Quodlibeta

Off skiing for a week in the Alps. This is only my second time but I hope for a refreshing week when my brain can have a rest and my body get seriously exercised. Have to decide what books to bring. I am reading Anthony Grafton's Cardano's Cosmos which is about the life of a sixteenth century astrologer with an ego the size of a planet. Very interesting but entirely text based - there is nearly no historical context beyond what Cardano himself wrote. After that I thought I would bring Emma as I have never read it and CS Lewis's The Discarded Image which is an introduction to medieval literature. It is often forgotten he was a distinguished professor of European literature at both Oxford and Cambridge as well as an apologist and novelist. If I have any time left I also want to start on the second part of Ray Monk's biography of Bertrand Russell but that might have to wait.