OF EXPERIENCE, by Michel de Montaigne.

An essay of extraordinary value.

(I have The Complete Montaigne, a book that includes all his essays and travel writings). Highly recommended for everyone.

I love Montaigne. I discovered him completely by accident. Is that the Frame translation you have?

It is. It is the best.

In the early 70s I was supposed to drive to El Paso for Christmas. I got about 100 miles out of town and they started broadcasting blizzard warnings over the radio. I didn't want to screw with it, so I turned around and drove back to Austin. I stopped at a liquor store to get a bottle of Irish Whiskey and then walked across the street to a used book store to get something to read, and some UT professor had just dropped off a crate of books. I grabbed the thickest one and it was a review copy of Frame's Montaigne and that's how I spent my winter vacation -- instead of watching a lousy game at the Sun Bowl.

I've loved Montaigne ever since and always think of his essay On Drunkenness every time I order a bottle of wine.

It's one of those great books -- sorta like Shakespeare's curses or Boswell's Life of Johnson -- where you can open it at any time, read a couple of pages, and be edified. He's easily the greatest essayist of all time until, maybe, the advent of Flip Wilson.

Montaigne is the nuts.

Started reading Bill Bryson's Neither Here Nor There. An account of his travels in Europe as a young person.

Seems to be pretty typical Bryson, warm, witty, well-written.

Now that I thought on the matter The Hustons by Lawrence Grobel I read in the last century I remember as engaging

Truly enjoyed The Big Goodbye, thanks for the rec. Some crazy ish in there.

Finished The Silence: A Novel by Don Delillo. Meh.

As I was first getting into it, I remember thinking that Delillo had fallen into a common successful writer trap of trying to write like himself, but in the end, I thought he was either worn out at age 83 or just turned out a novel not up to his best work. Its best quality is its brevity.

I tried reading some Montaigne the other day, On Friendship to be specific, and on like the third or fourth page of the essay he talks about how women aren't capable of it (friendship) so I stopped reading.

Interesting. What was his reasoning?

Time to cancel this Montaigne misogynist once and for all.

When reading Revelations of St. John and coming to the part about The Whore of Babylon, I was very much encouraged to continue reading and enjoyed all the subsequent text.

Was she friendly? (I'm pretty sure Revelations is describing an acid trip, but haven't read it in many decades.)

Re-read Stoner by John Williams. I first read Stoner around 2013/2014 when it was "revived." It has held up well.

It's my idea of how to tell a story: people act and things happen, memories close to real memories are created, and the author stays out of the way, trusting the reader to understand the message in the facts.

Reading Sports From Hell by Rick Reilly. It's a book about weird sports in which he competed. The first two are the World Sauna Championship and Ferret Legging. Pretty meh.

Also The Ecstasy of Defeat from The Onion (America's Finest News Source). A compilation of stories from them over the years.

For those that might not know, The Onion is a comedy news site which makes over-the-top stories about sports, politics, whatever.

One of the stories is titled "New York Jets Finish Season", which went on to say how they made it through an entire season, despite the doubts of many.

This story was dated January 12, 2006. The more things change...

Is The Body by Bill Bryson worth reading? Really liked A Short History of Nearly Everything, albeit I read it over fifteen years ago probably.

been on a WWII non fiction binge.

just finished operation paperclip and the rise and fall of the third reich both were fascinating.
obv love band of brothers (book n show).

would love some suggestions for other great books on the subject.

Just finished Billion Dollar Loser which is about Adam Neumann and the whole WeWork fiasco. It’s incredible how delusional this guy and his wife were. Very good read.

If he had never attempted to go public I’m guessing COVID would have exposed the leaks anyway. Wild story

Not WWII, but for WWI, Rites of Spring by Modris Eksteins

And general rec for anyone interested in WWI: They Shall Not Grow Old, a mind-blowing documentary

If you liked Band of Brothers, two other good memoirs are Boy's Crusade by Paul Fussell, and With the Old Breed by E B Sledge.

Fussell has written a bunch of stuff and it is all good.

RBK,

Rick Atkinson's trilogy on the USA#9 experience in the second world war was brilliant. An Army At Dawn; Day Of Battle; and Guns At Last Light. He deals with the war at the level of the political, strategic, tactical and absurd. His writing is excellent and at times drove me to tears; his research is detailed and meticulous. i've recommended these to a few people and everyone who has given me feedback agrees they were excellent.

Also Richard Rhodes' The Making Of The Atomic Bomb -- won a pulitzer and deservedly so. Some history of physics prior to the war, but obviously war-related. I couldn't put it down.

+1 to They Shall Not Grow Old.