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Reading notes and other digressions

July 28, 2026

Digressions

A single tree standing in a wide green field, half lost in low mist, with a faint line of trees behind it under a pale sky.

Back in the day, Victorian novels were split into three volumes, but not for artistic reasons. It was simply the format that made sense at the time. Readers didn't have enough money to buy a full book, and lending libraries, like Mudie's and Smith's, wanted to have books split in three so that they could lend separate parts to different readers at the same time. It's a classic example of how commercial interest influenced artistic expression.

July 16, 2026

The book nobody wanted, years after not wanting it

A grainy black and white photograph of a wide, empty shoreline under a pale sky.

I bought The Slow Regard of Silent Things back when everyone bought it, which is to say, the week it came out somewhere in 2014, along with every other person waiting for the obvious next thing after The Name of the Wind and The Wise Man's Fear.