Merry Wanderer of the Night [Search results for montaigne readalong] 

The Montaigne Readalong is a year long project in which I try to read over 1,000 pages of Montaigne's essays. Every Monday I write about the essays I read for the week. You can share your thoughts or join the readalong if you'd like, just check the Montaigne Readalong schedule. You can read several of these essays for free on Google Books or subscribe to Montaigne's essays on Daily Lit.

I took a little break from my Montaigne readalong this month for no reason other than I felt I needed one. I am now picking up from where I left off.

Essays Read this Week:

1. Judgements on God's ordinances must be embarked upon with prudence
2. On feeling from pleasures at the cost of one's life
3. Fortune is often found in Reason's train
4. Something lacking in our civil administrations
5. On the custom of wearing clothing
6. On Cato the Younger
7. How we weep and laugh at the same thing

Favorite Quotations:
"The world is not so completely corrupt that we cannot find even one man who would not gladly wish to see his inherited wealth able to be used (as long as Fortune lets him enjoy it) to provide shelter for great men who are renowned for some particular achievement but who have been reduced to extreme poverty by their misfortunes; he could at least give them enough assistance that it would be unreasonable for them not be satisfied" (Something lacking in our civil administrations).

"Just because I feel that I am pledged to my individual form, I do not bind all others to it as everyone else does: I can conceive and believe that there are thousands of different ways of living and, contrary to most men, I more readily acknowledge our differences than our similarities... My one desire is that each of us should be judged apart and that conclusions about me should not be drawn from routine exempla" (On Cato the Younger).

General Thoughts:

The first essay that really grabbed my attention in this group was Something lacking in our civil administrations. Montaigne talks about an idea his father had about a place where people could report their wants and needs. Kind of like Craigslist. If someone needed a worker they would report it, and if someone needed work they would report it. Ideally these two people would be matched up. Montaigne said that men are perpetually in a state of want because they are unable to find those who are able to fulfill their needs. At the end of the essay he talks about two great scholars who died of hunger. He felt that if these two men had only come forward about their situation there would have been people willing to help them, but since they did not they died.

On the custom of wearing clothing was interesting mostly because it showed a sense of modern anthropology that put Montaigne ahead of his time. He talks about how humans probably don't need clothes because our bodies should be able to adapt to climates just like other animals. This stems from ideas about the New World and travels of Herodotus, which both include civilizations who lived in the nude. He mentions that we leave sensitive parts of our bodies, ears, nose, fingers and so on bare to the world, so why do we cover up the rest of our bodies?

The final essay I read, How we weep and laugh at the same thing was actually a little disappointing. I love the idea of conflicting emotions but I didn't feel Montaigne really pushed it. Most of his examples were about a person looking at someone else and seeing them from a different perspective. Perhaps they were happy they had won a war but realized that someday they would all lose the war between life and death. The essay was only four pages and it just didn't feel finished to me.

I am an Amazon Affiliate. If you make a purchase using one of my links I will earn a small percentage which will then go back into this blog.

The Montaigne Readalong is a year long project in which I try to read over 1,000 pages of Montaigne's essays. Every Monday I write about the essays I read for the week. You can share your thoughts or join the readalong if you'd like, just check the Montaigne Readalong schedule. You can read several of these essays for free on Google Books or subscribe to Montaigne's essays on Daily Lit.

Essays Read this Week:
1. That it is madness to judge the true and the false from our own capacities
2. On affectionate relationships
3. Nine-and-twenty sonnets of Estienne de La Boetie

Favorite Quotations:
"How many of the things which constantly come into our purview must be deemed monstrous or miraculous if we apply such terms to anything which outstrips our reason! If we consider that we have to grope through a fog even to understand the very things we hold in our hands, then we will certainly find that it is not knowledge but habit which takes away their strangeness." (That it is madness to judge the true and the false)

"And in truth what are these Essays if not monstrosities and grotesques botched together from a variety of limbs having no defined shape, with an order sequence and proportion which are purely fortuitous?" (On affectionate relationships)

General Thoughts:
I can't decide if the order of Montaigne's essays just happen to line up with my thoughts this year or if I'm just reading too much of my own thoughts into his writing, but over the past several weeks it's seemed like Montaigne and I have just been on the same page.

