{"id":6194,"date":"2017-06-12T16:23:35","date_gmt":"2017-06-12T16:23:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/steelwagstaff.info\/?p=6194"},"modified":"2017-06-12T16:23:35","modified_gmt":"2017-06-12T16:23:35","slug":"my-may-2017-reading","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/my-may-2017-reading\/","title":{"rendered":"My May 2017 Reading"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Books<\/h2>\n<p>Pleased to report that I continued reading a lot for my dissertation (pleasurable reading, but of a different kind), and traveled to a work conference followed by a 2-week vacation starting at the end of the month. Both slowed my pleasure reading, as did the NBA playoffs, since I watched games in the evening instead of reading a fair amount, but here&#8217;s what I read in a scant month.<\/p>\n<h3>Nonfiction<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Sabina Knight&#8217;s\u00a0<em>A Very Short\u00a0Introduction to\u00a0Chinese\u00a0Literature<\/em>. (I read this from May 9-May 14). I&#8217;m dramatically underread when it comes to Asian literature, and this book gave me all kinds of ideas and places I&#8217;d like to start. Some highlights:\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;Zuo\u2019s Commentary of the late fourth century BCE documents this reliance on words as one of three ways \u201cto die but not to perish\u201d: First is to establish virtue; second to establish good deeds, and third to establish words.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>Confucius: &#8220;If one does not study poetry, one will be without the means to speak.&#8221; + &#8220;A person of humanity, wishing to be established, also establishes others, and wishing to succeed, also helps others to succeed.&#8221; + Asked whether one word could guide action throughout life, Confucius proposed reciprocity as the most dependable guide. &#8220;Is not reciprocity such a word? Do not do to others what you would not want done to you.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>Zhu Xi and the &#8220;investigation of things&#8221; + Zhuangzhi generally!<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Confucius noted that at seventy he could follow the desires of his heart without transgressing moral principles. If the heart is aligned, this avowal implies, one\u2019s desires will guide one to moral action. With faith in the four innate tendencies of compassion, shame, modesty, and a sense of right and wrong, Mencius valued feelings as noble sentiments grounded in genuine yearnings for goodness. According to Mencius, by nurturing vital qi, courage, and temperament, one could strengthen moral intentions, avoid distraction from the heart-mind, and achieve resonance with the universe. Though less sanguine about human nature, Xunzi also recommended controlling passions for good ends. Nurturing desires and feelings thus became one of literary culture\u2019s key functions&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>These lines from &#8220;Crickets&#8221;: &#8220;The crickets are in the hall; \/ The years and months pass on. \/ If we do not rejoice today \/ The sun and moons will run on.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;The absence of a specific persona is common in classical Chinese poetry, especially landscape poetry, and it is regrettable that translation often requires adding a subject, for the ambiguity could be an artistic response to questions of selfhood. Instead of glorifying an individual subject, Chinese poems often efface the self. Softening the distinction between \u201csubject\u201d and \u201cobject,\u201d such poems offer reflections on the world less mediated by individual personality.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>The longstanding Chinese bias against (literary) fiction and its disparagement as &#8220;little talk&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;The first emperor of the Wei Kingdom (220\u201365), Cao Pi (187\u2013226), celebrated literature as the greatest accomplishment in managing a country. Contrasting the endurance of literary works with the inevitable exhaustion of a lifespan and the passing of honor and pleasure with the body\u2019s death, Cao cast writing as a way of addressing the terror of time\u2019s passing.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>Like its parent novel, <em>Supplement to Journey to the West<\/em> (1641) offers a trenchant social satire combined with a masterful Buddhist allegory about the ways passions (<em>qing<\/em>) can imprison the heart. Ensnarled by Mackerel (<em>qing<\/em>, a homophone for passion) in a series of hallucinations, Monkey broadens his perspective to see the nature of desire, its delusions, and his own conditioned tendencies. As he does, the point of view shifts from his perspective to more omniscient narration, just one of several consciously crafted literary techniques. Short by the standards of the time, this sixteen-chapter midquel features a Tower of Myriad Mirrors, a group of space-walkers chiseling a hole in the firmament, and other surreal elements that make the novel ripe for psychoanalytic readings as dreamwork on anxiety.<\/li>\n<li>In one of [<em>The\u00a0Dream of the Red Chamber&#8217;s]<\/em>\u00a0most vivid scenes, Baoyu finds Daiyu burying fallen flowers to protect them from trampling. &#8220;I have a flower grave in that corner. Today I\u2019ll sweep all the petals into this silk bag and bury them. With time they\u2019ll rejoin the earth.