Last weekend I bought a large and unwieldy tome at a yard sale: Paul Johnson's 1,100-page history The Birth of the Modern: World Society, 1815-1830. This is a literary period that greatly interests me--both the work published during these years (say, Emma) and the work set in the era (say, War and Peace). However, the book itself is a burden, not at all pleasant to prop up on my stomach in bed, hogging all the space in my bag, etc. The situation is comic because, along with this tome, I have also acquired my first-ever real cell phone, onto which my son has downloaded the complete works of Shakespeare and the entire King James Bible. I am glad to know that I will have Othello with me at all times. Nonetheless, I continue to lug around the hardcover behemoth. For some reason, I still cannot be separated from print.

Johnson's prose is not gorgeous, but it is dense with particulars. As I've been reading, I've realized how much I love proper nouns--place names, people's names--not to mention meaty latinate adjectives. Even when I'm sleepy, not quite absorbing the political significance of Andrew Jackson or the Battle of New Orleans, I find myself contentedly repeating: "The young Daniel O'Connell, eight years Jackson's junior, was equally vituperative and bellicose" and "Sadly watching this debacle was Captain Edward Codrington R. N., captain of the fleet under the command of Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane, on board HMS Tonnant. Codrington was an uxorious man, devoted to his wife, Jane." Meaty latinate adjectives may be unfashionable among the style-manual police, but they do feel good in the mouth.

And already there are signs that this book might matter to me: for instance: "[I]n 1815 a poet, a scientist and a painter spoke the same language . . . but by 1830 it was increasingly difficult for them to understand each other" and "I have something to say about animals, too, especially those noble creatures, the horse and the dog, and the exotic beasts that were now filling the new zoos." So I will continue lugging it around to soccer games and doctors' offices.

In other news: I read this article, and it put me in a bad mood. Tomorrow I may expatiate on it, but you can take a look at it first.