This week I read On affectionate relationships, which was fitting because I've been thinking a lot about friendship. When I went home over spring break I had a strong desire to get back together with old friends. I did get together with a couple of friends I've stayed in touch with since high school, but I didn't see either of the people who were really my best friends in high school. I did run into some people who were good friends of mine, and it was just like seeing a stranger. The loss of old friendships has been painful for me. In On affectionate relationships Montaigne describes a kind of friendship in which the friends will do anything for each and other and are really a part of each other.

"Moreover what we normally call friends and friendships are no more than acquaintances and familiar relationships bound by some change or some suitability, by means of which our souls support each other. In the friendship which I am talking about, souls are mingled and confounded in so universal a blending that they efface the seam which joins them together so that it cannot be found. If you press me to say why I loved him, I that it cannot be expressed except by replying: 'Because it was him: because it was me.'"

I just really loved that quote because I think it perfectly sums up my ideas on friendship. The majority of my friends now are really just familiar relations. We have parties, go out for coffee, and so on, but I don't feel like I know them that well or like they know me that well. It's crazy to think about now, but the only people who I feel really know me are my friends from high school who are still my friends today. I never thought I would stay in touch with so many people from high school, the whole point of college is to branch out and meet new people right? But I've found that friendships are largely disappointing, and the only people who really have my back are the people who watched me through my awkward teenage years.


I am an Amazon Affiliate. If you make a purchase using one of my links I will earn a small percentage which will then go back into this blog.

The Montaigne Readalong is a year long project in which I try to read over 1,000 pages of Montaigne's essays. Every Monday I write about the essays I read for the week. You can share your thoughts or join the readalong if you'd like, just check the Montaigne Readalong schedule. You can read several of these essays for free on Google Books or subscribe to Montaigne's essays on Daily Lit.

Note: I'm posting this on Thursday rather than Monday because I was participating in a book tour on Monday.

Essays Read this Week:
1. On the power of imagination
2. One man's profit is another man's loss
3. On habit: and on never easily changing traditional law

Favorite Quotations:
"When imaginary thoughts trouble us we break into sweats, start trembling, grow pale or flush crimson; we lie struck supine on our featherbeds and feel our bodies agitated by such emotions; some even die from them." (On the power of imagination)

"Married folk have time at their disposal: if they are not ready the should not try to rush things. Rather than fall into perpetual wretchedness by being struck with despair at a first rejection, it is better to fail to make it properly on the marriage-couch, full as it is of feverish agitation, and to wait for an opportune moment, more private and less challenging. Before processing his wife, a man who suffers a rejection should make gentle assays and overtures with various little sallies; he should not stubbornly persist in proving himself inadequate once and for all. Those who know that their member is naturally obedient should merely take care to out-trick their mental apprehensions." (On the power of imagination)

General Thoughts:
This week was essentially sex advice from Montaigne. What a dirty dead white guy. Okay, he wasn't that dirty, but he does seem awfully concerned with the performance of men's members during sex. On the power of imagination was an essay about our ability to convince ourselves bad things will happen. I can totally relate to this. I am the queen of psyching myself out. If you go into something thinking it will be bad, it will probably be bad. Montaigne has several examples of this, almost all of them are related to sex. Apparently the best way to illustrate this phenomenon is discussing men who are unable to have intercourse because they are convinced they won't be able to perform.

Seriously. If you read no other Montaigne essay read this one. It has some naughty bits.

One man's profit is another man's loss. Don't think that one needs much explaining and it's only a page long.

On habit was quite interesting but drug on way too long. He talks about how others perceive what we believe is perfectly normal. My favorite example was a guy who blew his nose with his fingers because he said boogers weren't special enough for him to blow them in a hanky and carry them around all day. Classic. Not all of his examples are boogers though. He lists several things that are considered normal in other cultures, like burning their dead and polygamy and nose rings, but that seem odd to Europeans. Then he turns the tables and writes about things other cultures probably find odd and he does so in such a way that makes the reader see the strangeness of these things too. Basically, everyone is weird.

Questions:
1. Would you take sex advice from a dead man?
2. Are boogers special?

I am an Amazon Affiliate. If you make a purchase using one of my links I will earn a small percentage which will then go back into this blog.

