Milo and the Calf

Author: seanv2

  • Reading Egypt

    During law school I spent a summer in Egypt. I made many friends and read my fair share of books. Someone once said to understand a people, read their poetry. I’m not a poetry fan, but here are some of the best Egyptian authors or books about Egypt that I have read. I don’t read…

  • Review: Shakespeare’s Richard III

    Richard the Third, William Shakespeare, Folger Edition Richard the III is one of the most quoted of all Shakespeare’s plays (“My kingdom for a horse!), it is a title role all serious Shakespearean actors wish to play, and it is a huge step forward in the Bard’s writing from the Henry VI trilogy. This is…

  • Review: Rubenstein’s Aristotle’s Children

    Aristotle’s Children: How Christians, Muslims, and Jews Rediscovered Ancient Wisdom and Illuminated the Middle Ages Richard Rubenstein I have for some time been interested in the interplay between classical Greek philosophy, rabbinic Judaism, and early Christian thought. Neo-platonic thought and early Christian doctrine share a lot in common, and Aristotle had a clear influence on…

  • Friday Inspiration: Hardrock

    The legendary Hardrock 100, one of the toughest mountain races in the world, is underway. You can see the live coverage on irunfar twitter feed and read their extensive coverage of the race here. This course is built for Kilian Jornet, and even though he’s barely run this year, he’s still the favorite. I’d also…

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    Review: Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors

    Comedy of Errors (Arden Shakespeare) William Shakespeare When I decided, years ago, to read the Bard’s works in chronological order, who knew that was going to be such a trying ordeal? I warn you, before you get to Lear and Hamlet you have to go through the long and turgid Richard the VI and the silly…

  • Notes on Reading All of the Shakespeare Plays

    Last year, I completed a project I’d been working on for years – to read the complete works of the Bard, in chronological order. It was a very up and down affair. You have to kiss a lot of frogs (King John, Comedy of Errors) before you find the princes (Hamlet (ha!), Lear, the HIVs).…

  • Review: Rubenstein’s When Jesus Became God

    When Jesus Became God: The Struggle to Define Christianity during the Last Days of Rome Richard E. Rubenstein From the perspective of a modern westerner, it is hard to understand how amorphous the early Christian movements were. In the first few hundred years after the death of Christ, much of what we now take for…

  • Review: Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus

    Titus Andronicus (Arden Shakespeare: Third Series) William Shakespeare Is this the most disturbing of Shakespeare’s plays? If it isn’t, it is close. Titus Andronicus returns from war, triumphant, but his cruelty to his captive, Tamora, queen of the Goths, sets of a spiral of increasingly horrific acts of vengeance.  The violence is copious and horrific:…

  • Review: Thaler and Sunstein’s Nudge

    Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein In my final year of law school, Nudge was the book that was under every policy wonk’s arm. It’s not surprising that in the early days of the Obama administration, the khaki’ed masses of Du Pont circle wanted to read the first…

  • 2010: My Year in Books

    Note: I am in the long, slow process of moving the many, many things I’ve written for various other blogs/ websites. livejournals, etc over here. I’m not moving everything, but if its something of substance, or something I want to remember, it’s getting a home here. As my post on every book I read in…