Hitting the Books

In my opinion there is no better way to wake up, spend lunch, or end the night than reading a book (ideally outdoors on a porch). In honor of one of my favorite pastimes I have been doing an “OCBD reads” series on my Instagram page (my IG). I have posted a few of these on the blog before, but this is the whole lot together. I hope that you all enjoy and I’ll start the conversation, what are you reading?

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Jerrod Swanton is a simple man interested in simple, classic, and traditional style.

24 Comments on "Hitting the Books"

  1. NCJack says:

    I got an e-reader about ten years ago with credit card points I didn’t know I had. Wouldn’t have done it on my own, as I was a self-declared “old school” books only man.

    Well, I love that beat-up little sucker, have 450 books on it, another 100 cloud-stored, and it goes with me all the time. Right now alternating between a murder mystery and the “Odyssey”

  2. Minimalist Trad says:

    Jerrod always looks effortlessly good.

  3. Cuff Shooter says:

    “Sapiens: a Brief History of Humankind” by Yuval Noah Harari.

  4. I am currently reading a newish translation of the Psalms by Robert Alter and re-reading 84 charing cross road by Helene Hanff and what are you reading ?

  5. oxford cloth button down says:

    Great stuff everyone. I am so happy to hear that my readers read! I just finished The Mandarins by Simone De Beauvoir last night. I am excited to pick out a new book to start tonight!

  6. Robert Staehling says:

    Just finished re-reading all of JRR Tolkien’s works

  7. Cynic Diogenes says:

    The Charterhouse of Parma by Stendhal, a collection short stories by the author Roberto Bolaño, Montaigne’s Essais and re-eading the Iliad (just for fun). This is what I’m currently reading.

    • oxford cloth button down says:

      I liked that Stendhal book even if it wasn’t The Red and The Black.

      • Cynic Diogenes says:

        Haven’t read The Red and The black. This is my first Stendhal. Finished John Williams Stoner yesterday. What a sad story! But still dignified.

  8. FJW says:

    Just started “First Service- Following God’s Calling and Finding Life’s Purpose” by Andrea Jaeger.

  9. Pat says:

    The Last Tychoon

  10. oxford cloth button down says:

    I brought two books full of short stories with me to work. One by Chekhov and the other Maugham. We will see what I pick!

  11. Stephen says:

    Stoner by John Williams — a somewhat trad novel, now that I think about it (a farm boy becomes a university professor in the early 20th century)

  12. Old School says:

    Maugham’s English is a joy to read.

  13. jon DIBenedetto says:

    Great selections by everyone! I’m reading ( second time) : That Awful Mess on Via Merulana by Antonio Gadda. A classic Italian Modernist novel late made into a movie by Pietro Germi : The Facts of the Crime.

  14. dianec says:

    Marcel Proust ‘In Search of Lost Time – Vol.1 – The Way by Swann’s’ (during the week). Mary Hollingsworth ‘The Medici’ (at the weekend).

    ‘The Penguin Classics Book’ from Henry Eliot is a firm favourite since I purchased it over the festive period. The many great books of classic and world literature Penguin has published and the wonderful covers that adorned them. I bought many of the books in the collection purely because I liked the covers when I was younger (pre-teens) but then fell in love with reading the works themselves.

  15. Gary says:

    Love these lists. I’ve had a lot more time for reading over the past year because my work commute is now by train instead of car. My go-to train reading material is the latest issue of The New Yorker, but this winter I also made it through several short story collections by a few of my favorite writers. I love short story collections because I can usually finish a story or two in one train ride.

    Cloudbursts (2018, short stories) by Thomas McGuane
    Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? (1976, short stories) by Raymond Carver
    Airships (1978, short stories) by Barry Hannah

  16. Jesse Martinez says:

    Don Quixote, The History of the Siege of Lisbon by Jose Saramago, Pepita by Vita Sackville-West, and Lives of the Artists by Vasari – I always read several books at once – hard to believe, but these four books all intersect right around 1500/1600! Did not realize that until I got into them.

  17. Steve L. says:

    Into the last 100 pages of the new biography of Chopin by Alan Walker (which I would recommend to all who enjoy his music).

  18. Jon DiBenedetto says:

    Just started my summer books : Scenes from the Drama of Western Literature ( lit. history) by Erich Auerbach, The Bhagavad Gita ( Swami Prahabananda /Christopher Isherwood edition), and Call it Sleep by Henry Roth.

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