Thursday 7 January 2010, 11:30PM
Favourite reads of 2009
About this time last year I wrote about my favourite books of 2008. In response to public clamour here’s the list for 2009, this time limited to five books rather than 10 reflecting the fact that I haven’t read too much this year (see my previous post):
- Beauty by Roger Scruton
I think I’ve learned more from Roger Scruton than any other contemporary philosopher. His books cover a quite remarkable range of subjects, and written from an integrated conservative perspective that I find challenging and in some respects compelling. Particularly in regard to aesthetics: this is a lucid and searching study of the reasoning we follow when we judge something to be ‘beautiful’. Scruton’s conclusion, with which I am deep sympathy, is that there are rational and moral grounds for considering some things more beautiful than others: aesthetic judgements are essentially objective rather than subjective. I have always felt that to be so; Scruton’s book has helped me disentangle some of the reasons why.
- The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
I’ve been picking up this in bookshops for at least ten years now, reading the back cover and putting it down again, thinking I’d read it another day. I finally purchased and read it last month. It’s a quite wonderful novel. Very little happens: an ageing Sicilian aristocrat looks back on his life, ruminates on mortality. The word ‘elegiac’ was invented for it. The last two chapters in particular will rip your eyes out unless you’ve a heart of stone (I pretty much do, and it still got me).
- Rowan’s Rule by Rupert Shortt
I resisted reading this for quite a while as I remember reading another (shorter) book on the same subject a few years ago when Rowan Williams become Archbishop of Canterbury. I didn’t think this would have much that was new. Wrong. It’s an extremely accessible intellectual biography of the great man, explaining clearly, so far as is possible, the Archbishop’s theological journey and how that has informed his career, including of course his years at Lambeth. I thought the book did a particularly good job of making clear that Rowan’s commitment to holding the Anglican Communion together is grounded in deep theological and philosophical reflection upon the notion that there never comes a point where there is no value in continued conversation between two seemingly irreconciliable points of view.
- Byron: Life and Legend by Fiona MacCarthy
I knew very little about Byron before taking on this monster (about 800 pages set in tiny type with very few pictures). By the end I have to say I rather liked him: a sceptical, rather shy man caught up in a storm of attention from people rather less sane than him. A poser, certainly, but with the genius to back it up.
- The Classical Language of Architecture by John Summerson
Dear oh dear Justin how very dull. Maybe, but I liked it. A clear and concise guide to the vernacular of classical architecture, this book has helped me understand the buildings and streets I have always loved best: Edinburgh’s New Town, for example, or the facades of central London. This book will help you get your Doric, Ionian and Corinthian columns sorted out, and to navigate with confidence the potential social pitfalls of mixing up pilasters, architraves and friezes.
Thursday 24 December 2009, 11:46AM
I repent of my silence…
Coleridge nearing the camera strap, observed by His Grace, Dr Rowan Williams
Not really. I just like the sound of that title. After a very long while away I’ve decided to infuse a degree of new life into this blog, and start writing again. In my last post I discussed the possibility of revamping it, but that will have to wait for a while.
Some time ago I wrote an entry proclaiming an intention not to allow my life to become swallowed by work, at least not to the same extent. That turned out to be a pious platitude: the last few months have been the busiest I can ever remember, quite literally frighteningly busy.
The great promise of self-employment is freedom: freedom to take on the work that interests you, to work when you want, to charge what you want, to take holidays as and when. Clearly some ascend to that blessed state: the brochures you pick up from Business Gateway and business fairs are full of testamonies from people who have tried it and made a success of it. They are usually pictured with beatific grin in a modernist office in front of an iMac resting on a spacious gleaming semi-transparent desk. Sometimes they are captured in visionary mood, gazing out of a floor-to-ceiling window looking towards a future of endless possibility. Other times they are clasping the hand of a satisfied, similarly square-jawed client, or running through an enchanted snowscape hand in hand with spouse and laughing toddler.
