Anecdotal Evidence

A blog about the intersection of books and life.

Friday, May 15, 2026

'Enliven This Vale of Tears With a Little Fantasy'

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I defy you to identify the writer being described:   “[A]ll he really wanted to do in company was to make jokes, to turn the world upside ...
Thursday, May 14, 2026

'By Other, Less Difficult, Media'

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Prophecy is best left to the prophets. Writers are not a notably prescient bunch. Too often, like the rest of us, they see only what they ho...
1 comment:
Wednesday, May 13, 2026

'The Present Is an Age of Talkers'

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Austin Dobson in A Bookman’s Budget (1917) claims the longest sentence ever written in English can be found in William Hazlitt’s Spirit of ...
1 comment:
Tuesday, May 12, 2026

'I Find Out How Little I Know'

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Pessimism has its charms, chief among them being the reduced likelihood of disappointment. Even on the diminished scale of an individual lif...
Monday, May 11, 2026

'Full of Assertions and Contradictions'

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In 1995, R.L. Barth published a slender chapbook titled Samuel Johnson: Selected Latin Poems Translated by Various Hands . Included are twen...
Sunday, May 10, 2026

'Before the Clouds Darken the Horizon'

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A longtime reader, a retired attorney in Philadelphia, writes:   “[A]n intrusive suggestion for a blog post: what books MUST your readers ...
3 comments:
Saturday, May 09, 2026

'The Worldly Wisdom of the Foolish Man'

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  My ignorance often burns holes in my pride, turning self-congratulation into embarrassment. A reader asks for my opinion of the English po...
2 comments:
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Patrick Kurp
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