Sunday Salon 5-13-12

It would appear as though my blog is going to continue after all! To some extent I’ve been marking time the last couple of weeks, seeing if my motivation would return. Thanks to all those – Scott, Brian, Sandy, Mark, Dave, and Jayne, among others – who have provided me the encouraging words that helped bring the motivation back. Will it remain? We’ll see.

The past week’s main accomplishment was the completion of A Brief History of Ireland by Paul F. State. As usual, what I wrote about it can’t decide if it’s a book review or a Wikipedia article. Actually, I did steal one fact from Wikipedia for inclusion in the review: the four Irish winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature. Can you name them? If not, you’ll find them here.

As for future plans, I’m about three quarters of the way through The Yellow House by Martin Gayford, and a review should be forthcoming. I’m also returning to something I’d started a year or two ago: a review of the catalog for the exhibition Arts of Ancient Viet Nam: From River Plain to Open Sea. The review had threatened to become a digressive behemoth before I abandoned it. But now, with a more circumscribed approach, the review is underway again. Other possible upcoming subjects include Captain Robert Scott’s ill-starred expedition to the South Pole (the hundredth anniversary of which was recently acknowledged) and Christianity in Japan. Ideas are not what’s lacking. Until later…