Hats off to bestselling fantasy author Jeff VanderMeer, who has taken it upon himself to read one of Penguin's Great Ideas titles a day, for sixty days, blogging about his thoughts. To reward him for this mammoth undertaking, we're making his "60 in 60" blog our site of the week this week.
He's already three days in, so head on over to see what he thinks about Seneca's On the Shortness of Life (conclusion: "If alive today, Seneca would not have wasted time googling himself"), Marcus Aurelius's Meditations (Reading Aurelius in one night makes the repetition like a long hike where what seemed new an hour ago is now just another deer"), and St Augustine's Confessions of a Sinner ("I find myself wishing St Augustine could have sat down with Seneca or Marcus Aurelius, both of whom might have been able provide solace in showing him God's presence in the details of the world").
He's providing memorable lines from each (of which I particularly liked St Augustine's "I went to Carthage, where I found myself in the midst of a hissing cauldron of lust"), a synopsis, his views (well-argued) and conclusions.
With Swift's A Tale of a Tub, Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (and 55 other titles) still to come, it's going to be worth checking in regularly - that is, if the City of Saints and Madmen author can keep up the pace. He's pretty confident. "Actually, it's quite relaxing," he told me by email. "Reading a short book a day makes me focus, keeps me off the internet, and gives me a sense of connection to the past. I thought it might possibly be a pain since after I took on the challenge I realised it coincided with a new book deadline. But so far so good."
