The Library

More rant than formal review, this entry captures reactions to How to Slay a Wizard, especially the frustration with its AI Audible narrator. Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03-iF1SvxBg

Earlier in the year, Drew bought the Great Books of the Western World set for $150. This video captures his review after about a year of actually owning and living with the collection.

Why are modern books falling apart in just a few decades while much older books and manuscripts are still readable? This entry preserves the video as part of the archive’s broader concern with books, memory, and preservation.

Originally published on 2022-04-23. by Phil Dragash I stumbled upon this audio masterpiece when reading a comment in a totally unrelated forum and could not believe how immersive it was, I could not stop listening. When I looked into it I found that it was done by an independent American filmmaker and artist, Phil Dragash. From the blurb on his website it appears that he spent four years working on this project. This 48 hours long version of LOTR is read by Phil, who gives all major characters distinct personalities, and includeds ambient sound effects, and original music by Howard Shore from the feature film trilogy. This work is presented as three books with each chapter being recorded as an individual file. Originally this project was available for free on YouTube with custom painted thumbnails for each chapter. Sadly YouTube took the work down due to copyright reasons. Fortunately, someone was able to archive this labour of love in its entirety so it can be enjoyed into the future. Access the complete work at Archive.org, see links below:

Originally published on 2021-09-07. WHY I want to learn it and HOW I plan to do it # Why? # A current long term goal of mine is to read through many of the great works that have come out of Western Culture in chronological order. This year I have slowly been progressing through the great works of the ancient Greeks, starting with the Epics, moving on to the Drama and Lyrical works, followed by the Histories and finishing with the Philosophers. After completing the Greeks I will be moving on to the Romans and this has sparked an interest in looking into how difficult it would be to read these works in the original, Latin.

Originally published on 2021-08-29. Below is a list of books that I have in my personal library. They are listed in chronological order. If you would like a personal suggestion from my list or would like to recommend a book to me, get in touch.