One of the agrarian shelves in the library.
Reading this weekend: a list of the titles referenced occasionally at the end of my weekly blog from 2015. I make no claim that these are worth your time. Some were useful to me and some I enjoyed. And to take Dorothy Parker’s advice, some should not be put down lightly, but thrown with great force.
January
Reading this weekend: The Empty Throne by Bernard Cornwell. The master novelist of manly historical fiction has done it again. If you aren’t prepared to stand in the shield wall alongside Uhtred, then you better pass. Also, just started The Emergent Agriculture: farming, sustainability and the return of the local economy by Gary Kleppel.
Reading this weekend: Home Gardening in the South by H.C. Thompson, Farmers’ Bulletin 934, USDA, February, 1918.
February
Reading this weekend: Lost Country Life by Dorothy Hartley
Reading this weekend: The Crowded Grave by Martin Walker, Our Only World by Wendell Berry and A Guide to the Good Life: the ancient art of stoic joy by William Irvine.
Reading this weekend: The Pig: a British history by Julian Wiseman
March
Reading this weekend: Ancient Herbs by Jeanne D’Andrea
Reading this weekend: Cultivating an Ecological Conscience: essays from a farmer philosopher by Frederick L. Kirschenman<
April
Reading this weekend: The Edge of Extinction: travels with enduring peoples in vanishing lands by Jules Pretty. One of the better works I have read this year. The author focuses on the collapse of traditional communities and their ties to the land.
May
Reading this weekend: The Generous Earth by Philip Oyler. And Much Ado about Mutton by Bob Kennard
Reading this weekend: Foragers, Farmers and Fossil Fuels: how human values evolve by Ian Morris
Reading this weekend (again): The Hour by DeVoto. What is not to love about a man who can write the following opening paragraph: “We are a pious people but a proud one too, aware of a noble lineage and a great literature. Let us candidly admit that there are shameful blemishes on the American past, of which by far the worst is rum.”
June
Reading this weekend: Waking Up To the Dark: ancient wisdom for a sleepless age by Clark Strand (2015). A quick read, of some interest to me, about the impact of light on our nature. Ultimately it was more than a bit too new-agey for my tastes.
Reading this week: Lesser Beasts: a snout to tail history of the humble pig by Mark Essig. Another nice addition to bookshelf on the rich history of the pig.
Reading this weekend: Revolt of the Angels by Anatole France
July
Reading this weekend: Peter May’s The Blackhouse and The Flickering Mind by Todd Openheimer
Reading this weekend: God Against the Gods: the history of the war between monotheism and polytheism by Jonathan Kirsch.
August
Reading this weekend: 200 Classic Chess Problems by Frank Healey. That explains the lack of new output on the blog. Fiendishly elegant ways to not get anything done this Sunday.
Reading this weekend: Pawpaw: in search of America’s forgotten fruit by Andrew Moore.
Reading this weekend: The Art of Stillness: adventures in going nowhere by Pico Iyer. And, Journey of the Universe by Swimme and Tucker.
September
Still reading through the new book Pawpaw this weekend in preparation for a “pawpaw picking party” next week.
October
Reading this weekend: Marcus Terentius Varro’s, On Agriculture.
Reading this weekend: Marcus Cato’s On Agriculture.
November
Reading this weekend: Book of Tripe: and gizzards, kidneys, feet, brains and all the rest by Stephane Reynaud.
Reading this weekend: The Nordic Cookbook by Magnus Nilsson. The perfect book in case you get marooned on the Faroe islands and have to cure a joint of mutton.
December
Reading this weekend: Animate Earth by Stephan Harding