The Montaigne Readalong is a year long project in which I try to read over 1,000 pages of Montaigne's essays. Every Monday I write about the essays I read for the week. You can share your thoughts or join the readalong if you'd like, just check the Montaigne Readalong schedule. You can read several of these essays for free on Google Books

Essays Read this Week:
1. We reach the same the same end by discrepant means
2. On sadness
3. Our emotions get carried away beyond us
4. How the soul discharges its emotions against false objects when lacking real ones
5. Whether the governor of a besieged fortress should go out and parley
6. The hour of parleying is dangerous

I read quite a few short essays this week so instead of talking about all of them I'm just going to talk about the three that interested me the most, which were On sadness, Our emotions get carried away beyond us, and How the soul discharges its emotions against false objects when lacking real ones. Throughout these three essay the main subject is obviously emotions. In On sadness he refers to sadness as the Italian tristezza, which I always thought meant more melancholy than sad, but I could be wrong about that. Montaigne talks about the danger of sadness and he seems to think it is a bit of a showy emotion. One thing the essay made me think of is that age old question of "Can you be happy and be a writer or artist?" I think Montaigne would argue that you can-- and should.

He also discusses different types of sadness, talking about a story (which he often does) in which a man sees his daughter working as a servant and his son led to execution with no reaction on his face, but when a friend of his is brought in a negative situation he becomes very sorrowful. When asked about his emotions the man said the first two could basically not be expressed properly so it was better to not express any emotion at all. Montaigne also suggests that it was the build-up over time that made the man express sorrow during the last incident rather than the first two. Later he says, "We cannot display our grief or our convictions during the living searing heat of the attack; the soul is then burdened by deep thought and the body is cast down, languishing for love" (9-10). He ends On sadness saying that he is not controlled by violent emotions, but that he controls them by arguments, which I thought might mean he believes analyzing or essaying the world allows him to control his feelings, which is something I definitely feel as someone who writes essays. However, my essays are often drawn by emotions, which forces me to ask if Montaigne is bluffing?

He carries on these ideas in Our emotions get carried away beyond us, but focuses more on the relationship between body and soul. In this essay he wonders by humans worry so much about what will happen to them after death, citing many humorous stories about human burials, when their body is really not "them" it is their soul that is them and their soul will not be in the ground. At least that is how I understand it. While his main argument is about death, I took away more of a "Don't worry about the future, focus on the now," message from the essay.

In the final essay I want to talk about, How the soul discharges its emotions against false objects when lacking real ones, he talks about people placing their emotions on a physical manifestation rather than dealing with whatever emotion they have (perhaps through essaying or observing the world around them). He says, "it seems that the soul too, in the same way, loses itself in itself when shaken and disturbed unless it is given something to grasp on to; and so we must always provide it with an object to butt up against and to act upon" (19).

Questions from This Week:
1. What do you think is the best way to deal with strong emotions? Do you react to small upsets more violently than big ones because you don't know how to react?
2. Do you displace your emotions just so you have something to make you feel better? Do you think this works?
3. If you read any of these essays, which one stuck out the most to you and why?

I am an Amazon Affiliate. If you make a purchase using one of my links I will earn a small percentage which will then go back into this blog.

The Montaigne Readalong is a year long project in which I try to read over 1,000 pages of Montaigne's essays. Every Monday I write about the essays I read for the week. You can share your thoughts or join the readalong if you'd like, just check the Montaigne Readalong schedule. You can read several of these essays for free on Google Books or subscribe to Montaigne's essays on Daily Lit.

Essays Read this Week:
1. On moderation
2. On the Cannibals

Favorite Quotations:
"True victory lies in your role in the conflict, not in coming through safely: it consists in the honour of battling bravely battling through." (On the Cannibals)

"I wish everyone would write only what he knows--not in this matter only but in all others. A man may well have detailed knowledge or experience of the nature of one particular river or stream, yet about all the others he knows only what everyone else does; but in order to trot out his little scrap of knowledge he will write a book on the whole physics! From this vice many inconveniences arise." (On the Cannibals)

General Thoughts:
On the Cannibals is frequently taught in nonfiction writing classes, or at least it is at Iowa, which is why it makes me think not so much about the essay itself as nonfiction writing. That last quote in my favorite quotations about writing what you know, I think that is my biggest takeaway from this essay. Montaigne is really interested in judgement and the the human tendency to think there is only one way to do something. Your way. Culture to culture we all do things a little differently and it's easy to think of the world only in your terms. I think part of what essays do is help the writer recognize the way he or she does something while still pushing their boundaries and looking at how others might do it.

So then how do you write about your experience in another culture and still acknowledge that you are not an expert on that culture? This seems to be a huge problem in travel writing. The best travel writing, I usually feel, is either completely inward or completely social. In the inward variety the author really doesn't experience much but rather writes about the displacement of being in another culture and ruminates on that. The more social kind involves the writer talking to people of that culture but acknowledging his or her outsider status and understanding.

