My common law partner produces something he calls 'eclectic reading' from time to time, and I've read two issues in the last couple of days. On Monday, I read a bunch of articles recounting testimony at the inquest into the Princess of Wales' death. So I read the one line her lover Natty Khan had to say, which was discreet, thank goodness. Then the warbling of her former butler, who keeps a diary except when it's about to be subpoenaed. And best of all, the former head of Scotland Yard who said Di had a thing for me with back hair. Followed inevitably by speculation in the Daily Mail about who had back hair: not Charles, not Dodi, not Natty and not that cad, James Hewitt. In yesterday's eclectic, I read about England's dinosaur coast and the pioneer collector, Mary Anning; the benefits of capitalism for the soul (which I didn't by); a Wall Street Journal piece about the trend in home repairs among women -- a trend which I personally enjoy, except for the pink hammers; an article about the travails of Robert Oppenheimer, post-bomb; a discussion of the corporate failings of Starbucks; a bad piece on how Bedouin customs make Islam into a violence-laced religion (WRONG!) .
I also read Karl Barth's book on Prayer. It seems Karl has two hobby horses: exegesis of the technical sort, and a particular brand of systematic theology. He's very good at both, but I only enjoy reading the theology. In Prayer, I had hope for a more mystical treatment, but it has systematic theology on prayer followed by an exegesis of the Lord's Prayer.
I also read about 4 inches' worth of articles for my paper on Pakistan and Afghanistan, but it was the biography of Cary Grant that I really enjoyed. I devoured it happily cover to cover last evening, as I waited for the Michigan primary results. The eponymous critical biography is by Graham McCann. One of the articles was a Congressional Research Report on Islam in South and Southeast Asia, by Bruce Vaughn.
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