I don’t have a whole lot to say about it. My total was 65 volumes read, which compares somewhat unfavourably to the 2014 total of 76. In my defense, I would note a few things. First, I was simply busier this year, personally and professionally, and these activities ate somewhat into my reading time. I had to do research for a paper, and I was also involved in an intensive reading of Milton with a friend (sessions spent reading him aloud and then discussing), which took considerable time. In light of this, I consider 65 to be a pretty good number. Second, my 2015 reading tended towards multi-volume works (e.g. Kent and Richardson, below), which tend to be harder slogs. Third, although I don’t publish here the corresponding list of academic papers that I’ve read in the past year (maybe I should?), I did read a few more of these than I do in a typical year —37 in 2015. In part, this was connected to the professional pressures I alluded to.
Aside from the quantity, in terms of content, I can say that in continuation of a trend begun in 2014, I continued to read more novels than I typically do (Dickens, Goldsmith, Fielding, and Richardson), few as these may seem to most readers. In 2015 I read fewer classical authors than I used to (only Cicero and Xenophon this year), and, shocking to me, 53 of the 65 titles I read were written before the 20th century. Of course this last fact is partially counterbalanced by the academic papers I read, almost all of which were written after 1900.
As with the list in other years, books I particularly enjoyed are in bold.
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ADAMS, John. The Portable John Adams. John Patrick Diggins (ed.). New York: Penguin Books, 2004.
ADAMS, John. Discourses on Davila: A Series of Papers on Political History. Boston: Russell and Cutler, 1805 (facsimile, New York: Da Capo, 1973).
ADDISON, Joseph and Richard Steele. The Spectator (Vol.VII). Dublin: George Grierson, 1728.
BEER, Anna. Milton: Poet, Pamphleteer, Prophet. New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2008.
BERKELEY, George. Alciphron, or the Minute Philosopher (Works, Vol. III). A. A. Luce and T. E. Jessop (eds.). London: Nelson, 1967.
BRETT, R. L. The Third Earl of Shaftesbury: A Study in Eighteenth-Century Literary Theory. London: Hutchinson’s University Library, 1951.
BROWNE, Sir Thomas. Religio Medici. London: Andrew Crooke, 1643 (facsimile, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1909).
BURKE, Edmund. A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful (2nd edition). London: R. and J. Dodsley, 1759 (facsimile, Menston, UK: Scolar Press, 1972).
BURTON, Robert. The Anatomy of Melancholy (Vol. I). London: Everyman Library, 1932.
CHANDLER, Richard. The History and Proceedings of the House of Commons (Vol. VII). London: Richard Chandler, 1742.
CHAPMAN, Matthew. The Snail and the Ginger Beer: The Singular Case of Donoghue v Stevenson. London: Wildy, Simmonds and Hill, 2010.
CHARLES I. Eikon Basilike: The Portraiture of His Sacred Majesty in His Solitudes and Sufferings (with selections from Eikonoklastes, John Milton). Jim Daems and Holly Faith Nelson (eds.). Peterborough, ON: Broadview Press, 2006.
CICERO, Marcus Tullius. De Senectute, De Amicitia, De Divinatione. William Armistead Falconer (trans.). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001.
DAVIS, Jefferson. Jefferson Davis: The Essential Writings. William J. Cooper, Jr. (ed.). New York, Modern Library, 2004.
DICEY, A. V. Lectures on the Relation between Law and Public Opinion in England during the Nineteenth Century (2nd edition). London: Macmillan, 1914.
DICKENS, Charles. Bleak House. London: Penguin, 2003.
EMERSON, Ralph Waldo. Nature, Addresses and Lectures. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1903.
ERSKINE, Thomas, 1st Baron. The Speeches of the Hon. Thomas Erskine (now Lord Erskine) when at the Bar, on Subjects Connected with the Liberty of the Press, and against Constructive Treasons (Vol. I). London: J. Ridgway, 1810.
ERSKINE, Thomas, 1st Baron. The Speeches of the Hon. Thomas Erskine (now Lord Erskine) when at the Bar, on Subjects Connected with the Liberty of the Press, and against Constructive Treasons (Vol. II). London: J. Ridgway, 1810.
FIELDING, Henry. The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling. Martin Battestin and Fredson Bowers (eds.). Middletoen, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1975.
FRANKLIN, Benjamin. The Autobiography. New York: Library of America, 2011.
GIFFORD, William (ed.). The Anti-Jacobin, or Weekly Examiner (Vol. I). London: J. Wright, 1799 (facsimile, Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlag, 1970).
GIFFORD, William (ed.). The Anti-Jacobin, or Weekly Examiner (Vol. II). London: J. Wright, 1799 (facsimile, Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlag, 1970).
GOLDSMITH, Oliver. The Vicar of Wakefield. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006.