I am struggling with this quote a little bit because it doesn't acknowledge the writer's ability to go seek out first hand knowledge from an expert. Maybe I'm struggling because I become annoyed by people who do very little research and try to pass themselves off as experts. Part of the reason I love John McPhee is he always acknowledges how stupid he is on a given topic, even if he knows more than the average person. This seems like an extremely important aspect of essay writing--no wonder I'm pulling it from Montaigne.

I am an Amazon Affiliate. If you make a purchase using one of my links I will earn a small percentage which will then go back into this blog.

The Montaigne Readalong is a year long project in which I try to read over 1,000 pages of Montaigne's essays. Every Monday I write about the essays I read for the week. You can share your thoughts or join the readalong if you'd like, just check the Montaigne Readalong schedule. You can read several of these essays for free on Google Books or subscribe to Montaigne's essays on Daily Lit.

Essays Read this Week:
1. On educating children

Favorite Quotations:
"In the case of those who wish to hide their borrowings and pass them off as their own, their action is, first and foremost, unjust and mean: they have nothing worthwhile of their own to show off so they try to recommend themselves with someone else's goods" (On educating children).

"My aim is to reveal my own self, which may well be different tomorrow if I am initiated into some new business which changes me" (On educating children).

General Thoughts:
This essay brought up a lot of the same things last week's On schoolmaster's learning brought up. Montaigne talks about problems with educating, particularly with exams well, regurgitation, "Spewing up food exactly as you have swallowed it is evidence of a failure to digest and assimilate it; the stomach has not done its job if, during concoction, it fails to change the substance and the form of what it is given." Montaigne believes education should allow you to know yourself and school should be where you form yourself. He thinks teachers give students quotations and books to read in an attempt to make the students believe those are the last words on everything. In this way students never learn how to speak for themselves. They simply say what others have already said.

"I sometimes hear people who apologize for not being able to say what they mean, maintaining that their heads are so full of fine things that they cannot deliver them for want of eloquence. That is moonshine. Do you know what I think? It is a matter of shadowy notions coming to them from some unformed concepts which they are unable to untangle and to clarify in their minds: consequently they cannot deliver them externally."

I really love the idea of learning to form yourself. I've gotten bad grades in some classes but walked out with information that really shaped my thoughts on the class topic. I've gotten A+ in some classes that I remember nothing from. These are obviously extremes, but I've often thought about going back to the professors of classes and showing them how much I actually did learn in their class-- even if it wasn't what I supposed to learn for an exam.

Questions:
1. What do you think education is for?

I am an Amazon Affiliate. If you make a purchase using one of my links I will earn a small percentage which will then go back into this blog.

The Montaigne Readalong is a year long project in which I try to read over 1,000 pages of Montaigne's essays. Every Monday I write about the essays I read for the week. You can share your thoughts or join the readalong if you'd like, just check the Montaigne Readalong schedule. You can read several of these essays for free on Google Books or subscribe to Montaigne's essays on Daily Lit.

Essays Read this Week:
1. Same design: differing outcomes
2. On schoolmasters' learning

Favorite Quotations:
"We are taught for the schoolroom, not for life." (Seneca, On schoolmasters' learning)

"Learned we may be with another man's learning: we can only be wise with wisdom of our own."(On schoolmasters' learning).

General Thoughts:
I had an intense connection with On schoolmasters' learning. I'm nearing the end of my third year in college and I've had a lot of frustration towards the university experience. I'm glad I've had the opportunity to go to college. I'm lucky to have great parents who help me pay for school and encourage me. I've had some great professors at the University of Iowa. And, after all, if I wasn't an English major this blog might not exist and that would be a shame.

That said, I don't know if I feel I've learned that much in college. In school we are required to learn a lot of information so we can take a test or write a paper, which is what Montaigne talks about in this essay. As Seneca said, "We are taught for the schoolroom, not for life." When I leave with my diploma will I really walk away any better off than I was when I came here? I will, but I'm not sure any of those things I've learned come from the classes I've taken or if they come from the experiences I've had. Life experiences. Experiences I might have had with or without college.

"We allow ourselves to lean so heavily on other men's arms that we destroy our own force." Is this the burnout I've experienced over the last year? Maybe. I feel like I'm constantly told what to think about something, what to see. I used to have my own opinions but now I have to prove everything I say using someone else's words. It's mind numbing.

Questions:
1. If you're in school do you feel like we are fed knowledge without learning anything of value?
2. If you're out of school what do you think you came away with besides a degree?

