In which I’ve decided, in an effort to keep my mind from rotting in my head, to read, or in most cases re-read, the following works. This list is incomplete.
Shakespeare
Sonnets (in progress)
Oscar Wilde
The Ballad of Reading Gaol (done)
The Picture of Dorian Gray (done)
The Portrait of Mr. W.H. (done)
An Ideal Husband
Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime (done)
Plato
The Republic
Xenophon
Anabasis
The Memorable Thoughts of Socrates
The awesome part about reading public domain works is that I can download them (using Stanza on my iThing) from Project Gutenberg for free!
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Hooray for a reader of poetry and now unasked I add to your list….Herodotus – the king of historic anecdote, Pliny – for the animal stories, Chekhov – because we need to save our forests and who doesn’t want to have a samovar on hand as we do it? Ted Hughes and Les Murray – between them the voice of poetry in the modern age, Michael Pollan especially A Place of My Own (he’s one of yours), Roger McDonald novelist with every poetic sensibility (he’s one of ours)…okay stop me now!!
Oh! Samovar! I used to have one. I should get another. Samovars rule. And thanks for the list! -m
You had a samovar???!!!! It’s one of my dreams to have one steaming away on my desk! Tea on tap and a dog asleep at your toes. Perhaps you should introduce both at your new job….
I have no idea where he got it, but yeah – I had a bitchin’ electric samovar for awhile that my ex dragged home from somewhere. (It’s probably still out at the farm, unless he got organized and threw all my old shit away.) It rocked in the winter time with the lovely steam and the “all the tea all the time” and the grooviness. I should have brought it with me but only had limited space in my jeep. -m