What’s it all about?
Reading matters
Here is mostly a place for me to keep track of what I’m reading. Yes, it’s more for me than it is for you. But I hope that those of you who drop by will find something of interest, whether that be discovering a new book, rediscovering your love of reading, or even learning something interesting about the history of books.
No stars here…
You’ll find no four-out-of-five-star reviews here. I’m not convinced they’re useful; they’re certainly not reliable, skewed as they are by trolls and marketing money and and whether a book was adapted for the screen, for example. I suspect that ratings might even be inimical to discovering more and better books.
And you won’t find comprehensive reviews here either. I have neither the time nor desire to review a dozen books each month. There are already plenty of excellent book reviewers out there (some of whom do it for a living). Lit Hub is a pretty good place to start, and the London Review of Books is exceptional.
Finally, — and I want to stress this — when I say that I dislike a book or that it bores me, or that I just don’t get it, it’s not an objective judgment of that book’s literary merits or otherwise. It’s simply my opinion, formed by my own evidently subjective tastes.
If you’re curious about what I’m reading each month, check out my monthly reads.
If you’d like to read a book I’ve written, then order Typographic Firsts or preorder Remarkable Renaissance Books, both published by Bodleian Library Publishing at Oxford University.
What’s the first rule of book club? Answers on a postcard, please.
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