What I'm reading...

I've just begun reading and enjoying Alan Jacobs' Original Sin: A Cultural History. Jacobs is a fine essayist, he does his homework, and he writes like a lover of words. This looks like a good one!

New "Books and Culture" Column by Alan Jacobs

Alan Jacobs, one of our finest essayists, has begun a regular column for Books and Culture. It's called Rumors of Glory, and the first installment is going to get you thinking. Literate, stimulating, and signifcant. Want a sample?

one of the peculiarities of fallen human nature is that we find it difficult, over the long haul anyway, to remember that there is a world of difference between "I have no control over this" and "this isn't very important." We tend, against all reason, to diminish the importance of everything we cannot shape or direct. But our joy will be short if it is grounded in circumstances and events, because circumstances and events always change: if they please us now, they will displease us later. And then what will we do?

There, now go read the whole thing.