I am an Amazon Affiliate. If you make a purchase using one of my links I will earn a small percentage which will then go back into this blog.

The Montaigne Readalong is a year long project in which I try to read over 1,000 pages of Montaigne's essays. Every Monday I write about the essays I read for the week. You can share your thoughts or join the readalong if you'd like, just check the Montaigne Readalong schedule. You can read several of these essays for free on Google Books

Essays Read this Week:
1. That our deeds are judged by the intention
2. On idleness
3. On liars
4. On a ready or hesitant delivery
5. On prognostications
6. On constancy
7. Ceremonial at the meeting of the kings

Favorite Quotations:
"If I can, I will prevent my death from saying anything not first said by my life." (That our deeds are judged by the intention)
"When the soul is without a definite aim she gets lost; for, as they say, if you are everywhere you are nowhere." (On idleness)
"This, too, happens in my case: where I seek myself I cannot find myself: I discover myself more by accident than by inquiring into my judgement." (On a ready or hesitant delivery

General Thoughts:
That our deeds are judged by the intention is a good essay to live your life by, I feel, because it makes you want to put all of the grudges you have in your past, speak your mind, and let things go. This is something I really need right now because I've been holding negative thoughts in my mind all year and I really just need to move past them.

Montaigne spends a good portion of On liars talking about his bad memory. It was really interesting for me to think of the "father of the essay" as someone with a bad memory because the essay is so connected to memory today. Even so, he had a beautiful description of memories, "they make a deep imprint by means of awareness and knowledge; it is hard for those facts not to spring to mind and to dislodge the falsehoods." This is interesting to think about today when so many nonfiction writers do take artistic liberties with their work. I think Montaigne would not approve of blatant lies in nonfiction, but I don't know how he would feel about light coloring. It would be interesting to hear what he thinks about artistic license.

In On a ready or hesitant delivery he spends the latter part of the essay talking about how he accidentally finds himself when he is writing, then walks away from what he wrote only to come back and not understand it. It is only when someone else reads it and finds the meaning again that he can come to understand it.

Questions:
1. Do you even find yourself accidentally? Does it have anything to do with writing?
2. Do you have a difficult time letting things go in your life? Do you struggle with saying what you feel?

I am an Amazon Affiliate. If you make a purchase using one of my links I will earn a small percentage which will then go back into this blog.

The Montaigne Readalong is a year long project in which I try to read over 1,000 pages of Montaigne's essays. Every Monday I write about the essays I read for the week. You can share your thoughts or join the readalong if you'd like, just check the Montaigne Readalong schedule. You can read several of these essays for free on Google Books or subscribe to Montaigne's essays on Daily Lit.

Note: I'm posting this on Thursday rather than Monday because I was participating in a giveaway hop on Monday.

Essays Read this Week:
1. That the taste of good and evil things depends in large part on the opinion we have of them
2. One is punished for stubbornly defending a fort without good reason
3. On punishing cowardice
4. The doings of certain ambassadors

Favorite Quotations:
"... that it is with pain as with precious stones which take on brighter or duller hues depending on the foil in which they are set: pain only occupies as much space as we make for her" (The taste of good and evil things depends on our opinion).

"The man who is happy is not he who is believed to be so but he who believes he is so: in that way alone does belief endow itself with true reality" (The taste of good and evil things depends on our opinion).

General Thoughts:
The longest essay I read was That the taste of good and evil things depends in large part on the opinion we have of them, which is probably why I have the most to say about it. Montaigne spends quite a bit of this essay talking about pain and death, which was attractive to me this week because I have thumb injury causing quite a bit of pain. He says the most painful part of death is not death itself, but the time we spend thinking about it. Death, he says, is actually the release from pain. This basic principle can be moved to other parts of life though. For example, I spend a lot of time thinking about writing my papers, but once I finish the paper I find it's actual quite painless and relieving. If I would just quit thinking about the paper and write it I could save myself a lot of pain and misery.

I really liked the second quotation I posted from this essay though. It seems like the more negative energy you put out, the more you find yourself in a negative state of being. If you believe you are happy and put out positive energy, good things will come to you. This isn't always true, but I think there is something to be said for it. I've recently been dwelling in negatives so it seems like a lot of negative things have happened to me. In reality as many positive things have happened as negative, it's just easier to focus on the negative for some reason.