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;True, in spite of my own conviction, I could not blot out hope, for hope lies in the future.\u201d Such hope for human-led progress departs from traditional conceptions of nature\u2019s cycles and heaven\u2019s will. Revolutionaries seek to reform political, economic, and social institutions because they believe that, unlike fate, these institutions can be changed. Committed to showing that injustice and suffering were caused by people with power rather than by destiny, Lu Xun, Mao Dun (1896\u20131981), and others founded the League of Left-Wing Writers in 1930&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>Gao Xingjian&#8217;s 1983 play\u00a0<em>Bus Stop<\/em><\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Mao Dun\u2019s name (a nom-de-plume, and homophone for \u201ccontradiction\u201d) signaled his embrace of Marxism, and his fiction chronicles the structural contradictions crippling China\u2019s economy. In \u201cSpring Silkworms\u201d (1932), a guileless peasant family\u2019s tender care of their silkworms yields abundant cocoons, but their superstitions blind them to the collapse of their market. And in Mao\u2019s naturalistic Midnight (1933), a textile industrialist learns through successive losses the insufficiency of national capital to withstand foreign economic imperialism. Because portrayals of crushing socio-economic conditions argued for national revolution, leftists championed such realist fiction and drama. Realism\u2019s importance was confirmed by the Compendium of Chinese New Literature (1935), a collection increasingly influential after the Japanese invasion (1937\u201345), the civil war, and CCP cultural policies restricted other sources.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Zhang was also one of the first writers to return to themes of romantic love, long forbidden during the Mao era. In her controversial \u201cLove Cannot Be Forgotten,\u201d (1979), the daughter-narrator\u2019s considerations of marriage frame her reading of her dead mother\u2019s diary. As she reads, its story of her mother\u2019s unrealized love for a married man inspires five views of marriage: a \u201ccommodity exchange,\u201d a social duty, and a means of procreation, but also potentially a loving relation, and a free choice. The story provoked impassioned discussions about the ethics of extramarital affairs in the face of culturally compelled marriage, and about socialism\u2019s progress in allowing young people to postpone marriage to find love&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>Lu Xinhua\u2019s (1954\u2013) \u201cScar\u201d (1978) and other works of \u201cscar literature\u201d testified to long-suppressed sorrow and compassion. In Zhang Jie\u2019s \u201cRemorse\u201d (1979), a man cowed by his expulsion from the party forbids his son to join a mass memorial service (an implicit protest of Mao\u2019s regime). After the son, his spirit broken, dies of an ordinary infection, the father\u2019s reinstatement in the party offers him little solace: \u201cHe had not even done the most basic thing: communicate to his dearest beloved son belief in truth.\u201d Guilt also plagues the protagonist of Dai Houying\u2019s (1938\u201396) <em>Humanity, Oh<\/em> <em>Humanity!<\/em> (1980, translated as <em>Stones of the Wall<\/em>). In her novel, multiple points of view and vivid flashbacks illustrate the piecemeal nature of memory and historical understanding&#8221; Also&#8211;prison literature, literally called &#8220;big wall literature&#8221; after Cong Weixi&#8217;s\u00a0&#8220;Red Magnolias Beneath the Wall&#8221; (1979)<\/li>\n<li>Jiang Rong\u2019s (1946\u2013) best-selling <em>Wolf Totem<\/em> (2004) provoked new concern over the devastation of Mongolia\u2019s fragile grasslands. Drawing on the author\u2019s experience as one of 12 million educated urban youth sent to learn from rural peasants during the Cultural Revolution, the novel recounts a \u201csent-down\u201d youth\u2019s growing reverence for nomadic Mongolians and for the ecological balance symbolized by the wolf.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Leslie Holmes&#8217;<em> A Very Short Introduction to Communism<\/em>. (I read this from May 14-May 18). Fascinating, and a very quick read. I had a very thin grasp of what Communism looked like outside of the USSR, China, and Cuba, and this offered a good, thin, quick comparative framework and high-level overview of communism as a 20th century political system.<\/li>\n<li>Harry Redknapp&#8217;s\u00a0<em>A Man Walks On To A Pitch<\/em>. This was my vacation read. I&#8217;ve always had a soft spot for &#8216;Arry, and this book had a light but largely humane touch. Stories from a life in English football, and really just an gauzy exercise in hero worship and raconteurship. I still like Harry, though, in spite of myself. A real man of the people, he is.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Longform Journalism<\/h3>\n<p>A sparse month in this regard, too, but here&#8217;s the best of what I read in May:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Eamon Duffy&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nybooks.com\/articles\/2017\/04\/20\/voynich-manuscript-secret-knowledge-or-hoax\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">NYT Review of Books article on the Voynich Manuscript<\/a>. Such a strange book with an impossible curious story.