and gales of recent weeks. Imagine what reading those 80 Esquire books one after the other would do to you! Well done Rebecca Solnit.
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Ian, I hope your snow provides some relief. We ended up just getting flurries, the actual snow went south and north. I couldn’t imagine reading those 80 books one after the other. I think I’d soon end up with a permanent frown.
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I’ve read quite a few of those 80 books and think I’ve enjoyed them all…except…Moby Dick not so much. Solnit’s response was quite funny and I enjoyed reading that too. I’m assuming it’s all tongue in cheek (the list and Solnit’s response) and everyone is just having a little fun. Hopefully, no one is taking any of it too seriously. I miss the snow, Stef. Not sleet so much, but waking up and seeing that first snow covering the ground. Miss it. Happy reading.
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Grad, Moby Dick is an excellent book! I’ve read a number of the books on the list and have several of them on my TBR list. I think some of it is tongue-in-cheek but I also think she is being serious since Esquire positions these books to be about masculinity and how to be a man and their descriptions of several of them are a bit questionable. The list is also very unbalanced as a good many of them are about war, sport, murder, adventure. Where are the books about love, family and fatherhood?
I’d say come up and enjoy the snow but the snow missed us! We ended up getting only sleet and flurries this time.
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I’ve only read 14 of 81! Some of them have been on my lists at various times, and perhaps I should give some of them a second thought. I always find it strange to look at lists and wonder what the criteria for choosing could be.
Winter has just issued a warning. 🙂
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Jenclair, well apparently if you read all the books on Esquire’s list you will know how to be a man 😉
Winter did issue a warning and I chose to ignore it and now my rain barrels are giant ice cubes! Yikes!
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Hah–the Solnit quote made me chuckle so now I must go look at that list! We got our first wet snow this evening. It is going to be cold out this weekend–good excuse to stay inside where it is warm and read a book! 🙂
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Danielle, I know, isn’t she funny? I was wondering if you got snow, the weather maps were making it look like you might have! I hope it has melted by now 🙂
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I hadn’t seen that Rebecca Solnit piece – I love the part where she’s talking about Esquire and Cosmopolitan and says “Maybe it says a lot about the fragility of gender that instructions on being the two main ones have been issued monthly for so long” – ha!
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Heather, isn’t that great? Makes you think. I do so love Solnit 🙂
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