What I’ve been reading

Summer is reading time, a bit harder to achieve with a 2 year old, but still I’ve done some.

The Enlightenment - the Pursuit of happiness

I’ve been keen to fill some knowledge gaps regarding the 18th century. So I figured I’d get a very think book that covers a little of most. And at +1000 pages this is what Richie Robertson does.

It is a very wide survey of different parts of Europe, topics and time periods. I’m not sure the author really is trying to promote one interpretation over the other, but lays out various arguments along the track. If anything his argument is that the enlightenment(s) is a very heterogeneous intellectual movement.

I will primarily bring some fun anecdotes from the book along with genuine new knowledge. And also the insight that the 18th century really is the big dividing line between modern and not.

[Lutad mot ett spjut] (https://ordfrontforlag.se/bocker/lutad-mot-ett-spjut/)

One of the prominent enlightenment figures was Mary Wollstonecraft. She really seems to have been a quite remarkable individual. Most famous for being one of the earliest feminist, but I have unfortunately not read any of her works. But I was surprised to learn that the actually spent some time in Sweden, and more precisely on the west coast, going from Gothenburg to Strömstad in search of a lost sea captain. It is all very captivating, and her trip was documented in letters to friends in England.

In this Swedish book the author rereads the letters and journeys in the footsteps on Wollstonecraft. It is sometime a bit to sentimental in my taste. But it is a very nice an accessible introduction to both Wollstonecraft and Swedish society at the cusp of one of its most important breaking point.

I am excited to read the original source, and I suspect that Mary Wollstonecraft perhaps was the first modern human. There is something with reading her words, resonate with me on a human scale. She feels relatable like many 18th century and earlier writers does not.

Höken sjunger on död

I don’t read crime fiction. But this book is about the murder of a PhD Student in Uppsala, and I had an intellectual crush on the author Johan Tralau since I was perhaps 17 years old. His non-fiction book Havets väldiga ryggar is a gem.

So expectations were both high and low. My lasting impression is this: I don’t read crime fiction. But I did enjoy the not so concealed commentary on Swedish media, politics and academic life.

Siblings without rivalry

We are having our second child soon, and just I went to the literature to read up before out first child, (primarily the production by Emily Oster of course) I thought it would be nice to read up on the concept