<\/li>\n<li>Joshua Rothman&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/magazine\/2017\/05\/01\/rod-drehers-monastic-vision\/amp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">feature of Rod Dreher<\/a> in <em>The New Yorker<\/em>. I&#8217;d never heard of Dreher (or the Benedict Option before), but was mildly intrigued by his interest in intentional communities.<\/li>\n<li>Mary Williams Walsh&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2017\/05\/05\/business\/dealbook\/puerto-rico-debt.html?emc=edit_th_20170506&amp;nl=todaysheadlines&amp;nlid=36318574&amp;_r=0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">article on Puerto Rico&#8217;s longstanding debt problems<\/a> and some of the perils of bond financing.<\/li>\n<li>Matthew Desmond&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2017\/05\/09\/magazine\/how-homeownership-became-the-engine-of-american-inequality.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">NYT article<\/a> on owning\/renting, racial prejudice in housing &amp; housing policy, and &#8220;how homeownership became the engine of American inequality&#8221;.<\/li>\n<li>I lived for two years in the northeast of England. Three stories about football there: Alex Hess <a href=\"https:\/\/sports.vice.com\/en_uk\/article\/how-londons-economic-dominance-is-strangling-soccer-in-the-north-east\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">in\u00a0Vice Sports <\/a>on how London&#8217;s economic might is proving ruinous to the proud football traditions in the north; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/football\/2017\/apr\/26\/grimsby-fans-hire-mariachi-band-barnet-inflatables-ban\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a Guardian article<\/a> on the eccentric resourcefulness of Grimsby (a place I lived for 3 months) fans; and Johnny McDevitt&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/society\/2017\/may\/02\/jaber-abdullah-refugee-football-asylum-seeker-barnsley\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Guardian feature on Jaber Abdullah<\/a>, a Sudanese asylum seeker who has created a football team for refugees in Barnsley (the last town I lived in before returning to the United States).<\/li>\n<li>Rebecca Solnit <a href=\"http:\/\/lithub.com\/rebecca-solnit-the-loneliness-of-donald-trump\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">writing for Literary Hub<\/a> on privilege, loneliness, and the President of the United States<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><small>Harry Redknapp reads a newspaper at Wincanton Racecourse on November 17, 2016 in Wincanton, England. (Photo by <a href=\"http:\/\/alancrowhurstpix.com\/http:\/\/alancrowhurstpix.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Alan Crowhurst<\/a>\/Getty Images)<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Books Pleased to report that I continued reading a lot for my dissertation (pleasurable reading, but of a different kind), and traveled to a work conference followed by a 2-week vacation starting at the end of the month. Both slowed my pleasure reading, as did the NBA playoffs, since I watched games in the evening [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6195,"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":"New post up on what I read for pleasure last month. Bit of a down month, but still some highlights","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":[16,17,18],"class_list":["post-6194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reading","tag-books","tag-literature","tag-reading"],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/harry-redknapp-paper-e1497284599179.jpg?resize=600%2C400&ssl=1","author_info":{"display_name":"Steel Wagstaff","author_link":"https:\/\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/author\/steel\/"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/harry-redknapp-paper-e1497284599179.jpg?fit=1195%2C718&ssl=1","featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/harry-redknapp-paper-e1497284599179.jpg?resize=600%2C600&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd6z5D-1BU","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6298,"url":"https:\/\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/my-october-and-november-reading\/","url_meta":{"origin":6194,"position":0},"title":"My October and November Reading","author":"Steel Wagstaff","date":"November 27, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"In my last reading update, I mentioned that I had read the first book in Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series. Since then, apart from reading for my dissertation, that's pretty much\u00a0all\u00a0I've read. I just finished\u00a0The Yellow Admiral, which means that I've read 18 of the 21 books (one left unfinished at\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Blog&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"https:\/\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/category\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Bollard, Photos by Clark","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/35332790134_ebb6938e70_k.