GRANT, Ulysses S. Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant (Vol. I). New York: Charles L. Webster and Company, 1885.
GRANT, Ulysses S. Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant (Vol. II). New York: Charles L. Webster and Company, 1886.
GRAY, Thomas. The Complete Poems of Thomas Gray. H. W. Starr and J. R. Hendrickson (eds.). Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972.
HALE, Sir Matthew. Historia Placitorum Coronæ: The History of the Pleas of the Crown (Vol. I). Sollom Emlyn (ed.). London: E. and R. Nutt and R. Gosling, 1736.
HALE, Sir Matthew. Historia Placitorum Coronæ: The History of the Pleas of the Crown (Vol. II). Sollom Emlyn (ed.). Philadelphia: Robert H. Small, 1847.
HALEY, K. H. D. The First Earl of Shaftesbury. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1968.
HOWE, Daniel Walker. What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.
HUME, David. The History of England (Vol. II). Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1983.
JAMES, William. Psychology: Briefer Course. Boston: H. Holt and Co., 1892.
JAMES, William. The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy. New York: Longmans Green and Co., 1907.
JOHNSON, Samuel. The Works of Samuel Johnson (Vol. I). London: F. C. and J. Rivington et al., 1823.
JOYCE, Richard. The Evolution of Morality. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2006.
KENT, James. Commentaries on American Law (Vol. I). New York: O. Halsted, 1826.
KENT, James. Commentaries on American Law (Vol. II). New York: O. Halsted, 1827.
KENT, James. Commentaries on American Law (Vol. III). New York: O. Halsted, 1828.
KENT, James. Commentaries on American Law (Vol. IV). New York: O. Halsted, 1830.
MARSHALL, Alfred. Principles of Economics (8th edition). London: Macmillan, 1959.
MARVELL, Andrew. The Complete Poems. New York: Everyman’s Library, 1993.
McPHERSON, James M. Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.
MENCKEN, H. L. The Days Trilogy: Happy Days, Newspaper Days, Heathen Days (expanded edition). New York: Library of America, 2014.
MILTON, John. Paradise Lost. London: Peter Parker, 1667 (facsimile, Menston, UK: Scolar Press, 1973).
MILTON, John. Paradise Regain’d and Samson Agonistes. London: John Starkey, 1671 (facsimile, Menston, UK: Scolar Press, 1973).
PUFENDORF, Samuel. The Whole Duty of Man, According to the Law of Nature. Andrew Tooke (trans.). Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2003.
RESCHER, Nicholas. Nature and Understanding: The Metaphysics and Method of Science. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2000.
RICHARDSON, Samuel. The History of Sir Charles Grandison (Vol. I). London: Oxford University Press, 1972.
RICHARDSON, Samuel. The History of Sir Charles Grandison (Vol. II). London: Oxford University Press, 1972.
RICHARDSON, Samuel. The History of Sir Charles Grandison (Vol. III). London: Oxford University Press, 1972.
ROCHEFOUCAULD, François, Duc de La. Moral Maxims: By the Duke de la Roche Foucault. London: A. Millar, 1749 (reprint, Newark, DE: University of Delaware Press, 2003).
SHAFTESBURY, Anthony Ashley Cooper, 3rd Earl of. Letters of the Earl of Shaftesbury, Author of the Characteristicks, Collected into One Volume. [Glasgow?]: n. p., 1746.
SHAFTESBURY, Anthony Ashley Cooper, 3rd Earl of. Characteristicks of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times (Vol. I). Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2001.
SHAFTESBURY, Anthony Ashley Cooper, 3rd Earl of. Characteristicks of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times (Vol. II). Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2001.
SMITH, Captain John. Writings, with Other Narratives of Roanoke, Jamestown, and the First English Settlement of America. New York: Library of America, 2007.
STORY, Joseph. A Familiar Exposition of the Constitution of the United States. New York: American Book Company, 1840.
TAYLOR, Jeremy. Discourses on Various Subjects (Vol. II). London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, 1807.
TAYLOR, John (“of Caroline”). An Inquiry into the Principles and Policy of the Government of the United States. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1969.
TUFTE, Edward R. Envisioning Information. Cheshire, CT: Graphics Press, 1990.
VOITLE, Robert. The Third Earl of Shaftesbury, 1671-1713. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1984.
WARREN, Mercy Otis. History of the Rise, Progress and Termination of the American Revolution (Vol. I). Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1994.
WARREN, Mercy Otis. History of the Rise, Progress and Termination of the American Revolution (Vol. II). Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1994.
WIDMER, Ted (ed.). American Speeches: Political Oratory from the Revolution to the Civil War. New York: Library of America, 2006.
XENOPHON. Memorabilia, Oeconomicus, Symposium, Apology. E. C. Marchant and O. J. Todd (trans.). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1979.