- \n
- Robert Lax’s\u00a0Love Had a Compass: Journals and Poetry<\/a><\/em>. Includes\u00a0The Circus of the Sun<\/em>, probably his best-regarded single volume. Here’s a small taste of the poetry in that book:<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
After supper light on fields, prairie, long yellow
\nlight on fields aspiring, fields looking up grass singing
\nhigh grass singing yellow light on green grass growing,
\nthe wide round horizon, the long tired light on the field
\nand the green grass high yearning up aspiring to heaven
\nto the dome sky heaven the grass growing up to the sky
\nand the light dying, the sun wearily sleepily smiling
\nlying down, with a sighing song, a long smiling sigh
\nover the fields and the grass rising, thin prayer rising
\ntufted to the air above the field to the sky the dome
\nsky thin made of light air the dome above the field and
\nthe field breathing the air full rich golden grass smelling
\nsweet and tired with sun dying sun lying down, dying down
\nin west.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nFiction<\/h3>\n
- \n
- I finally finished Ignazio Silone’s Abruzzo trilogy<\/a> after stalling out halfway through The Seed Beneath the Snow\u00a0<\/em>several months ago. Glad I finished the books, and glad to have read them, though I’m not exactly sure who’d I recommend them to.<\/li>\n
- David Foenikos’\u00a0The Erotic Potential of My Wife<\/em><\/a>. Quick, absurd, and very, very funny. Came highly recommended by a French-speaking Polish language professor here. Thanks Ewa!<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
Non-fiction<\/h3>\n
I read a half-dozen ‘very short introductions’ and continued muddling my way slowly through several longer books. The VSI’s I read in December were:<\/p>\n
- \n
- L. Sandy Maisel’s\u00a0American Political Parties and Elections<\/a>.<\/em><\/li>\n
- Timothy Lim’s\u00a0The Dead Sea Scrolls<\/a><\/em>. I’m afraid to confess that I found this book boring as hell.<\/li>\n
- Ian Shaw’s\u00a0Ancient Egypt<\/em><\/a>. Covered a lot of ground, but spread itself a bit too thin, I thought.<\/li>\n
- Geraldine Pinch’s\u00a0Egyptian Myth<\/em><\/a>. Quite good. I actually felt like I managed to learn more about Egyptian history and culture from this book than the previous one, despite it being less central to the book’s ostensible purpose.<\/li>\n
- Penelope Wilson’s\u00a0Hieroglyphics<\/em><\/a>.<\/li>\n
- Colin Ward’s\u00a0Anarchism<\/em><\/a>. I loved Colin Ward as a personality and as a writer when he was alive and have always been deeply sympathetic to philosophical anarchism. And it increasingly appears that, in the coming Trump era, I’m not alone<\/a>.<\/li>\n
- Inspired by Ward, I decided to finally start\u00a0David Graeber’s\u00a0Debt: The First 5000 Years<\/em><\/a>. More anarchism! I still haven’t finished it, but it was so compelling (and disruptive to the way that I’d normalized the ‘economic order’ of things) that Laurel started reading it as well.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
I’m still plowing my way slowly through a few other nonfiction books: Mary Beard\u2019s\u00a0SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome<\/a>,\u00a0<\/em>Rebecca Solnit’s\u00a0Hope in the Dark,\u00a0<\/em>Jonathan Haidt’s\u00a0The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion<\/em>.<\/p>\n
Longform Journalism<\/h3>\n
I read a lot of longform\u00a0journalism on my iPad through the Pocket app. Here are the seven pieces I read and most enjoyed in December:<\/p>\n
- \n
- A conversation on capital, debt, and our economic future<\/a> between Thomas Piketty and David Graeber published in 2014 by The Baffler.<\/em><\/li>\n
- Ta-Nehisi Coates’ extended meditation on the Obama presidency<\/a>.<\/li>\n
- A description of the ethical and behavioral consequences of technological design decisions<\/a> by Tristan Harris, former ‘design ethicist’ at Google.<\/li>\n
- Graeme Wood’s profile of John Georgelas<\/a>, a Texan screwup who appears to have become a leading presence in the Islamic State, published in The Atlantic<\/em>.<\/li>\n
- Abigail Geiger’s quick run-through of 16 significant findings regarding public life\/opinion in America<\/a> covered by Pew Research in 2016.<\/li>\n
- A short James Hunt article from 2015 on Mental Floss about the hidden technological pedagogical purpose<\/a> of some ubiquitous\u00a0early Microsoft Windows games.<\/li>\n
- M. Allen Cunningham’s Literary Hub article about Thoreau’s humor<\/a> (ostensibly a book review of a new book meant to portray Thoreau as much funnier than his current public image).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
Featured image by vpickering<\/a>
![](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-inject\/images\/cc.png?ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Books As the year limped its way to a close, I tried to keep up my torrid reading pace. I slowed down considerably from my October\/November frenzy, and spent a lot more of my free time reading and writing on dissertation related topics (hi, Objectivist poets!) but still managed to read a fair number of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"I've got a new blog post up about what I read last month, for anyone who might be interested:","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[19],"tags":[16,858,17,223,6,18],"class_list":["post-6117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reading","tag-books","tag-ignazio-silone","tag-literature","tag-philosophy","tag-poetry","tag-reading"],"featured_image_src":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Steel Wagstaff","author_link":"https:\/\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/author\/steel\/"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","featured_image_src_square":null,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd6z5D-1AF","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6078,"url":"https:\/\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/my-november-reading\/","url_meta":{"origin":6117,"position":0},"title":"My November 2016 Reading","author":"Steel Wagstaff","date":"December 2, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Books My reading pace slowed a bit in November (the US elections and their sad aftermath have provided me with lots of avenues for distraction and worry), but I still managed to keep up my love affair with books, though I picked a fair amount of duds this month. The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "What I'm Reading"","block_context":{"text":"What I'm