The Complete Essays by Michel de Montaigne- I.55- On smells.- A short, interesting and fun essay where M. draws a contrast between the ancients that he loves (for whom it is best to ‘’smell of nothing’’) and M.’s own sensitivity to smells; he enjoys good smells and ‘’loathes’’ bad ones. Covers a wide range of smells from perfumes to sweat to breath to food.
My liking for those fair cities Venice and Paris is affected by the pungent smell of the marshes of one and the mud other.
The Complete Sherlock Holmes Vol. 1 by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle-The Stockbroker’s Clerk- The business proposition that’s too good to be true is a mainstay in these Holmes stories; I think that this is the 4th or the 5th time that I have read a Holmes mystery that begins with this premise; always with the weird request (it’s usually the weird request that sends the person to Sherlock Holmes looking for an explanation).
I found the quality of the writing to be a little uneven; the second half of the story is better written than the first half...which I find to be unusual for a Holmes story...maybe the fact that Doyle was already getting tired of the character was beginning to show?
I am reading:
Dancing on the Edge of the World by Ursula LeGuin- Settled on the Leguin as the essay collection to rea now.
An Uncertain Place by Fred Vargas
An Army of Ex-Gay Lovers: My Life at the Gay Community News by Amy Hoffman