Wednesday

Big Books

Christopher Buckley is one of the more-entertaining writers today. He writes a regular column for Forbes Life. The December 2011 column, "Big Books for the Holidays," isn't available online, but it's good. It blurbs seven giant books (ranging in price from $55 to $4,500) that you can give someone for Christmas. Here's his description of the fifth book, Thomas Jefferson's Secret Library: "Jefferson donated his book collection to start the Library of Congress. But some works he held back, feeling . . . 'that Members of Congress, were they to come upon these dandy volumes, would have but little thought for the Business of Government.' Note the prolific underlining and marginalia in his copy of Erotopolis: The Present State of Bettyland (1684). . ."

Nock was a big Jefferson fan. I'm not sure what he thought about Bettyland.

If you're curious, incidentally, the $4,500 book is Jackie: The Complete Portfolio.

Must Watch

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That's it for today. Two basketball games detained me last night and I had no opportunity for blogging this morning.