Following my annual practice, I have listed here my “novel” reading for 2024. This is a way of documenting what I get through in a year’s worth of reading on the commute to work, in the evenings after work, and while travelling outside of my “normal” academic reading. My use of the term “novel” reading is loosely adopted, as you will see from the list to include fiction and then really important non-fiction work I get excited to read in my spare time. As you will see, my novel reading shifted away from novels to much more academic reading in my “free time” and then back again. But that approach has been richly rewarding. This year, though, there has been less novel reading compared to previous years. Why is that? Not sure. I was commuting less – due to study leave – but also tackled some big books that left me exhausted. Charles M. Doughty’s Travels in Arabia Deserta (two volumes) was one of those experiences. It was a journey that took me in my reading from one desert setting to another in the form of the Florida Mountains in New Mexico (represented in the set image for this blog post by John Fowler from Placitas, NM) and the mesas of Arizona and Sonora with their porphyry rock fibre, mesquite, lomas, and grease-wood plains. As John C. Van Dyke says, ‘the deserts are not worthless wastes . . . they are the breathing spaces of the west’.
This article is read by Eunice Wong, a Juilliard-trained actor, featured on Audible's list of Best Women Narrators. Her work is on the annual Best Audiobooks lists of the New York Times, Audible, AudioFile, & Library Journal. www.eunicewong.actor
This article is read by Eunice Wong, a Juilliard-trained actor, featured on Audible's list of Best Women Narrators. Her work is on the annual Best Audiobooks lists of the New York Times, Audible, AudioFile, & Library Journal. www.eunicewong.actor
Continuing his full-tilt anti-trans hate campaign, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has now filed suit against the NCAA for… allowing trans players? Even though they barely do?
