Book I Read April 30th, 2020

A few low days but I got my Covid second wind and breeze alongcomfortably, a childless man with a freezer full of chicken and a profession which doesn't require him to leave the house. My score the second half of this month was affected by my current project of reading a Shakespeare play every evening (Julius Caesar awaits) about which you'll read more when I'm finished, by which point hopefully I'll be able to go outside again. We'll see. In any event, the second half of April I read...

Religion and the Decline of Magic by Keith Thomas – 1000 odd pages detailing the decline in magical belief in 17th century England at the expense of the comparatively rational Protestant faith. Exhaustive in its collection of magical beliefs and clear-headed in its thinking, if occasionally repetitive. Still, if you're looking for a doorstop of social history to wade through, you could do a lot worse.

Winter Trees by Sylvia Plath – Bitter and engaging.