Species-ism?

This is interesting:

The Old English Bulldog is an extinct breed of dog.

Significance?

Amazing maize mazes

Apparently corn mazes are a widespread cultural phenomenon.

Who knew?

(Reminds me of a crack one television version of Lois Lane made about "ritual crop worship" at the Smallville Corn Festival.)

[My shoes are just now recovering from the mud -- wore my Topsiders, on the assumption that it would get pretty gross. I was right. I'm wearing the winter boots next time I go to a corn maze after a heavy rain...]

Old-fashioned mores and manners

I'm not very good at following the stuff mentioned in the title, but I was raised to it -- that is, I was sent to a school that emphasized them.

As a result, I have a weakness for books that stress them. What era covers that? The early twentieth century, really -- the Edwardian era.

Everything published before 1923 is in the public domain, so there's a treasure trove out there, if only you know what to look for. Project Gutenberg has done its most excellent work, but it's accessible only if you know the author or the book's name...

So I'm a fan of a little site called Arthur's Classic Novels. Someone (presumably "Arthur") has collected the bestsellers lists from the first two decades of the twentieth century and posted the e-texts of each of those novels (most of 'em, anyway) on his site.

There are some real potboilers among them, but there also are some gems.

And there are ones which are somewhere in between, which some may enjoy. For instance, I quite enjoyed Jeffrey Farnol's My Lady Caprice. And the Williamsons' The Princess Passes made for an interesting read, though I'm sure that many contemporary readers would read all sorts of subtexts into it that probably weren't intended...

On the other hand, there are some novels which are less fun -- Lady Baltimore is pleasant enough until it gets onto the issue of race. Then it horrifies.

Still, hits and misses are to be expected, and best of all is the price -- free. The best-liked novels of twenty years of a mass readership would have cost quite a bit, a century ago. Now we can just download them, read them, and decide whether they're worthy or not...

Update: I know I said I wouldn't get political, and I won't, but I thought of this because I had a thought in an e-mail I sent to a friend last night -- to what extent should the old-fashioned virtues like honour and integrity guide public policy.

It's come up lately in the foreign policy sphere, and there are differing views on the extent to which it should govern our actions.

Given that a sense of honour regarding Belgian neutrality arguably significantly helped pitch the British Empire into the First World War -- a calamity Britannia never recovered from -- it certainly once did have a strong pull.

Now... well, it's a tough call. We are all steely-eyed pragmatists, or at least pretend to have some of their mindset. (Not that it wasn't present back then -- raison d'etat and so on. "England has no eternal allies or foes, only eternal interests.")

On reading and re-reading

Some famous English writer from the 20th century whom I've never read -- was it G.K. Chesterton, perhaps? -- said once that re-reading was essential. We should, he said (if it was him), re-read one old book for every new one.

Now, I go back and forth on this one. Sometimes all I do is re-read old books; sometimes I power through five or six new ones. It depends on my mood, and on what's on the horizon. (And sometimes on what my travel schedule is -- I've read ever so many books on Amtrak. Fewer now in airport terminals, because I tend just to pay for wifi.)

Earlier this year, I was re-reading a few novels by P.G. Wodehouse. I also had Haruki Murakami's Norwegian Wood -- a highly suitable one for someone who is living alone in a new city. And I also have re-read a few novels by Lucy Maud Montgomery, that pillar of Canadian literature for children everywhere. Oh, and in this year of bailouts, I also, I must admit, re-read Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged.

What do I get out of this? Comfort. These books are old friends, and I know generally where they are going. Continuity. Reinforcement of values. Oh, and sometimes I have changed as a person since I last read them, and I get something more out of them than I did before.

Do you re-read your old favourites, dear readers? I hope you do. It's a tremendously soothing, satisfying practice.

A mission statement

I can't not write. Even after abandoning and ruthlessly deleting my various previous weblogs, the urge is there.

I am therefore starting up this new site.

What will it be? A collection of book reviews -- nothing more, nothing less. (Well, maybe a little more. There always tends to be mission creep in these enterprises.) I have a stack of books on my bedside table, and some of them will spur me to write something and to share it with the world.

***

Unlike its predecessors, this blog will not be political --I know what I believe, I know what my friends believe, and we're not for turning.

To quote Agent Bedhead's excellent bio section:

In summary, I vote Republican, but please don’t ask me about it. This isn’t a political blog and I have no desire to argue that irrelevant crap with you, who will never change your ways or beliefs. My mind is not so deluded to think that I can change the world by arguing politics online, and I won’t entertain your need to push people’s buttons. Go argue elsewhere, jackass.

Well, with one caveat -- I have quite enjoyed arguing politics online, and I don't think it irrelevant or crap. It just is explicitly outside the focus of this particular forum.

Any political comments will be ruthlessly deleted. Along with any I simply do not like.

Is this hypocritical, given my longish comments elsewhere? Yes. I reserve the right to be hypocritical in my own space. If you want editorial freedom to hold forth, create your own. It is, after all, a free country. (And these sites are free!)

***

So keep your eyes on this space -- my first book review/reaction will go up... well, whenever I feel the urge.

I suspect it will be soon.