What I have been reading recently

Satori, books — Stephen on 24 June 2009 @ 3:55 PM — 1 comment

Reading the OED (One Man, One Year, 21,730 Pages), by Ammon Shea

Being the lover of vocabulary and obscure words that I am, I find this account of reading the Oxford English Dictionary to be extremely enticing and uproarious in places. Each letter of the alphabet is a chapter, with a brief story followed by selections of definitions from that letter.

The Book of Dead Philosophers, by Simon Critchley

Being fairly recently obsessed with how we relate to dying and nonexistence, I find this recounting of the circumstances of 190 or so philosophers’ deaths through the ages to be compelling reading indeed.