“1:1 The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
1:2 Abraham begat Isaac; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat Judas and his brethren;
1:3 And Judas begat Phares and Zara of Thamar; and Phares begat Esrom; and Esrom begat Aram…”
– The Gospel of Matthew, The Bible (King James Version)
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“In the second place, Coleridge not only read books with minute attention, but he also habitually passed from any given book he read to the books to which that book referred.”
– John Livingstone Lowes, The Road to Xanadu – A Study in the Ways of the Imagination
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We all begin somewhere.
All my reading is based on what came before.
Books are begotten by books.
An endless chain of inspiration and sustenance.
What is my reading genealogy?
There is no straight and steady line.
There are many tangents.
The more books I read the more options I have.
I can discard books that don’t connect.
But I keep reading, happy in the knowledge that my own intellectual lineage is uniquely my own.
No one else on this planet has read exactly the same books as me.
Just like my personality, it’s gratifying to reflect that my reading gives me a unique view of the world.
Its the same for everyone else.
The idea of following a guided reading list fills me with revulsion.
Although I am a compulsive reader, that compulsion comes from within.
I pick up on what interests me and can happily ignore the rest.
Who’s keeping score?
There are no gospels dedicated to me.
It’s personal.
Conversations With Quotations 