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The Things I Read Today — January 21, 2021
A reading journal
We must end this uncivil war that pits red versus blue, rural versus urban, conservative versus liberal.
Daily Office
Morning Prayer: Psalms 37:1–18; Isaiah 44:5–17
Afternoon Prayer: Ephesians 5:15–33
Evening Prayer: Psalms 37:19–42; Mark 4:21-34
Books
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy: In today’s chapter Anna Mikhaylovna fights with everyone to secure Pierre’s inheritance for him. Works out well for her too because she’ll be claiming a finders fee for her efforts for sure. Works out even better for Pierre though because he becomes one of Russia’s richest men. Reminds me of that great Adam Smith passage: “It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities but of their advantages.”
The Fortune of the Rougons by Emile Zola: If The Fortune of the Rougons is the origin story of Les Rougon-Macquart, then the chapter I read today, the fifth chapter of the novel, is the origin of the origin…