The Complete Essays by Michel de Montaigne- I.52- On the Frugality of the Ancients.- Just a couple of stories on the subject matter in the title...no real observations here...it seems that M. wanted to make something of this topic and simply didn’t...at this time. Moving right along…
I.53- On one of Caesar’s sayings. Another short essay on the subject of desire…basically saying that many of us always seem to want what we can’t have...and it’s said in many different ways.
‘’Communi fit vitio naturae, ut invisis, latitantibus atque incognitis rebus magis confidamas, vehementiusque exterreamur.”
[By a defect of nature of all men, we place our trust, rather, in things unseen, hidden and unknown, and are terrified to distraction by them]
Julius Caesar, ‘’The Gallic Wars’’
The Complete Sherlock Holmes Vol. 1 by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle-The Yellow Face- This is one of the Holmes stories that I know best...I have gathered that this story was published in America at the time and I have always wondered what the reception to The Yellow Face, given the subject matter (race is the central theme in this story).
Sherlock Holmes was a man who seldom took exercise for exercise’s sake. Few men were capable of greater muscular effort, and he was undoubtedly one of the finest boxers of his weight that I have ever seen; but he looked upon aimless bodily exertion as a waste of energy, and he seldom bestirred himself save when there was some professional object to be served. Then he was absolutely untiring and indefatigable. That he should have kept himself in training under such circumstances is remarkable, but his diet was usually of the sparest, and his habits were simple to the verge of austerity. Save for the occasional use of cocaine, he had no vices, and he only turned to the drug as a protest against the monotony of existence when cases were scanty and the papers uninteresting.
I am reading:
An Uncertain Place by Fred Vargas- Only read a few more additional pages...liking the character development to this point but not really able too concentrate.