The Vulgar Eclectic

Category: books

  • Beasts, Men, and Gods

    Back near the end of 2020, I read Beasts, Men, and Gods. After finishing the last chapter, I wrote up what was to be the first of what I’m calling a “book jot” (a simple little reaction after reading a book). In an effort to include these book jots on The Vulgar Eclectic, here it…

  • The Queen of the Air

    I finished reading The Queen of the Air (1861) by John Ruskin, an English writer who explored a wide range of topics throughout his life. This book was a collection of four different pieces, all connected in some way to the ideas represented by the Greek goddess Athena. It took me a while to fall…

  • Hedda Gabler

    I just finished reading Hedda Gabler (1891), a play written by Henrik Ibsen and translated by Una Ellis-Fermor. The play elicited one of the strongest reactions I’ve had in a reading experience in recent memory. I found myself shouting out loud at a few points, so agitated was I by the circumstances of the play…

  • Confessions of an English Opium Eater

    I just finished reading Confessions of an English Opium Eater (1821) by Thomas De Quincey. This is a delightful little autobiographical book. A good chunk of it is a memoir of De Quincy’s youth, and includes an interesting description of his time living on the streets of London as a runaway.  The remaining segments of…

  • Orestes by Euripides

    I finished reading Orestes by Euripides (408 BC), translated by Philip Vellacott. I love Euripides and this play is no exception. It is beautifully written and was exciting and dramatic to read, but also encourages prolonged reflection. The ending of the play left me a little confused, as did the moral nature of many of the…

  • Journey to the Centre of the Earth

    I just finished reading Journey to the Centre of the Earth (1864) by Jules Verne, translated by Frank Wynne. It was a great and entertaining adventure and brimmed with that boyish optimism, perhaps born out of the rapidly expanding world of science, shared by similar books of the era.  I was a bit surprised at…

  • The Brothers Karamazov

    I finished reading The Brothers Karamazov (1879) by Fyodor Dostoevsky, translated by David McDuff. One of the strengths of this novel was the distinctness of the characters, especially the three brothers of the title, dissimilar but bound together by family and fate. The reader grows to care for the brothers, even as faults and predilections…

  • The Lost World

    I just finished reading The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle (1912). I had a great time reading this adventure story, and felt like a child at times, basking in the wonder of exploration and discovery. It’s a fun adventure with some memorable characters (and great names; one character is Professor Challenger!). It’s also an…

  • Theodore the Poet

    As a boy, Theodore, you sat for long hoursOn the shore of the turbid SpoonWith deep-set eye staring at the door of the crawfish’s burrow,Waiting for him to appear, pushing ahead,First his waving antennae, like straws of hay,And soon his body, colored like soap-stone,Gemmed with eyes of jet.And you wondered in a trance of thoughtWhat…

  • My Own Two Feet: A Memoir by Beverly Cleary

    I read this memoir back in May of 2021. I just finished reading My Own Two Feet: A Memoir (1995) by Beverly Cleary. It was an absolutely wonderful reading experience! I felt immersed in her voice and in the unfolding of her life. She seems a lot like how I might have imagined her to…