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goodreads — the commonplace book

Astronomer by Candlelight — a scholar reading by a single flame, globe and hourglass at hand, by Gerrit Dou
goodreads 2 sealed · 1 by candlelight · 1 laid aside

No stars, no scores. A book is not a thing to be graded but a candle to be carried a while. These are the ones I have carried, in the order I last touched them.

sealed — finished, pressed shut by candlelight — reading now laid aside — ribbon left in

  1. When Breath Becomes Air

    Paul Kalanithi

    begun Jul 2026

    by candlelight

    marginalia

    A neurosurgeon becomes the patient and keeps writing until he cannot. I am reading it slowly, a few pages at night — it does not permit speed.

    Notes to follow when the candle burns down.

  2. The Vision of Islam

    Sachiko Murata & William C. Chittick

    begun Apr 2026 · sealed Jun 2026

    sealed

    marginalia

    A book that refuses to be a survey. Murata and Chittick read the tradition from the inside — īmān, islām, iḥsān as three deepening tides of one sea — and you come away feeling that you were not taught a religion but handed a lens.

    The chapter on iḥsān — “to worship God as if you see Him” — is the one I keep reopening. Beauty as a duty, not a decoration.

  3. Letters to a Young Poet

    Rainer Maria Rilke

    begun May 2026 · sealed Jun 2026

    sealed

    marginalia

    Read in a single sitting, then again slowly. “Live the questions now” is the line everyone keeps; the one I underlined is about solitude — that love consists in two solitudes protecting and greeting each other.

    A small book that behaves like a large one.

  4. Four Thousand Weeks

    Oliver Burkeman

    begun Apr 2026

    laid aside

    marginalia

    Laid aside at the halfway mark — not from disagreement but from exhaustion of agreement. Every page told me the finitude I already keep on my home page. Perhaps I will return to it in winter; the ribbon stays in.

the tally runs; nothing here is ranked, only remembered.