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/35332790134_ebb6938e70_k.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/35332790134_ebb6938e70_k.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/35332790134_ebb6938e70_k.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/35332790134_ebb6938e70_k.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4979,"url":"https:\/\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/my-october-reading\/","url_meta":{"origin":6194,"position":1},"title":"My October 2016 Reading","author":"Steel Wagstaff","date":"November 1, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Books I wrote last month that I was on a big reading kick, and that surge of devouring books has continued in full force this month. Outside of the reading I've been doing for my dissertation and my work, here's a list of the books I read for pleasure\/self-education in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;What I'm Reading&quot;","block_context":{"text":"What I'm Reading","link":"https:\/\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/category\/reading\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"People reading the newspaper on a bench in the street after the American moon landing July 21, 1969","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/tumblr_mx1olyYcw11sfie3io1_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C774&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/tumblr_mx1olyYcw11sfie3io1_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C774&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/tumblr_mx1olyYcw11sfie3io1_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C774&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/tumblr_mx1olyYcw11sfie3io1_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C774&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/tumblr_mx1olyYcw11sfie3io1_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C774&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6078,"url":"https:\/\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/my-november-reading\/","url_meta":{"origin":6194,"position":2},"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 &quot;What I'm Reading&quot;","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":6198,"url":"https:\/\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/my-june-2017-reading\/","url_meta":{"origin":6194,"position":3},"title":"My June 2017 Reading","author":"Steel Wagstaff","date":"July 3, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Books The good news? I read a lot for my dissertation in June 2017. Even better news? Much of it was pleasurable (at least for me)--a lot of \"Objectivist\" poetry, biographical material on Williams and Zukofsky, and histories of late 1920s-early 1930s little magazines. I won't list any of it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;What I'm Reading&quot;","block_context":{"text":"What I'm Reading","link":"https:\/\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/category\/reading\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"boy reading in garden","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/8515538001_4a12feab52_k.jpg?fit=1022%2C688&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/8515538001_4a12feab52_k.jpg?fit=1022%2C688&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/8515538001_4a12feab52_k.jpg?fit=1022%2C688&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/8515538001_4a12feab52_k.jpg?fit=1022%2C688&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6188,"url":"https:\/\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/my-april-2017-reading\/","url_meta":{"origin":6194,"position":4},"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 &quot;What I'm Reading&quot;","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":6310,"url":"https:\/\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/2017-my-year-in-reading\/","url_meta":{"origin":6194,"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. One of my goals for the year was to read less internet-based news and more books, and I think I was more or less successful, though some months were better for reading\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Blog&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"https:\/\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/category\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/8703997248_274eea3496_k-e1515010915522.jpg?fit=1196%2C735&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/8703997248_274eea3496_k-e1515010915522.jpg?fit=1196%2C735&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/8703997248_274eea3496_k-e1515010915522.jpg?fit=1196%2C735&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/8703997248_274eea3496_k-e1515010915522.jpg?fit=1196%2C735&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/8703997248_274eea3496_k-e1515010915522.jpg?fit=1196%2C735&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6194"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6194\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6196,"href":"https:\/\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6194\/revisions\/6196"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steelwagstaff.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}