Reading","link":"https:\/\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/category\/reading\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Books","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/liwf2uhxs0q-annie-spratt.jpg?fit=1200%2C704&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/liwf2uhxs0q-annie-spratt.jpg?fit=1200%2C704&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/liwf2uhxs0q-annie-spratt.jpg?fit=1200%2C704&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/liwf2uhxs0q-annie-spratt.jpg?fit=1200%2C704&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/liwf2uhxs0q-annie-spratt.jpg?fit=1200%2C704&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4719,"url":"https:\/\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/ignazio-silones-fontamara\/","url_meta":{"origin":6117,"position":1},"title":"Ignazio Silone’s Fontamara","author":"Steel Wagstaff","date":"July 9, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"At the recommendation of my friend Spencer, I recently began reading the Italian novelist Ignazio Silone's\u00a0The Abruzzio Trilogy, beginning with his 1933 novel\u00a0Fontamara. It is an extraordinary bit of social-realist inflected anti-fascist satire, and I found myself quickly devouring it and eager to begin the next book in the series.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Reading Notes"","block_context":{"text":"Reading Notes","link":"https:\/\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/category\/reading-notes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Cover of the 1st edition of Ignazio Silone's Fontamara","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Fontamara_1st_edition.jpg?fit=400%2C336&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6188,"url":"https:\/\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/my-april-2017-reading\/","url_meta":{"origin":6117,"position":2},"title":"My April 2017 Reading","author":"Steel Wagstaff","date":"May 1, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Books My leisure reading of books slowed down a bit in April, as I continued getting sucked into lots more longform than I had intended and, on a happier note, did a lot more reading for my dissertation (good news!!!). Here's some of what I read last month for pleasure.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "What I'm Reading"","block_context":{"text":"What I'm Reading","link":"https:\/\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/category\/reading\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Dead moles on a fence in Yorkshire.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/2464682583_75238b8f03_b_moles-yorkshire.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/2464682583_75238b8f03_b_moles-yorkshire.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/2464682583_75238b8f03_b_moles-yorkshire.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/2464682583_75238b8f03_b_moles-yorkshire.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2245,"url":"https:\/\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/cesare-pavese\/","url_meta":{"origin":6117,"position":3},"title":"Cesare Pavese","author":"Steel Wagstaff","date":"October 19, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"I just finished Geoffrey Brock's translation of Cesare Pavese's poetry: Disaffection: Complete Poems 1930-1950. It was outstanding. I think I had been vaguely aware of Pavese as a 20th century giant of Italian literature, but I had never read anything by or about him, apart from some long forgotten praise\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Favorite People"","block_context":{"text":"Favorite People","link":"https:\/\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/category\/favorite-people\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/fotosegnaletiche.jpg?fit=800%2C511&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/fotosegnaletiche.jpg?fit=800%2C511&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/fotosegnaletiche.jpg?fit=800%2C511&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/fotosegnaletiche.jpg?fit=800%2C511&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1256,"url":"https:\/\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/the-objectivists-carl-rakosi\/","url_meta":{"origin":6117,"position":4},"title":"The Objectivists: Carl Rakosi","author":"Steel Wagstaff","date":"August 24, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I've spent the last two weeks getting serious about my dissertation. It's been two years now since I successfully completed my prelim exams, and I have almost nothing to show for that time, dissertation-wise. It's tremendously embarrassing, and even a little painful. By getting serious, I mean that I've been\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Favorite People"","block_context":{"text":"Favorite People","link":"https:\/\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/category\/favorite-people\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Carl Rakosi","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/steelwagstaff.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2012\/08\/Rakosi_radio.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/steelwagstaff.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2012\/08\/Rakosi_radio.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/steelwagstaff.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2012\/08\/Rakosi_radio.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/steelwagstaff.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2012\/08\/Rakosi_radio.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6310,"url":"https:\/\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/2017-my-year-in-reading\/","url_meta":{"origin":6117,"position":5},"title":"2017: My Year in Reading","author":"Steel Wagstaff","date":"January 3, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"This is the first year that I've really made an effort to keep track of my leisure reading. 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- Ta-Nehisi Coates’ extended meditation on the Obama presidency<\/a>.<\/li>\n
- Timothy Lim’s\u00a0The Dead Sea Scrolls<\/a><\/em>. I’m afraid to confess that I found this book boring as hell.<\/li>\n
- David Foenikos’\u00a0The Erotic Potential of My Wife<\/em><\/a>. Quick, absurd, and very, very funny. Came highly recommended by a French-speaking Polish language professor here. Thanks Ewa!<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
- I finally finished Ignazio Silone’s Abruzzo trilogy<\/a> after stalling out halfway through The Seed Beneath the Snow\u00a0<\/em>several months ago. Glad I finished the books, and glad to have read them, though I’m not exactly sure who’d I recommend them to.<\/li>\n