RIP (Read In Progress) Wednesday

[silversea]

What are you reading (or not reading)?

Also reminding people about the 2025 October Review-a-Thon!

Comments

[inchoatewords]

I finished _The Shores of Light_ by Edmund Wilson. Wilson was a literary critic who wrote for magazines like New Republic and Vanity Fair, and this is a volume of his various essays from the 1920s and 30s. Most of the articles concern select books or authors, but there are also some of his views on current politics and other arts, such as the theatre.

It's interesting to see who were the "It Kids" then and whether we still even read them (he was an early champion of Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and Henry Miller), who are more niche these days but still might be read (John Dos Passos, some of Thornton Wilder's earlier work), and who have faded into obscurity (Ring Lardner).

I find Wilson quite readable, so I ended up reading this cover to cover, but you can easily dip in and out depending on interest.

I'm now reading _The Night Watchman_ by Louise Erdrich. This is my selection for my work DEI book club. I won't be there to run the meeting so I have to read it a little earlier to come up with some questions to help out my colleague who's subbing in for me.