The Vulgar Eclectic

Category: books

  • The Arctic Prairies by Ernest Thompson Seton

    I just finished reading The Arctic Prairies (1911) by Ernest Thompson Seton. This memoir is an account of a six month journey by canoe Seton took into northern Canada in 1907. Seton was an artist, writer, and naturalist who undertook the trip in hopes of finding bison and caribou and, in his words, “the chances…

  • Alone by Megan E. Freeman

    I just finished reading Alone (2021) by Megan E. Freeman, a young adult novel in free verse. It is narrated by a young girl, 12 years old in the beginning, who finds herself in a very serious survival situation after waking to find herself completely cut off from human contact. It is an extremely compelling…

  • My Crowd by Charles Addams

    I just read My Crowd (1970), a collection of cartoons by Charles Addams. It’s the first time I’ve read one of his books and I found a lot of it hilarious. It reminds me very much of The Far Side…both share a similar sense of the absurd. I would definitely like to read more of…

  • Galactic Warlord by Douglas Hill

    I finished reading Galactic Warlord (1979) by Douglas Hill. I’ve read it once before; this time I read it aloud to my daughter. She very much enjoyed it and wants to start the second one in the series right away.  It’s a young adult science fiction novel that unfolds at a rapid pace with a…

  • Comenius and the Beginnings of Educational Reform by Will S. Monroe

    I finished reading Comenius and the Beginnings of Educational Reform by Will S. Monroe (published in 1900). John Amos Comenius (1592-1670), sometimes referred to as the “father of modern education,” was referenced in something else I was reading. When researching who he was, I ended up coming across this book and decided to check it…

  • The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax by Dorothy Gilman

    Here’s an old book jot from February 2021: I just finished reading The Unexpected Mrs Pollifax by Dorothy Gilman. It is a mystery novel published in the 1960s and the first in a series. Emily Pollifax is a retired woman who lives a quiet life and yearns for something a little different. And she soon…

  • New Atlantis by Francis Bacon

    I finished reading New Atlantis written by Francis Bacon and published after his death in 1626. It is regarded as an early example of a utopian novel. In it, a ship of sailors, lost at sea, stumbles upon an island nation. The narrator, one of the sailors, introduces the reader to the land of Bensalem,…

  • The Weapon Shops of Isher by A.E. van Vogt

    I just finished reading The Weapon Shops of Isher (1951) by A.E. van Vogt. This science fiction novel combines three previously published short stories, two from the early 1940s and one from 1949. It is a novel of ideas, as well as action. It courses along quickly, setting forth a world under the influence of…

  • The Life of a Simple Man by Émile Guillaumin

    Here is a book jot from February, 2021: I just finished reading The Life of a Simple Man, written by Émile Guillaumin and published in 1904 (translated by Margaret Holden; revised translation by Margaret Crosland). It is a fictional memoir about Tiennon, a peasant born in 1823 in rural France. He tells the story of…

  • The Diary of a Napoleonic Foot Soldier by Jakob Walter

    I finished reading The Diary of a Napoleonic Foot Soldier by Jakob Walter (edited and with an introduction by Marc Raeff). This was an amazing read. The author was a German stonemason who was conscripted into Napoleon’s Grande Armée and served in multiple campaigns during the Napoleonic Wars, including the ill-fated 1812 Russian campaign. At…