29th January to the 4th of February 2024
January books and 'high impact-to-proficiency ratios languages'
January books
I read a few books in January
John Betjeman - Collins Pocket Guide to English Parish Churches
JB's criteria for inclusion of churches in the book includes those that are:
"aesthetically worth bicycling twelve miles against the wind to see”
I’ve been adding the Suffolk and Norfolk churches to a Google Map, ready for exploring later in the year.William Shakespeare - Julius Caesar
I read this, my second play by WS, largely due to finding a lovely version of the work with illustrations by the designer and typographer Eric Gill1.Harold Bloom - Shakespeare's Julius Caesar
A useful short commentary - “Why is it so easy for the conspirators to murder him? His power…is all but absolute; where is his security apparatus? Where indeed are his guards?” - Why indeed?William Shakespeare - Romeo and Juliet
I did not know the ending in advance, I was not expecting the ending, what an ending!Michael Ignatieff - Isaiah Berlin - A Life
Nuanced and detailed exploration of the British philosopher and historian.Various - Norfolk country churches and the future
Published in 1973, a collection of essays:
”Norfolk would not be Norfolk without a church tower on the horizon or round a corner up the lane. We cannot spare a single Norfolk church. When a church has been pulled down the country seems empty or is like a necklace with a jewel missing. Every Norfolk church that is left standing today, however dim, neglected and forgotten it looks, is loved by someone or it would have disappeared long ago.”Katharine Gilbert - Studies in Recent Aesthetic
Published in 1927. I’m still digesting this, more next time.
”This little book contains six essays on the philosophy of beauty. The complexity of the subject, a complexity which seemed to grow under my eyes like the tiny Japanese paperflowers children plant in a bowl of water, deterred me for the time being from the presumption of a systematic treatment”
On language learning
From In the Land of Invented Languages by Arika Okrent on the benefit of picking languages to learn ’with high impact-to-proficiency ratios‘.
Pretty good Hungarian gets you a lot more love in Budapest than perfect French buys you in Paris, and one well-placed word of Ibo to a Nigerian taxi driver can reward you with enough compliments to beat back the insecurities from all other parts of your life for a week.
You don’t even need ‘pretty good’. Before visiting Estonia a few years ago I learnt a dozen phrases in that language and once there received surprised smiles and acknowledgements in bars, shops, restaurants and train stations. No one expects a foreigner to try a ‘small’ language and everyone is pleased.
Gill gave us the classic Gill Sans typeface
You’re finding some great woodcut illustrations to go with your always-interesting thoughts. I’ve been making a few in the last year, pretty ineptly as a beginner. It’s hard work.
Gill is one of those classic artists where you may have to love the art but not the artist. I’ll leave that out there. Keep up the sharing, it’s very thought provoking.