I did tsk tsk about halfway through this essay when Montaigne talks about how crazy women are for putting themselves through the pains of corsets and other crazier things (flaying themselves alive to have a fresh color in their skin?) just to become beautiful. Clearly Montaigne lived during a different time, but he doesn't acknowledge why women were driven to do these things, probably because no one thought about it much. But that is a story for another day...

Over the course of One is punished for stubbornly defending a fort without a good reason and On punishing cowardice I felt like Montaigne was relying on Nature to explain new human values. He talks about how humans are going against Nature because of new technology and broken traditions, and what this means for humans. Just funny that this argument continues to go on today.

From The doings of certain ambassadors I came away loving the first idea of the essay. He says when he meets other people he tries to bring the conversation back to the subject each person knows best. I thought this was a great idea and one I should observe more frequently.


Questions:
1. Do you believe that having a negative/positive attitude changes the way you feel about yourself or your life? Do you think you can apply "positive spin" to your own reality?
2. What subject are you an expert on? What would others want you to talk about?

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It's obvious I'm obsessed with essays and really want to make all of you love them too. I've studied essays as long as I've been in college (almost three years!) and read them before I came here, but in 2011 I would like to take a few steps back. My Awesome Essays posts typically focus on newer essays, or at least essays from the 1960's to present. I like that focus because I think it's easier for people to read those essays and discuss them. But for those of you who are up to a bit of a challenge, you might like to join me in the 2011 Montaigne Readalong. This isn't a challenge, you can participate as much or as little as you like.

This really my own self challenge. I want to read all of Montaigne's essays in one year, no small feat. Michel de Montaigne is a 16th Century writer, so obviously the writing style is very different from what we read today. The edition I plan to read is 1,344 pages long! Now you understand why I want to read it over the course of a year. Break that huge number down, and you're reading about 25 pages a week, which probably about as much Montaigne as I can take every week.

So where do you fit into all of this?

You don't really even need to sign-up, although it'd be nice to let me know if you want to participate in any way by leaving a comment. I'm going to post a schedule for what essays I'm going to read each week on a page underneath my header. If you're struck to join in for any particular week, you can go there and find out what essays I'm reading so you can discuss them on my blog post that week. Basically you can follow along as much as you want, joining in on conversations a few time over the year or every week (if you dare).

How do I find the essays?

The great thing about Montaigne is that he is in the public domain! That means you don't even have to buy a book to participate in this. One option is to subscribe to Montaigne's Essais on Daily Lit. This way you'll get essays emailed to your account as often as you like, although I'll tell you there are 459 parts to the Daily Lit subscription, meaning that if you got an email every day it would still take you over a year to read. I think these should line up with my book, although I'm not entirely certain yet. You can also check out some of the essays on Oregon State's website. If you're really excited you can read the same book I am, the Penguin edition called The Complete Essays.

I'll provide more information about all of this later, but I wanted you all to know I am hosting this next year!

I am an Amazon Affiliate. If you make a purchase using one of my links I will earn a small percentage which will then go back into this blog.

It is finally spring break! I'm not going anywhere this week because my parents are in London so I am watching their dog. I'm planning on spending a lot of time reading (as well as a lot of time at various medical institutions, trying to get all check-ups). I brought fifteen books home to read. I'm hoping to finish five this week.

1. Nineteen Eighty-Four

(I can't believe I still haven't read this!
2. A Thread of Sky: A Novel

for review.
3. A Doll's House for a Year of Feminist Reading. This is actually a reread.
4. Twentysomething Essays by Twentysomething Writers: The Best New Voices of 2006

5. The Wild Things

by Dave Eggers.
6. The Art of the Personal Essay: An Anthology from the Classical Era to the Present

. I brought this home to read E.B. White's essays per the recommendation of my friend Katherine.
7. Michel de Montaigne - The Complete Essays for my Montaigne readalong.
8. Blankets

9. Any Human Heart

. I start this before midterms and put it down once exams started. I'm about a third of the way in.
10. I Is an Other for review. I started this before midterms as well and put it down.
11. The Complete Essex County

12. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life. I just realized I might be reading this for Leif Reads later, so might not start it right now.
13. The Control of Nature

by John McPhee-- one of my favorite writers.
14. Coop: A Family, a Farm, and the Pursuit of One Good Egg.
15. Slow Death by Rubber Duck: The Secret Danger of Everyday Things

, which I'm currently reading for Leif Reads. (Not pictured).

Are there any books here I must read before spring break ends? What are you reading this week?

I am an Amazon Affiliate. If you make a purchase using one of my links I will earn a small percentage which will then go back into this blog.