38. "Code of the Woosters"- P.G. Wodehouse. Just felt a strong urge to read a bunch of Wodehouse, so it was this and about half a book of short stories. I think an audiobook of the one where Jeeves gets rented out was involved too.
39. "The Awful End of Prince William the Silent"- Lisa Jardine. Jardine is one of my favorite history writers putting out non-scholarly books. However, I feel like this book could have stood to be a lot longer. As it was, you have a more or less perfunctory account of William of Orange and Catholic/Protestant intrigues, and a rather abbreviated look at gun culture in the 16th century. Good book, but I just wanted more of both. Also, led me to the startling discover that I own two other books about William the Silent. No idea.
40. "Snark"- David Denby. I guess the general consensus is that in 2009 David Denby wrote a shitty book that ruined everybody's spring. Listen-- its not a perfect book, and it gets really muddled and mealy-mouthed by the end, but I think it raised some good points and overall had a thesis I would find it hard to argue with. We can't ALL by Anthony Lane, ok?
41. "Turning Back the Clock: Hot Wars and Mass Media Populism" -Umberto Eco. Eco is always engaging and I like it when he comes out of the library and talks about the modern world a bit. All the same, I often felt a little lost when reading this, just because so much of it is explicitly in-the-moment commentary on the Italian political situation in the early aughts. Whatever, though, the rest was terrific and I wound up having to look up many things about Italy's political climate and wound up less of an ignoramus.
42. "That Little Something"- Charles Simic. Simic in an unusually tender register. I think I read most of this in a hospital waiting room as well, and just finished off the last 20 pages or so in April.
43. "Sonata Mulattica"- Rita Dove. Really extraordinary book, for a lot of reasons. A sequence of narrative persona poems about 18th century Afro-Polish violin protege George Bridgetower, which feels so fresh and gave me such a hard "THIS IS WHERE POEMS SHOULD BE GOING" vibe. Sold me on Rita Dove after years of mixed feelings.
44. "Ingenious Pursuits: Inventing the Scientific Revolution"- Lisa Jardine. Another for Florka, and an incredibly compelling and accessible history of the greedy stumblings towards a method that took place way back when. I love Jardine.
45. "The Enchiridion"- Epictetus. Not impressed. I guess if I get stuck back in time in the 60's and have to go on a long hike I'll be able to keep up with the conversation, at least.
46. "The Sacred Book of the Werewolf" -Victor Pelevin. Ugh. Low-point of senior sem, and possibly of entire English undergrad curriculum. Too many Final Fantasy 8 references for me to handle.
47. "Quantum Lyrics" -A. Van Jordan. Reread this after reading an interview with Jordan. Some impressive poems about Heisenberg and The Flash and a great sequence about Einstein's love life that I didn't give enough credit to the first time around.
48. "A Brief History of Nearly Everything"- Bill Bryson. The only Bryson book I've ever really, really enjoyed. Written with an overwhelming amount of charm and enthusiasm, and I certainly felt like less of an idiot when I was done with it.
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