I have been ‘working for myself’ for five years now, and, to cut a long story short, I’ll just say that I am still aspiring to that happy condition. When deadlines are tight and you don’t have much control over them, and you can’t pick and choose what you work on, freedom is the very last word I would associate with self-employment. There are a seemingly endless number of tasks to be completed, urgently. The motivation is stark: if you don’t get everything done on time there is no money at the end of the month. I can honestly say that since mid-August I have worked virtually every weekday till about 11.30pm, and every weekend, perhaps taking half of Saturday or Sunday off. That sounds extreme but I haven’t been able to see any other way of doing what I’ve needed to do keep money coming in. Despite all of that many of my projects are still unfinished, and will spill into the New Year. I would hasten to add that this is certainly not because my clients are unreasonable: all of my clients this year have been exceptionally courteous and patient. It’s just the way of things when something needs to be done by a particular date, often for reasons beyond my immediate client’s control. And of course the client can find someone else willing to do it if you get too precious about timetables
Next year is looking a bit better: the order book is full, and there are some exciting long-term possibilities with one or two design agencies. So on that positive note, I wish everyone a Happy Christmas and New Year, and I’m looking forward to catching up with other blogs: I have been a recluse online as well as off over the past few months.
In the meantime, please see above for an unrelated pic of Coleridge in pursuit of the camera, in front of our Christmas tree.
Friday 24 July 2009, 8:48PM
I shall return, anon
It’s been rather quiet here again of late. I enjoyed setting up this blog and running it for a while, but I think it’s run out of steam in its present format. I’d like to continue to blog, but in a somewhat different way, perhaps focusing more on design, rather than posts being totally open ended. That’s not to say that there won’t be anymore of the random nonsense to which I’m prone.
I’ve just started on a project which is going to take nearly all of my time over the next few months, but after that I hope to redesign my company website and incorporate this blog into it. In the meantime I’ll be twittering every now and again…
Tuesday 23 June 2009, 9:36PM
‘I got a peaceful easy feeling’
Not. As my last post detailed, the past few weeks have been exhausting and stressful, with the uncertainty about Kate’s Scottish Panel interview, and, in regard to work, a looming mid-year tax bill.
I think I went mad some weeks ago. One symptom is that I’ve started listening all day to my mother’s favourite pop groups. Easy listening classics from the 1970s, including the above. I’m not sure what it’s about, but I love the title and it’s a great tune. Is it still possible to buy jeans like those, with the patches? Kate has had a similarly West Coast inflected tune on repeat play as well for the last few days.
I need to get out more, starting with an indulgent mid-week trip into Edinburgh tomorrow with no plans other than to sit about in coffee shops, and in Princes Street Gardens if the weather holds.
Wednesday 17 June 2009, 8:15AM
Well done wife, and thanks to all
It has been a rather exhausting and anxious couple of months here, but with a very happy outcome: my wife Kate heard last week that she has made it through the Scottish selection panel for ordination to the Scottish Episcopal Church.
Kate has alluded to it on her blog, and will be writing about it shortly. I’d like to say thank you to all who have provided support and advice to her over through the selection process, and prior to that, when she was trying to discern whether or not this was the right move.
It’s not quite over yet: she has to attend another selection weekend in England in the next couple of months or so, but I understand that the great majority of those who are recommended by the Scottish panel get through England as well. The whole thing is very exciting: we both love the Church and the message it bears, and I’m looking forward to supporting Kate in whatever form her ministry takes.
I realise this blog has been silent of late. With the selection process in the background, and a very heavy web design workload, with a dash to complete a slew of projects before taxes are due in July, I’ve been preoccupied and haven’t had much to say. I want to keep blogging, but am thinking about taking it in another direction, wrapping it into a revised version of my Lucent Web Design site and making it more design orientated (though still with the occasional personal post).
Anyway, will give that more thought when time allows. In the meantime, thanks again.
Update: Kate has now written a post about it.
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